Well, you asked about pontoons vs. monohulls. There is another choice: that being a catamaran.

I own a Catamaran Cruisers Aqua Cruiser 41. It is a standard pontoon boat type set up the difference being the fiberglass hulls. They are not round pontoons. They have a sharp “V” forward and then they taper to a flat running surface further back. It is a poor man’s catamaran.

These hulls make all the difference in the world. It rides like a Cadillac over chop. That sharp V and decent bridge deck clearance forward just kills the chop.

Look, I have driven my boat from Atlantic City NJ to Tampa on the ICW. I operate it in the Gulf of Mexico all the time – I live on the Gulf and the boat is on my dock out back. I just sailed it across the open Gulf to the Suwannee River and back. It doesn’t look like it but it is a seaworthy nice riding boat.

I once had mine out in steep 7 foot waves. They were from behind, it was real scary, I would never do that again, but the boat did fine. I was riding up these monsters at 5 mph, the boat would slide over the top, the outboard would come out of the water and you could hear the prop come out and the rpm scream, then I’d slide down the backside at 10 mph.

Mine is a 40 by 12. They sell a 50 by 14 now, brand new, for 89K.

http://www.catamarancruiser.com

Another plus about this particular boat is that it is a box. I totally redid the interior on mine from home depot/ikea stuff, it looks awesome and was easy. No weird nautical angles to wood work in. Just like a house or mobile home.

It ultimately is not an openwater boat. Hence, I will probably replace mine with a used Bluewater Yachts 52 in a few years so I can go to the Bahamas and stuff. Actually though, they rent Catamaran Cruisers in the Bahamas, they get them there on their own hulls. That is a weather window deal for sure though. BUT – for a lake? It would do well.

They also have shallow draft of less than 20 inches, are fully beachable, and if the tide rolls out they sit nice and level on the bottom.

Another point: Outboard power rocks. New fourstroke outboards always start, run clean and reliable, get good gas mileage, run shallow, pop up if you hit something, and the props are cheap and easy to replace. Outboard power gives you more room inside too. I change my oil and just plain run my boat with no worries.

You buy an inboard, I don’t care if it is a diesel, and you will have maintenance issues forever. Nobody I know who has inboards goes more than a season without some sort major mechanical work. They are always broken. I will argue that with anyone.

You can see my boat on my blog: http://www.floridaexplorations.blogspot.com/

One more thing. Catamaran Cruisers are not blown around by the wind when you are docking, or at least not as bad as other houseboats.

Flat bottom monohulls do not have anything to prevent them from sliding around in the wind. Pontoon boats have round bottoms which also slide sideways with a wind. The flat sides of the Catamaran Cruisers hull act like two long keels and resist sliding sideways to the extreme.

The downside is that they also resist turning, the boat needs a bit of room for turns. The plus of that is that it also tracks like it’s on rails. Many monohulls wander all over the place and demand extreme attention to maintain course.

Old Houseboater,

Those are both nice boats, but: they seem to be quality houseboats without some of the advantages of a houseboat. What I mean is the draft is deep for a houseboat, the cost is high for a houseboat, and yet the seaworthiness of either does not rise to what you could get on the used market in cabin cruisers/yachts. You do get relatively boxy interior and lots of deck space though.

Lake Powell is probably deep so I would imagine my draft concerns are not as important as they are for me here in Florida.

Not to change the discussion here: but what do you think of the Bluewater Yachts 52? It is kind of the next boat I’m thinking about getting. I can get a sweet used one for 150K or so. They claim to be seaworthy and yet draft 23 inches and at 52 feet are fully beachable with a Kevlar reinforced bottom. You have any experience around these?

Sorry, the Bluewater Yachts suggestion was reference ME. I was thinking about getting one. Seems the most reasonable used boat for what I do. I would use it for Florida and the Bahamas. Seems like the perfect boat for that. Perfect because of the Seaworthiness/draft/used boat cost equation.

Oldhouseboater – I see your point about an aluminum boat like those. They probably retain their value pretty good which would certainly make them cheaper in the long run.

The manufacturer claims they have gone through hurricanes – apparently some neophyte took his brand new Bluewater 52 out into a hurricane by mistake and the boat did fine…. According to Bluewater. The windows are apparently pretty strong.

In any case, I would only use the boat during good weather. The Bahamas is only 50 to 80 miles from safe harbor in Florida. The 23 inches draft gives you lots of safe anchorage options. Deeper draft boats actually can be more dangerous sometimes as you cannot get to protection. Florida and the Bahamas are shallow.

I would not try to cross the Atlantic or anything.

They do have people who sail them down to the Virgins and etc. I read an account by a delivery Captain who got caught in some 12 foot mess down in the Caribbean in a 52 and he was amazed at how well the boat did. Said it took the waves fine and was very controllable – no damage either.

If someone has other information – please speak up. In any case I don’t have 150K to buy one at the moment. Maybe after the real estate market gets better????