The rise of pontoon boats
Last summer, Ken and Angela Westheuser added a Harris FloteBote
Sunliner 220 pontoon boat to the small fleet at their cottage on
Salerno Lake in central Ontario. They’ll make a pot of coffee in the
morning, go into a bay and anchor, have breakfast, and read the paper.
Their 27-year-old son, Mark, uses the boat for fishing. But the surprise
lies in its performance. Its 90 hp outboard motor quickly gets it up
and running at 30 mph. So when a friend asked if he could be towed on
his wakeboard, Westheuser happily obliged.
Creature comforts and performance are the major factors in the surge in pontoon boat sales in Canada: This isn’t your grandpa’s glorified swim raft with hard bench seats. According to the National Marine Manufacturers Association, from October 2011 to September 2012, pontoon boats led a rebound in new boat sales in Canada with a 23 per cent increase in unit sales. In all, 4,525 pontoon boats, about 10 per cent of total new boat sales, were sold, and about 40 per cent of them were sold in Ontario.
“People are looking for extra performance. You can now bring many of the comforts of home with you, not to mention up to 12 people (and dogs)." “A pontoon is like a floating living room,” he says. “It’s very relaxing.”
A popular model is a Harris FloteBote Grand
Mariner 23 with
a 150 hp outboard capable of 40 mph. Amenities at the higher end
include luxuriously upholstered lounges, kitchenettes, tables, stereo
systems, swim platforms, barbecues, and marine heads with holding tanks
(or chemical toilets).
“The biggest misconception,” says Jenkins, “is that pontoon boats are
for older, retired people. The demographics are going down, down,
down.” And the performance, versatility, and luxury are going up, up,
up.
Creature comforts and performance are the major factors in the surge in pontoon boat sales in Canada: This isn’t your grandpa’s glorified swim raft with hard bench seats. According to the National Marine Manufacturers Association, from October 2011 to September 2012, pontoon boats led a rebound in new boat sales in Canada with a 23 per cent increase in unit sales. In all, 4,525 pontoon boats, about 10 per cent of total new boat sales, were sold, and about 40 per cent of them were sold in Ontario.
“People are looking for extra performance. You can now bring many of the comforts of home with you, not to mention up to 12 people (and dogs)." “A pontoon is like a floating living room,” he says. “It’s very relaxing.”
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