Buying The Perfect Boat

Here is a new boating story from Thunder Bay Source community newspaper TBSource:

Finding the perfect boat ... is it a pontoon boat?

"I encourage you to take a quick trip down to your favourite marine store to see just what they have to offer these days. It’s mind-boggling to say the least.

There are makes and models to suit anyone or any situation, from small kayaks and canoes to huge cabin cruisers. Aluminum, wood, fibreglass, Kevlar, steel, and even fabric – you name it, they make it. Two-strokes, four-strokes, Optimax’s, E-Tecs, stainless props, aluminum props, speed props, fuel-injected, carburated, jet powered and electric cover the motor department.

So what’s the best answer when it comes time to buy a boat? Sometimes it’s not what we want, but rather what’s the most practical and sensible for our budget. Money is one of the main factors when deciding what kind of boat to buy. Let’s face it, they range from less than $1,000 and can reach as high as the mortgage on an average house – or more – so your ability to pay factors heavily into the equation.

Over the years, the Bohonis family has had many boats and motors, dating back to the time when my grandparents owned and operated Royal Windsor Lodge on Lake Nipigon.

At the time they had several 35- and 40-foot cabin cruisers to ferry their clients for a week at a time about the big lake, and although this is not the norm today, it was a thriving business back then. These large vessels fared well on a large, rough lake. My grandparents towed smaller aluminum boats behind them, sought out sheltered bays and used them to fish from.

Many of the family boats were used solely for fishing rather than pleasure riding or towing a water skier, and therefore were geared and designed for that purpose. We’ve had the usual 14-foot aluminums, closed bows, open bows with walk-throughs, side consoles, tillers and they all met our needs at the time.

Today we have a very simple outfit consisting of a Princecraft (Yukon model) 15-foot regular aluminum boat with a 25-horsepower Mercury two-stroke motor, swivel leather seats, a Hummingbird fish/depth finder and a custom-made travel cover that sits on a Shorlander galvanized trailer.

The boat is very light, at 220 pounds and with this motor I can scoot along at 54 kilometres an hour with two people and gear.

I chose this set up simply because it’s easy to tow and allows me to launch in places where I could not launch a bigger, heavier model. I often frequent places where the landing is non-existent and the roads are trails, but the fishing is awesome. At times I have lifted the boat off the trailer and carried it to the water’s edge to get into some of the spots I like. However there are downfalls to this smaller lighter setup, like space limitations. There’s also the danger of bigger, rougher water, but I weighed all the options to determine what would suit me and my lifestyle best.

If I had a camp on one of the bigger lakes, and didn’t venture out on other bodies of water to fish, it might make a lot of sense to have a bigger, heavier more luxurious and spacious boat sitting at my dock for the summer."

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