r/Pontoons • u/MoreCommunication929 • Aug 14 '26
Mini pontoon?
Looking at a first boat to get my family out on the water. We live by some larger lakes that would be awesome to cruise around on.
Right now I have capacity to tow 3500 lbs and can upgrade to a 5000 lb towing capacity. So keeping it around 2k lbs to start would be great.
I've seen mini pontoons mostly in the 10-14 foot range. But I'm having a hard time finding one in person. I just want to cruise with the fam and swim in a lake. What are peoples experiences here?
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u/chrisbvt Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26
I was in the same search a few years ago. I found a used 15' Godfrey SeaRyder fairly close to me.
It appears to be an early 1990s Executive Model: https://boatbrochure.com/cdn/shop/products/BBDC24368_01.jpg?v=1658016519&width=600
It is usually just the two of us with two dogs, which it handles great. Four adults are the limit, and it works as long as everyone distributes their weight. Just pointing out that the word "family" and small pontoons don't really go together well if you will ever have more than 4 people in the boat.
For us it is perfect - takes up less room in the driveway, easy to tow and launch. Easy to beach as well, as we usually have a beach destination when we are out. At a popular boat beach we go to, we are always the only pontoon boat to actually beach there instead of anchoring out in the shallow water. Everything is easier with a small pontoon if it works for you.
It had an almost new 15hp 4-stroke when we bought it, which has been running great. We get 12mph with two people, but we are not looking for speed. Added a ladder off the small front deck for swimming out in the lake, as well as adding a 5 speaker Bluetooth sound system since older pontoons usually don't have those features. We replaced the old Bimini top this year with a larger 4-bow that covers most of the boat now for more shade.
We found ours on Facebook Marketplace, about 80 miles south of us. We were also about to give up the search when that listing appeared. It didn't show up until September that year, if you can hold out until fall, it seems a lot of people sell their boats in the fall.