Sharing the Water With Pontoon Boaters

Stray Cat

Active Member
TECHNICAL Contributor
Oct 4, 2006
2,344
Pool 10 Guttenberg, IA
Boat Info
2006 300DA Sundancer
Engines
350 Mags / Bravo III
For some reason, pontoon, canbote, and tooner boats have infested the upper Mississippi this summer, more so than past summers...

Forget the rules for navigation, they don't seem to apply to the majority of them. Forget horns, vhf radios, many don't even have VHF antennaes... About every skipper I see at the helm is underway with their back to the starboard side so he can be part of the conversation at all times. I won't even start on the ones pulling water toys on the main channel.

I have had to give way, or drop off plane sooo many times this summer to avoid potential collisions because the skipper just isn't paying attention, and I give them as wide a berth as I can...the Mississippi is only so wide.

Therefore I would like to enter a new rule for navigation on the Upper Mississippi: Pass canbotes on the port side only, it is your only chance of being recognized as another watercraft that is violating their space...

In all fairness, there are a few that do just fine. Anyone else had similar experiences this summer?
 
I was anchored in a small cove on a lake here in Indiana... a couple canbotes were rafted together and anchored about 50yrds off my bow..until the wind picked and then they started to drift into me pushed by the wind. I saw them coming slowly and I assumed they would figure it out and reposition and re-set their anchor. No... far from it they drifted right into me and proceeded to blame me for drifting into them... I was amazed... I had no idea I could drift up wind while still anchored... So I learned something new that day !! form a canbote. I ended up pushing them off and watched them continue on...in amazement
 
The lake we boat on is also suffering from the infestation.
 
You need a bigger boat that throws a wake several feet high.
 
You need a bigger boat that throws a wake several feet high.

I don't know...last weekend as I was overtaking one, the skipper blindly turned to starboard. I leaned my 300 over pretty hard to avoid him, the wash from my hull sliding in the water threw a pretty good wave or two at him...I rocked his family pretty good...no one was wearing a PFD, and the river is right at flood stage (very fast current).

I just wish some boaters realized there is more to boating than what it shows in the brochures.
 
One of the things I've learned to love about big boats is the intimidation factor. My boat makes a huge wake and is real quiet at about 1500 rpm, which is just over the WOT speed of a 24' canbote with a 50 Honda on it. The guy driving isn't looking behind him and the look on his passengers as you ease by him is priceless. When Bubba sees you he usually chops the throttle and turns just in time for my wake to wash by him. Styrofoam coolers and KFC buckets go everywhere.
 
Hey Frank what about that launcher I've heard you had for the rental boats that get to close. LOL
 
Not really a "launcher" Chuck............its a 5 gal bucket full of rocks.

But I've mellowed in my old age...........Its more fun to just laugh at the canbote antics. We have this thing called "tides" and it is quite funny to see some rental canbote guy decide he doesn't need to mess with boaty things like an anchor then pull as far out on the beach as he can get. About 4 hours later, 30 minutes before he is supposed to return the boat, he decides to leave, only to find dry sand all around the pontoons. The humor comes when the 2 guys and all the kids try to push the canbote off the beach. Care to guess where the land-whale women are? Yep........seated on the back under the bimini giving instructions.
 
Our lake is loaded with Canbotes and I just try to give them as wide a berth as I can.

One of the things that seems to be happening (at least at our Marina and on our lake) these days with the high cost of regular boats is Canbotes are being purchased instead because they are comparativly cheap compared to a fiberglass boat.

.
 
One of the things I've learned to love about big boats is the intimidation factor. My boat makes a huge wake and is real quiet at about 1500 rpm, which is just over the WOT speed of a 24' canbote with a 50 Honda on it. The guy driving isn't looking behind him and the look on his passengers as you ease by him is priceless. When Bubba sees you he usually chops the throttle and turns just in time for my wake to wash by him. Styrofoam coolers and KFC buckets go everywhere.

That's when I want a true air horn instead of the little balut baby duck horn I have now.
 

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