If you are thinking about buying a pontoon boat there are a couple of questions that you will need to ask yourself. How many people will I be bringing? How big do I want it? What's the difference between the boat having 2 pontoons or 3? Can I bring my pontoon boat out into the ocean? Most motorized pontoon boats come with two cylinder shaped "pontoons" mounted right under the deck, these are the flotation devices and make the boat almost impossible to sink. Most all pontoon boats that are manufactured today are made of aluminum, because of the light weight and ability to resist rust. If you want a pontoon boat that is designed for speed then you should think about investing a little more money and purchasing a boat with 3 pontoons under the deck. This will not make your boat fast alone most of it depends on the engine size of course.
How big of a boat you want to get depends on how many people you will be planning to bring along. For instance 18 footers , you could fit 6-9 people on comfortably, while the bigger sized pontoons, like a 26 footer, you can fit about 15 people.
Pontoon boats are mainly designed for traveling in lakes and canals, flats and mostly inland. Because of their short bow they cannot withstand rough seas at all. It would only take a very small wave to crash over the bow of the boat, so going out into the ocean is not recommended. Pontoon boats generally have railings around the flat shaped boat, to prevent people, and especially children from falling over board. There is a lot of customizing that you can do to a pontoon boat, you could put up a bimini top, in case you want to get out of the sun, and some pontoon boats even have sun decks, which is like another level from the deck.
Pontoon boats can be used as fishing boats, family boats, tour boats, or all of the above. Many river and lake fisherman like to use these for fishing, and they are great for kids to learn how to fish, because there is a lot of extra room to cast the fishing rod, and pontoons are much more stable and buoyant than other types of fishing boats. The biggest advantage in pontoon boats is the price, because they are the cheapest boats there are per square foot.
