Vintage Pontoon Boat T Shirt. Really? “Vintage”, Has It Come To This Now?
Bring it on!
The word vintage can mean alot of things, but when it comes to Pontoon boats? Ahhhhhhh. It is kinda correct, we are talking about 1984.
See its dated.
But? A pontoon boat? Will these be OK at classic boat gatherings? Here is an odd answer from Woody Boater. YES! How cool would it be if the boat was perfect. To most of us the 1980s were yesterday, but very soon, it will be cool.
The ink dot babes love a pontoon boat. Is that Lou Farrigno?
And to think, not only will you have a classic Sun Tracker, but also this T Shirt. Its all gotta start someplace. I recall 10 years ago when we started Woody Boater, the idea of a plastic something would not have been all that different than THIS! AHHHHHHh.
If you are future oriented. YOU CAN SEE IT HERE ON EBAY
And dear god, there is a web forum already on these, and people asking about restoration? What the? It is kinda cool. Look at the font on Party barge? The colors. You can visit Pontoon Stuff to read the link. HERE. Why? I have no idea.
Photo from Pontoonstuff.com
Okay, still reading this? You are sick, and take it all the way. Here is one for sale. Yup. HERE
1984 Sun Tracker Party barge For sale
Just to keep this going, these will be classics one day. Very iconic, type and graphics are key. Think vinyl wood LTD wagons. Custom vans back in the day. What are your thoughts. Will you be the first to show up on Lake Dora in one. Maybe Clayton? THIS WEEKEND!
No disrespect to pontoon owners, but if the pontoon/party craft is the future of classic boating I’m glad I’m getting old.
Full of babes in bikinis, I’m in!
Two comments, two aposing veiws. HA!
We can head this off by forming the ACPS. They are really pontoons, not boats, and if they have their own club and events to attend, maybe they won’t show up at ours?
HAHAHAH! The ACPS.. Dam!
Looks to me like M-Fine can be bought pretty cheaply with “FREE BEER”.
BTW the Wise family are some of the most fun people I have ever met at Dora.
I don’t care if they bring their work barge or their Wise-Craft I just want to see them when I am there.
Free beer didn’t get me on board. They told me there was going to be free bacon, a classic Donzi, and Donzi girls!
I don’t care if it is a pontoon boat or a PWC.
If it is vintage, it is vintage!
Someone thinks it’s cool, who am I to decide otherwise?
I might buy one and bring it to Dora just to stir the pot a little.
Here is the t-shirt.
Let’s see….The pontoon in the bottom…Right ?
Just converted me.
LMAO!
If we recognize pontoons as legitimate classics at shows then who do we make fun of. We really need to have another ready to joke about in our back pockets. Suggestions? Jet powered kayaks? Zodiacs?
woody pontoons
another….
Every year at our annual Bay State Woodies show we end with a parade that is alternating woodies and decorated pontoon boats. The residents love it.
It used t be common to only see a 20 hp motor on them but now I see 150’s.
I shutter at the thought of a pontoon showing up at a Classic boat show. I argued this while
I was on the A.C.B.S. Board of Directors, during the discussions to up the inclusion rule to 25 years old or more. Hate to see what shows up 10 years from now.
My 43 year old son and I have this conversation each time we go out boating. I can see thru his comments, what his generation thinks is now classic, or has styling cues, or brings back memories for him. But my sons who grew up boating all their life, still know what constitutes a classic, and just age is not one of them. The vessel needs to be of historical significance in being one of the first of its kind, have styling cues to be pleasing to the eye for that time period, and/or restored/original as close to new, with no customizing.
While my Dad had two pontoons over a 30 year span, and my boys grew up on them while visiting, I still do not think they have a place at a Antique and Classic Boat Show (IMHO)
Here is your Woody Toon. Mahogany sides. Usually see one at Lake Geneva show out in the parking lot with a huge price on it.
I’ve researched this thinking about the future, wondering what new sales are for the different categories of power recreational boats in 2017. Today, sales are split with 1/3 PWCs, 1/3 pontoon boats, and 1/3 everything else, with the vast majority of those in the everything else category being either fresh/salt water fishing boats, watersport tow boats, or fiberglass deck boats. Even fiberglass bowrider sales are way down, and sales any traditional closed deck boats of any sort are almost nothing, save Chris Craft and a few others still building them. Cruiser sales are also way off, excrpt for very high end yachts. Even Bayliner stopped making cruisers a few years ago, and has since added deck boats and tow boats to their line.
The times, they are a changing. I like fiberglass, but I’m sticking with my lapstrake-style MFGs. At least they look like a traditional boat, even if they sre fiberglass.
Hard to beat a fiberglass lapstrake-style boat for pure utility.
Our cabin is on Balsam Lake, Wisconsin, a beautiful 2,400 acre lake just a short drive from Minneapolis. Eight out of ten docks have a pontoon, and it seems like over half are the new cushy ones with big four stroke power. With no big water, they’re just what most people need: A comfortable traveling patio. I must admit we have one. Actually, it’s a Hurricane deck boat with a pontoon-style top. It’s where everyone hangs out at the dock, it fits twelve and I never worry about brushing a dock or spilling food all over it. Although it has a 225 hp IO, we deliberately cruise at a touch over idle (what’s the hurry?)… a moving patio. Best thing is that I bought it used from my neighbor for $12k, instead of the $70k plus the new pontoons run. We use our woody -Rabbit- constantly. And I’d replace it with a 25-foot Sportsman in a heartbeat if it was in the budget. But the pontoon/deck boat thingy serves a purpose. I embrace its artificial ugliness and cheesiness. So shoot me!
I believe there is a place for pontoons,they are great for recreation and relaxed cruising….for that I love them. But, I just don’t think they are classics and don’t belong in a show…even the old Kayots, (they have been making them for 52 years) probably others also, but don’t remember other brands.
Even this one…..
Like Rabbit said, it is a Floating patio.
I would suggest that most pontoon owners aren’t “pontoon enthusiasts”, just regular people looking for a practical boat. For this reason I very much doubt we will see them at many shows, especially if they have to be hauled and trailered. I hope I’m right!
No-one said anything about “Classic”. Read the article again it all says “Vintage”. There is quite a difference between “Classic and Vintage” in my book.
Maybe ACBS should create a “Vintage” category.
Ahh, vintage. Just like a fine wine, such as Strawberry Hill or Mad Dog 20/20. Pretty soon there will be vintage dragon boat, and cardboard boat classifications, along with the pontoons and wake-boarders ( aka floating boom-boxes) We are reaching new heights of mediocrity. However, it will all happen so gradually, or maybe not… CQ
Sorry, there is nothing vintage or classic about a floating dock with a motor attached.
MATT, I love seeing stuff like this, The Shirt that is, not the pontoon boat. Being in “The Business” I’m sure you can appreciate the time that went into drawing that shirt since in 1984 we were still drawing black keyline art, hand cutting rubylithe for color seps and look at that classic hand stippling. That is someone’s masterwork and I love it! We reproduce a lot of designs for the Correctcraftfan.com guys and many of those old shirt designs get my artists shaking their heads trying to reproduce that hand drawn effect. I love it right down to the mis-registered colors.
My grandmother (who died in 1966) used to call the original Kayots “floating front porches”. As a grumpy old man (I’m the self appointed “Keuka Kurmudgeon”) I’d much rather see people cruising in pontoon boats than some clown with a compensation problem in a twin engine 30′ “dick boat”. As far as incorporating them into shows………as we say in the vintage guitar/electronics world “some stuff turns vintage other stuff just gets old”.
The Keuka Kurmudgeon? Sounds like my type of guy! Come visit us on Hewitt Point, I am the house next door to the one with a pontoon. Follow the bacon smell.
We’re on Chidsey Point-west side of the west branch about 1.7 miles south of Branchport. If we get over that way, we’ll look you up.
lol, well said. The question becomes are there any older pontoon boats out there that rate as the equivalent of a 1950 Fender Telecaster? In my Wonder bread years in the 1950’s the owner of the resort we rented a cottage from on Lake Delton in Wisconsin had a pontoon boat with a brand new ten horse Johnson on it. They would take all the folks out for rides on the lake giving the kids ice cream bars and the adults… well whatever they drank. I have mixed feelings about the whole pontoon boat thing. I am sure there are some major stylistic differences between what we went on and what you see at the docks today but I am not sure there is enough of a difference looks wise to say “wow I went on one just like that in 1957!”
In 1986 – I was a young marketing manager for the large American manufacturing organization named the Toro Company. They were based in Minneapolis / St. Paul, MN.
My boss & I were flying to head office in MN for our annual meeting in August. He said “Texx, in Minnesota they have these strange boats you can rent called “Aqua Patios” that you have to see to believe.
We drove straight from the airport to some lake and rented an Aqua Patio for a few hours, and rode around in our 3-piece suits. Strangest boat I ever experienced.
you need all varieties for summer fun