Tritoon vs. Pontoon vs. Advantage Party Cat
 

I must be getting old and don't get me wrong I'm in love with my Fountain and love going fast and poker runs however there times when I just want to putt around with the wife, kids, grand kids, mom and the dog. So I'm looking at Pontoons, Tritoons and I've found a great deal on a really nice Advantage Party Cat. Which would you guys buy for my stated purpose? :cartman:

31 views and nobody has an opinion! Unbelievable!

if you wanht to just putt putt the advantage is not gonna work lol..i would also look into a 30; searay so you can spend weekends on the boat..

The Skater open bow in the classifieds is my vote. I tried to get my wife to bite....did not work. We still have the Sea Ray.

A friend of mine had a Party Cat. Rode in it at the Parker Strip which is a busy body of water. I did not like the ride. It seemed to really follow the wakes and roll. I would pass on the Party Cat for that reason as well as it is strange boat that in my opinion has a very limited buyers market making it a hard sell in the future. I would go with the tritoon.

BTW he only had that boat for 1 season.

Paul

my buddy has a tritoon and the ride is 10 times better than a pontoon. his is 24 ft with a v6 sterndrive. it runs mid 40's all day with 10 people and will go over all the slop and wakes in lake lanier with no problems. we use it more than any of the other boats.

Yeah I agree, the Advantage is a really strange boat and not really an obvious pick for anyone. Then between pontoon and tritoon, ride in a tritoon and you'll know your answer. Worlds better than the pontoon.

I rented a 26' tritoon at LOTO last Friday. First time driving a tritoon. How much did I like the boat? It will also be the last time I drive a tritoon!! These things absolutely suck around the docks!!!! Hit 4 different on-water bars (son just turned 21 so I DD'd and took him bar hopping) and I made sure I was always pulling into a slip on an end dock so I wasn't playing bumper boats between docks. These single engine outboard toons have way too many turns of the wheel lock to lock and you put them in gear and the do nothing without giving them some onion. The ride was pretty good in the Friday afternoon main channel slop with the exception of those big gentle rollers the big crusiers put off behind them when they are rolling bow high. You come up on them and everytime you nose into the next roller if feels like someone slams on the brakes as the water hits the underside of the floor in front. I think if this boat had twins or a larger single with power steering (the rental had a 150 Suzuki) it would have been way better. There must be something to them as I passed about 100 of them between the 13MM and 38 MM!

You are alittle optimistic. 24ft tri-toons are very generic hulls and no matter what tweeks they do to the toons (to differentiate from the competition) they are all within a few mph of each other for a given power. A 150hp is basically a 35mph boat, a 200hp is maybe a 40mph boat. A 4.3 v6 with 10 people on it is maybe a 30mph boat.

We have a few of these "Lake Erie Barges" on our inland lake. I apologize if I'm insulting - I hate them - they think and act like they are a Ferrari when in fact they are my dad's Buick. Sure they can get up to speed considering they have outboards in the 250hp+ range- but they take up so much lake real-estate, wide turns and heaven forbid a skier falls - takes them forever to come back for a pick-up. The other thing that drives me crazy is when they are going slow around the lake - they fail to realize that they can get in closer to shore - (stay in the right lane unless you are passing!!!). I agree with you - there must be something that we are all missing - it seems everyone wants one -- what is even more upsetting is that Cobalt has come out with one for 2014.

I agree with whomever said this - I would opt for a Sun Deck type of boat - lots more speed, maneuverability and for sure would be a heck of a lot easier to trailer.

Sorry if I offended.

3pointstar