Pontoon Boat

Characteristics of Pontoon Boats

Boats are vessels that are designed to float and move through water, providing marine transport. In general naval terms, a boat is usually a small vessel. Bigger watercrafts are classified as ships.

There are many types of boats. One of the more uniquely shaped boats is a pontoon boat.

A pontoon boat is a flat bottomed boat. Usually, pontoon boats have floats to support a structure on the water. This structure might be as simple as a flat deck. It might also be as a house-like structure, forming a houseboat.

The floats that comprise the hull of a pontoon boat can be as simple as closed cylinders such as barrels or pipes crudely tied around below the structure. Or, they might be as complex as fabricated boxes of metal, plastic or fiberglass that are shaped hydrodynamically.

Pontoon boats are slower than regular boats. They are also safer since they are quite stable. Another advantage is that buying insurance for them is not that expensive.

Pontoon boats have the largest capacity of any kind of boat that is relative to their size. That means that they offer the largest value in terms of capacity to price.

Because of this, pontoon boats are the ideal vessels for rental operations. They are perfect platforms for fishermen who want to fish a little bit off the shore. In other parts of the world, such as in Africa, they are used to ferry people across rivers and lakes.

Pontoon boats may also be motorized so they can move independently. Some are towed or pushed by another boat. Still, some are pulled by a cable from the shore. In New Zealand and Australia, they use pontoon boats called punts. A person riding a punt pulls on a cable that runs across a body of water. The cable guides the boat across the water. Sometimes, a motor engine, instead of human power, is used to pull the cable.

Other than ferries, pontoon boats have other uses. During World War 2 and up to the present, they are utilized as support docks or floating bridges.

More advanced pontoon boats are used as platforms rather than boats. For example, there are some pontoons that are used to support aircraft. Such enormous vehicles can contain landing gear so that an aircraft can operate in land and water.

Pontoon boats are also used for salvaging sunken ships. They do this by supporting cranes that would lift the boat from the bottom of the water. Also, special pontoons can be sunk and attached to the sunken vessel. Once secure, the water inside it is displaced so that the pontoon would float, carrying the sunken vessel with it.