Houseboats and wheelchairs...

[Tiihunter]

First timer to Lake Powell and could use some help.

We have rented a 59’ Wanderer through Wahweap for late Aug - early Sep. I went with 7 days as it was about the same price as 5 days with the early board option. My wife is in a wheelchair so my concerns and questions are mainly around just how easy it will be to load (drive) her onto the boat and once on it how easy it will be to maneuver her around. Here are some questions I have.

• How wide are the doorways and hallway?
• When boarding from the front is there a step down to get onto the boat?
• When the ramp is out for beach access, is the ramp at deck level or is there a step down onto the ramp? If so, how much is that step?
• How wide are those ramps?
• The door from the cabin to the front deck, is it always a sliding glass door? How high is the threshold off the floor? Same question for the back door.
• I am also looking for a pontoon boat to rent for our daily excursions but finding them a little hard to come by.

Her chair is a 24” wide heavy electric one that allows her to adjust her sitting position to attempt at being comfortable. My wife is tiny, only about 85 pounds and there will be several strong young men along on this trip that will be able to carry her to the upper deck or out onto the beach but I’m trying to figure out what to bring along that will make this work (safely), i.e. ramps or special chairs that she can lounge in while sitting in the shade yet still be near the activities at hand.

I know they make a “Universal” houseboat that is supposed to be ADA compliant, but I did not rent that one, did I make a huge mistake?

Thanks for all your help, Scott

 

[BartsPlace]

The ADA-compliant houseboat would make using her existing chair much easier. It has wider gates, hallways, bathroom access, etc. Getting her chair onto and off of a regular houseboat may be challenging. There are a few photos of an ADA houseboat in the following link of one that is for sale from Aramark -

Sumerset boats for sale - Boat Trader

Discover a vast collection of Sumerset Boats for sale. Experience the thrill on the water today! Find your perfect vessel and start exploring.

www.boattrader.com

Note the wider ramp and gate up front, for example. If you do decide to stay with the non-ADA houseboat, you may want to look at a smaller non-motorized travel chair since you'll be hefting it around a bunch.

Hope that helps!

 

[birdsnest]

When I worked at the south end for Aramark houseboat fleet we had two ada compliant houseboats, both 54 footers. They were both Myachts. They would have to be about 20 years old by now. They had wide ramps and all ada compliant openings. I would just call the 888 number for specs. Don't really know if the ADA Somersets are still part of the fleet.

 

[Tiihunter]

Thanks BartsPlace, those pictures are helpful. In my original post I said we rented a 59' Wanderer, when in fact it is the 59' Discovery. Not that that makes much difference in this discussion so far. We will for sure be bringing a standard manual wheel chair.
I preferred the floor plan of the non ADA VS. the ADA model plus you get an extra fuel tank and the slide I believe is not on the ADA model.

From the pictures I could find and few videos that show the interior of the house boats it seemed like the hall ways was plenty wide enough for her chair.