Pontoon Boat Capsized.

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Ryan said:
I have a very hard time picturing it as well. My in-laws had a pontoon for years, and I've been on that boat when we took water (a lot of it) over the bow and it didn't have any severe reaction. And have seen plenty of stuffing videos on the web. I've always considered toons one of the more stable, safe designs on the water.

I wonder how fast they were being towed?
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The towed factor is crucial. We have an inflatable knee pad that you can hook the tow handle to. Works great for the smaller kids. UNLESS they shift too far forward before up on plane, then it submarines and tries to go to the bottom of the lake. Like it’s a trolling fishing lure. It comes back up in the wildest corkscrew when we let off tension. I can totally see the deck getting underwater then rolling right over as the tow boat continues to pull, and the deck and railings act as a huge unstable scoop.
 
I think that perhaps the tow points may have had a factor in flipping it over. If the pontoon was attached to the docking (mooring) cleats and the rope was attached to the transom eye on the tow boat likely at the water line, then the tow boat is pulling the nose of the pontoon down into the water with a constant force.

Any vessel being towed should always be pulled by the bow eye used for trailering which will allow the bow to rise with the waves instead of forcing the bow down into the waves.
 
tdizzle said:
Yes my pontoons on my Bennington 22 FSI are baffled water tight sections
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I've never seen baffled pontoon either, chambered yes but you could be right. Word is that Bennington has patents on some of their proprietary methods and that they are the ones to catch right now in the industry of building Pontoon Boats, It's possible. Mine is a 25 foot Premier and it's only chambered.
 
RobertGosselin said:
This is kind of trivial compared to the disaster that happened with the pontoon boat but I was once capsized in a tow situation. I was in my very stable, sit-on-top kayak being towed by a flat bottomed fishing boat with a small horsepower motor. Max speed was about 10mph. We did a straight bow to stern hookup. As the tow boat was getting underway and turning somewhat sharply, I was reaching back to get a can of beer out of my cooler so I could enjoy the ride in comfort when suddenly the kayak flipped and I was in the water, still holding my beer. I was quickly rescued and the only damage was to my cell phone which I had in the front pocket of my shirt.
If I am ever in the position where I have to be towed again, I will make sure to relocate to the tow boat and attach to my kayak with a bridle configuration for towing.
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Great job saving the beer:D
 
Ive been following this sad case and was just on the lake the week prior. I currently own a modern tritoon pontoon. A lot of the possible factors that could have attributed to the pontoon rolling over have run through my head for days- rope attachment points, was there water in one or more of the pontoon logs, how many and what diameter were the pontoon logs, how big was the wave that took the boat out? We know from the picture that it was a tritoon so that is answered. Three logs give the boat a lot of additional floatation over a dual log pontoon. Pontoon logs have increased in diameter over the past several years to provide more floatation and handle choppy rough water better. Small pontoons would be in the 20 inch range and large pontoons are typically around 27 inches. Pontoons in general are a very stable platform on the water, they are wide and generally low to the water. You rarely hear of one rolling over, largely due to the fact that they typically don't go very fast and speed is generally a factor in most boat sinking's if the vessel was underway when it sank. Modern tritoon pontoons do run fast, mine has a top speed of just over 50MPH and a dual engine pontoon can run up to 80MPH. Back to this case, i don't think we will get the details as to the official cause of the accident but I can't help but wonder what happened? Pontoon boats just don't role over easily. I hope this family can find peace in the weeks, months and years ahead. I believe their daughter is still in the hospital in critical condition. I hope she makes a full recovery. Just awful.
 
We launched out of Wahweap Sunday am and there was a pontoon boat being loaded onto a trailer by two LEO’s with their lights flashing. I didn’t think much about it until my wife mentioned that was probably the pontoon boat that capsized. After seeing it, I now know why it could capsized. It was one of those pontoons with the second deck with a slide. The ones that look way top heavy and really not that stable. Made for a sad moment after realizing that was probably the boat that had the accident.
 
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Oh no, I hope not. Weight and balance could explain a lot about how it flipped over though. Im not an engineer but weight can be amplified leverage the further it is away from the Center of Gravity in any axis. When I flew light aircraft they used to describe that distance as an arc moment, you had a chart. Overloading an aircraft to far aft was just as bad if not worse that overloading it. Many small aircraft accidents are for that very reason, loading to far aft from CG and your rear control surface can't overcome the weight and you have no control once you are air born, you pitch up, stall and crash back down. Sadly I've had more than one person I knew die that way.

Many of those pontoon boats with upper decks have warning labels not to let folks ride up there while underway so the designers are aware of it. They do look kind of gangly when you see them out on the lake. Even if you didn't have additional weight loaded up there if you rolled hard enough I can imagine it levering you over past a certain point. I read that this boat was privately owned but I see these pontoon boats with upper decks are now being rented out in Page.
 
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Sad words to read for the lake. The contact point for the tow rope is important the speed and attention due to waves are all important factors and again if they were lake people because you would understand all these things that could help or hurt the situation of towing a boat which happens to everybody if you on the water long enough
 
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