After spending most of last week in the air-conditioning, I was pleased with the temperature change for the weekend. In January I ordered a 3rd pontoon for our houseboat due to the fact that is sat about 10 or 11 inches lower in the rear. I believe I touched on this project in one of my previous writing… The first problem was it was delayed due to the workforce shortage, and I wasn’t able to put it under the boat before the start of the Summer season like I had hoped.
Also as previously mentioned, we finally retrieved the new floatation a few weeks ago. There has been a lot of preparation to get ready, but Saturday was the big day. Bob brought his truck from Spencer so early Saturday morning we pulled the boat out of the water and began the task.
I have measured and remeasured to make sure everything will fit. I had to modify the trailer some to accommodate the fact that the new pontoon was about 3 inches deeper than the existing two. We had to buy support material to attach the pontoon to the underneath of the boat. All of that came together last week and ended with Jamie and I drilling the 40’ of steel angle I had purchased to match the inserts in the pontoon.
My crew, which consisted of Bob and Donnie Smith, Doug Martin, son Jamie, grandson-in-law Shane and Joe Wyne got right to work. I must admit that I wasn’t much help. A goffer at best and not a very good one at that. Though I did provide lunch which helped a little.
Since this was new to us… it took a little engineering. The guys came up with a plan and before I knew it the first 10’ section was in place. The second followed and we were buttoning it up not long after lunch. I must admit that it went much better than anticipated.
About 1:30 we dunked the boat back in the water and I was pleasantly surprised that the boat floated exactly where I had hoped. In my world, its not often that any project goes as planned, but this one was the exception. Not only was the installation less of a headache than I had anticipated, the end result was better than expected. Its an old boat so there are still lots of things that I need to do. However, she is floated better than before, and I am pleased with the results. I certainly couldn’t have done it without my helpers. I owe all of them a big debt of gratitude for their hard work.