Monterey Bay on a Pontoon Boat

No fish were harmed in the making of this story ….

   Some time back I was asked to assist Lowrance/Simrad & Motorguide with an on-the-water demo day in Monterey using my pontoon boat as the platform.  Needless to say I jumped at the chance to be a part of this opportunity.

   Roll back a few days.  I procured an assortment of Lowrance equipment, in addition to my own equipment, with one basic guideline – stuff as much equipment on the boat as you can fit in the next couple days.  Having done this sort of challenge before with Lowrance, I was less than ready this time since I only had a few evenings after work and one full day (Saturday) to be a rigging maniac.  Armed with an arsenal consisting of Lowrance HDS 12 Touch, HDS 7 Touch, HDS 5, Elite 5 HDI, Elite 4x HDI, Structure Scan transducer, Simrad NSS 8, NSE 8, 4G Radar (36mile) & a complete B&G Zeus setup.  Added to the HDS 9 Touch, Elite 7 HDI, Sonic Hub, Point 1 GPS, GoFree wifi it would be a boat full of electronics!

   Rained out during the evenings leaving me only Saturday to rig & the radar didn’t make it in till Saturday afternoon on FEDX!  13 hours of rigging on Saturday & the boat was packed with enough Lowrance & Simrad displays all networked together to rival any offshore fishing vessel.  Don’t forget … it’s only an 18’ pontoon boat.

   Sunday morning came all too early.  Off for fuel & meeting with the rest of the boats participating in the bi-annual demo for the West Marine managers and support staff from all around the globe.  Hit the launch ramp & realize I had cut the fuel fitting off my line the last time I used the boat; DOH!  Found it onboard & a quick rummage through my supplies to find tools & a hose clamp I was ready to roll.  Fired up the O/B & dialed in the new Motorguide xi5 trolling motor.  The flotilla of boats consisted of West Marine inflatables powered by Lehr propane outboards, a custom built 22’ pontoon boat with a 80HP, 480 volt Torquido outboard (that thing is AWESOME; peaks at 100hp for 45seconds and pushes that boat at 25mph – only $50k for the motor/battery/charger), a Garmin rigged 32’ Faralon & myself.  We spent the next 8 hours taking the Managers & support staff on rides thru the Monterey harbor & on the outside.  It was an EPIC flat ass calm day on the outside & not another boat in sight.  It was our own little playground for the day!  Even the Monterey Fire boat came out to play with us for a few hours blasting the sirens & playing with the water cannon!  Good Times!!!!!

   The structure scan/side scan was phenomenal.  Worked along the piers & docks checking out the pilings & spotting gait balls under the docks.  Found a few sunken buoy balls in the anchorage.  Worked the kelp lines to spot blues ticked around the kelp along the rock wall and watched the bubble trails of sea lions as they passed under the boat.  The 4G radar was spotting marker buoys & we even managed to pick up sea lions as they were jumping out of the water!

   The Motorguide xi5 motor pushed the boat around with ease; 80#, 24V.  Anchor mode held the boat in position even in an area where the tide was moving at a good clip just inside the harbor entrance.  With the wireless remote control, I was able to parallel park the boat, hands-free with a stiff wind on my stern.  Had more fun cruising by the restaurant windows with nobody at the helm & making spins & turns.  The kids eating with their parents had awe on their face like it was some magic trick.

   Great time on the water with less than stellar conditions to start off the day; blowing & rain.  By noon the weather gods shined upon us by at least stopping the rain & keeping the water FAC.  Made some new contacts & friends and met up with old one’s I haven’t seen since the last event 2 years ago.  Spending a full days with all the other vendors this week to see what else is new for 2014 & beyond!  Stay tuned for more news from the marketplace.

   Couple pics of the flotilla preparing to leave port.  Note the Point 65 “lego” kayak so neatly packed on the front deck of my boat.  Interesting concept!  Buy a bow, buy a stern & add middle pieces (cockpit) as you want to increase person capacity.

great pictures

Looking good Bill.  I know you were worried about getting it all set up in time and looks like you pulled through...good job!

Worried doesn;t even begin to express my feelings all week.  I don't like to back down from a commitment of this nature, for starters.  The weather had me a little worried all week and felt sick not being able to get out & start the work needed suring the evenings.  Friday night the reality had set in that I only had 24 hours to complete my obligation & the swell in the bay was slammin'.  I thought about skipping out knowing it would/could be cancelled at the 11th hour but that just wasn't an option for me.  Worked myself hard to get it all done the right way.  I figure, a job worth doing is worth doing right.  Build the radar tower myself at home in the machine shop just for this one use.  Goung to build up a full tower in the months to come.

I was also very nervous about taking a pontoon boat out in open water on the bay.

It all worked out in the end and I had a great time doing it!  I'm looking forward to piling some people onboard again & making a partial day cruising around the harbor again!  Luck for us there wasn't a fishing rod in sight.  Spotted a lot of bait balls near the offload wharf.

I'll see if I can download some of the screen captures we took on my Lorance HDS 9 showing some of the structures.

CAN'T wait till I can haul this up to a FNC on one of the lakes.  Al ....  when's our Lake Don Pedro FNC?????? 

Did you run each unit one by one or could you run everything at once with no interference problems?  Sounds like a lot of fun as long as you have plenty of time to set it all up which you managed to do.  Which unit would you keep if you had a choice of one after seeing them all in action? 

I thought you were doing something for the Fred Hall show in Long Beach.

Did you run each unit one by one or could you run everything at once with no interference problems?  Sounds like a lot of fun as long as you have plenty of time to set it all up which you managed to do.  Which unit would you keep if you had a choice of one after seeing them all in action?

That is sort of a loaded question.  Each unit has it's place.  As far as my pontoon boat is concerned as it is currently setup, the Lowrance line is my choice of the Lowrace vs. Simrad for the reason that I don't need a huge network with expansive video & engine controls, autopilot, etc...  My personal setup that remains on the boat is a Lowrance HDS 9 Touch at the helm networked to the SonicHub (music), GoFree (wifi -- use my iPad as a second screen if needed anywhere on the boat or even run the enture system from the iPad), Point 1 (external GPS antenna for better overall performance, 83/200 & Structure Scan/Side Scan transducer with an 8-port NEMA 200) network backbone.  Recently added & will stay with the boat is the Simrad 4G Broadband Radar.  I have network access at both front corners of the boat where I can hook up any other network compatable Lowrance unit (such as my Elite 7 HDI or other HDS unit).  The Motorguide xi5 trolling motor is also NEMA 2000 compatible & will become part of the network in the days to come.  Simply ran out of time.....  The trolling motor has an 83/200 transducer in it so I like having my Elite 7 HDI not connected to the network & use it stand alone connected to the trolling motor x-ducer.  It's a bitchin setup & really easy to network.  All my time was spent running wires nice, clean & tight.  I'll forward some pictures of the installation shortly.

   I did some recording & screen captures but neglected to bring a blank card with me; DOH!  I'll see if I can get the info I stored on the internal memory off to a card & share the captures.

   Bact to topic.  The Simrad is a GREAT & powerful system.  I have far less time on the Simrad line vs. Lowrance line so I'm not 100% "in the know" with Simrad line.  It's ideal place is for multi-station setups that require fast processor, extensive video compatability & capable of monitoring/running just about everything onboard a boat.  B&G line is for the sailors!  I hope to get some more time with the Simrad line throughout this year.  We spent a lot of time on the water comparing the operation & characteristics of the current Lowrance line vs. Raymarine Dragonfly.  Attending their event on Wed's so I will have LOTS more info to share on this.

   What's next for the boat?  CHIRP!  I will gut about 50% of my install from this past weekend & add a CHIRP Sounder Module & change out the 83/200 transducer.  I also want to complete the propper routing of the 4G Radar antenna cable.  I just had to "tuck it" in place due to time & not cut/drill my boat for my ideal cable routing.

50K for a torqueedo, ouch, but it looks impressive.  How is that company doing?  Nice Pontoon boat!  how did the West Marine inflatable perform with that gear, or didn't they try it out?

50K for a torqueedo, ouch, but it looks impressive.  How is that company doing?  Nice Pontoon boat!  how did the West Marine inflatable perform with that gear, or didn't they try it out?

The '80 Deep Blue' Torquedo is quite a special case unit & not for every boat/application.  It pushed the 22' Pontoon boat with 3 guys at 25mph -- impressive!  480Volt.  Their setup for the motor/batteries/charger on THAT boat was around $50k.  Motor is like $18k & each battery is about $16k.  They give a 10 year warranty on the batteries & at the end of 10 years, they will test.  If the battery has less than 80% life left, they will replace for free.  Their math comes out to be something like $1500/month operating cost.  For the frequent boater, it can be less costly than fuel.  Again, not for everyone or every boat.  Their smaller units are less costly.  Had lunch yesterday with the two Torquedo reps; their field/show gal & the Vice President.  That 80 outboard has a cool power panel & integration with GPS that allows it to know where you want to go & the amount of power vs. speed vs distance, etc... 

They had a ~12' RIB boat with a small Torquedo and that thing zipped around.  The Lehr propane powered outboards were fairly neat.  They are doing well in the small outboard market & trying to grow into the 15hp & larger market.  They are targeting the 40-80hp market.  Their small 4hp size OB will run like 1.5 hours wide open on a small, toss away bottle.

Strong work there Bill! I want to fish off that badboy.

I'll have to host a booze cruize. 

Looks like a Mothership headquarters to me!

I just need a little hoist under the deck, between the pontoons to lift, load & secure a couple kayaks.  I can do a hook & book.

I'm down to Mothership at events with the pontoon boat.  Next MBK tourney I'll have to use the radar to keep track of your secret butt location Pat