Back in the 70s wings were all the rage on your muscle car. But did you know that wings or lifting strikes are also the rage on pontoons? So today, I thought to write about this Pontoon Lifting Strakes and what are the benefits of having this on your pontoon boat. If you are new to my blog you don’t know anything about pontoon boats, well you can read this article that I wrote about What is a pontoon boats?
Bond Between Pontoon Boats and Lifting Strakes
Past 5-10 years pontoon boats have become popular among most people in the USA. But if you are a true boat fan from the beginning you may know that the history of pontoons goes back way further than that. Pontoon boats are now becoming performance boats or luxury items. People are buying them not only for their great space and comfortable seating for family and friends but they’re also buying them because you can go fast you can do water sports and one or have parties.
Another thing that has transformed pontoon boats is two things with the Pontoon. One is pontoon diameter size, the larger diameter gives more flotation and therefore more lift, but the more dramatic thing is lifting strikes.
What Is Lifting Strikes?
So, these Pontoon Lifting Strakes act like the hull of a traditional bowrider or deck boat and allow a pontoon boat to lift out of the water and ride like a plane.
You’ll find a dramatic difference in this when you are in a boat with a higher horsepower, particularly a tritoon. As you are accelerating, you’ll feel the boat lift out of the water as the lifting streaks start to take effect. And the same thing is even more dramatic in reverse and when you’re slowing down. And you come from 40 to 30 and into that 25 to 24 mile-an-hour range, you’ll feel the boat settle as the lifting strikes no longer work.
Lifting Strakes Applications
Essentially, what the lifting strikes are just aluminum extrusions welded on the side of the pontoon. And when you see a dual pontoon application, you’ll often see lifting strikes on both sides of the pontoons. And that is because you need all four lifting streaks to give you that lift to give you enough compensation for the pontoon drag in the water.
On a tritoon, you often see that they don’t have them on both sides of all three pontoons because that then becomes six lifting strikes which increases the cost, but also you don’t need that much, four is more than enough.
So on a tritoon, you’ll see them welded on the inside of the outer pontoons and both sides of the center pontoon. And what happens is as you get the speed going in the boat and you get up to a certain point, those strikes lift the boat out almost like a wing does on an airplane although the physics are different. But it allows that pontoon to almost be like the hull of a regular bow rider runabout, giving you more speed, and more performance. Also know that because the tubes are up and out of the water, we can now make sharper turns. Trust me these are more fun for things like tubing, skiing, and wakeboarding.
So if you’re looking for a pontoon boat on the used boat market, remember always you might want to look at how large is the diameter of the pontoons. Yes, of course, knowing if it’s a dual tune or a tritoon boat is also important, but also does it have lifting strikes? lifting strikes are going to make a huge difference in the way your pontoon boat performs.
Final thoughts
So in the end my point of view of having Pontoon Lifting Strakes in your pontoon boat is positive. Because they can add more value, more performance, and also more safety for your pontoon boat without any doubts. So what do you guys think about having pontoon lifting strakes on your pontoon boat?
