Ten years ago, the cover of Pontoon & Deck Boat magazine was an amazing portrait of what pontooning represents.
Wait, no.
Let’s do a little experiment. Keep your hand here, but flip back to our current cover. Now look at the picture of the cover ten years ago. Not a contest, right? Gee, looking at three underwhelming people aboard a white boat looks fun. Let’s head to the lake.
Wait, no.
The cover ten years ago makes me want to stay at work. That’s not a good thing, peeps. At least now, we ask our cover people to smile and try to look like they’re having fun. I feel bad typing this because PDB Editor Brady Kay did tell me it was his favorite cover of all times.
Wait, no.
He didn’t really say that. Maybe half truths like this is why I get accused of being mean-spirited as I write this fun history column each month. Sigh. I’m a work in progress.
But this old issue wasn’t a total loss. I learned a lot!
I learned the most expensive pontoon we could find to write about back then cost….wait for it…$57,165 from JC Manufacturing.
Don’t get me wrong; that’s still a lot of money. But if we were talking about high-end pontoons these days, we would have to add an extra digit to put it somewhere in the neighborhood of $150,000. It’s a significant change in such a short time period when you consider it. This industry has come a long way in a decade.
Also in this issue is one of the best stories I’ve ever read on breaking in an outboard, which was written by the late John Barr. It’s basic enough so it makes sense early on a Monday morning, yet specifically goes into why it’s so important. My favorite line? “Careful break-in of a new outboard is critical to allow internal engine components to ‘seat’ and be lubricated properly; resulting in maximum engine longevity and that outstanding performance you’ve been dreaming about.” Bam. Does it get any simpler? Let’s all go buy new outboards that need breaking in! But in case that doesn’t work out, let’s all cross our fingers and hope our current outboard was broken in correctly.
Next up was the cover story. It seems like a nice boat albeit devoid of all color. My favorite part of the story was the line, “We found no dangerous or sharp edges on this boat.” Maybe it’s because I don’t have enough Rockstar in my system yet—which tends to make me overcritical—but I thought to myself, “There have to be a million better ways to write something this obvious.”
For example.
Like you would expect on your $40 thousand investment, the finish work is completed in a way that there are no corners or edges that will draw blood as you move along the open waves.
Peeps, make me a promise. If I ever write something to mundane as, “We found no dangerous or sharp edges on this boat,” send me an email and let me know! There is a colony of pigeons outside my office and this will be a solid sign I’ve been breathing in their stench for far too long.
