I admit I didn't know what I was getting into when I
accepted an offer to take a ride on Brad Rowland's South Bay
pontoon boat at the Shootout last fall. It was at the end of a long day testing
and measuring and recording boat statistics, and the idea of taking a nice cruise around Lake Shelbyville
in Illinois
sounded pretty good to me.
Then I noticed the outboard setup at the stern of the 'toon:
three Mercury Pro Max 300x engines, all in a row.
Wow. What was I getting into? Any misgivings I may have had
about getting into such a beefed-up boat were overwhelmed by a curiosity to find out just how fast this
thing could go.
I stepped aboard Tooned
In and found a comfortable seat, along with PDB editor Brady Kay and
fellow tester Clayton Ward. Rowland welcomed us aboard and spent a few minutes
deciding where we should each sit, for weight distribution, he explained.
It Begins
After we were all situated, we motored away from the dock
and out through the no-wake zone. The sun was setting on the lake, and with the
leaves on the shore changing color, the scenery was full of reds and oranges.
The sound of the three Mercury outboards was pretty loud, even at only three
miles per hour, and served as a constant reminder of what we were about to
experience.
And then, after checking to make sure we were all ready, Rowland
hit the throttles up and we took off. We quickly climbed past 40, then 50 miles
per hour and watched the GPS speedometer keep going. It became clear that our
sunglasses were not going to stay put on our faces if there was any crosswind
at all, so we each faced the wind head on and tried to stay still.
We passed 80 mph and I started to wonder how much faster we
could go! The 'toon finally clocked in at 102 mph and Rowland eased the
throttle back.
Aftermath
With a big smile on his face, Rowland turned to face us and
asked how we found the experience.
Now, if you haven't met Brady personally, he's a pretty stoic
guy. Not much can get him riled up or bummed out, so when I saw the raised
eyebrows and smile on his face, I knew he was impressed.
I quickly downloaded a GPS speedometer app onto my
smartphone and we made another run. This time I kept close eye on the digitally
measured speed, and sure enough, we broke the 100 mph mark and settled at 103
on the ride back.
It was just an amazing experience, and clearly one Rowland
enjoyed sharing with others.
To be honest, the sheer sense of speed was a bit overshadowed
by the fact that there was no protection from the wind. For the most part, I
was just hanging on in a wind tunnel with no perspective of anything but the
sensation that my ears were going to be ripped off my head.
Don't get me wrong, it was a stable ride, and at no time did
I feel unsafe. But the intensity of the wind was a little distracting. Maybe
another ride behind some protection may be in order.
Origins
When I asked Rowland what his motivation was for creating
such a speed demon, he brought up the spirit of competition. For years at the
annual Lake of the Ozarks Shootout in Missouri,
he battled for top honors as the pontoon speed record kept being broken.
“I had two stock motors in my 'toon, and figured that if I
had a third one, we could definitely get 100 MPH out of it and hold the record
again.”
To get there, Rowland sought the help of Tech Service &
Application Engineer Greg Barsoda and Lead Engineer Kevin Bestul, and many
other minds at South
Bay, including General
Manager Tom McCuddy.
“There was a lot of excitement for the project,” Barsoda
said. “Everyone who helped with it, especially the welders, took extreme pride
in the project.”
“McCuddy is the man,” Rowland said. “'This is what we're
going to do,' and he got it done.”
All of the welds on the boat are heliarc welds, which is a
sounder type, less susceptible to vibration and other stresses.
Innovations
In addition, the 'toon makes use of Teleflex power-assist
steering with two cylinders, on either side of the outside motors, and a mechanical
tie bar across all three outboards.
Collaboration between South Bay
and Mercury Marine engineers was also crucial to the success of Rowland's
'toon. Mercury was integral in the installation of mechanical jackplates on the
outboards, as opposed to hydraulics, which are not quite as easy to sync when
dealing with multiple outboards. And in this case, syncing is essential.
The boat does have pressurized pontoons, at 7.5 pounds per
square inch, but this is higher than standard South Bay
models. Rowland checks the pressure before every run, just to make sure the
weld integrity on the tubes is maintained.
One thing that stuck out was how the boat is balanced. With
all the weight of three massive outboards at the rear, it is quite a feat that
the 'toon keeps on the level at plane, with little to no lift in the nose.
In the end, it was Rowland's desire to be the best that made
this a reality.
“It kinda gets in your blood,” he said. “You don't think
you're going to do it next year, but when the time rolls around, you get the
feeling again.”
Parker Marine in the Lake of the Ozarks
area was integral in sponsoring the project and did a lot of the work with Rowland
as well.
Maybe the most interesting part of this story is that Rowland
feels the boundaries can be pushed even farther.
“I just need to get my head in the right spot, talk to the
right people,” Rowland said. “I can improve on what we’re doing now.”
Keep your eye on Lake
Shelbyville this summer,
and you may see a blur fly by on the water one evening as the sun sets over the
water.
