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Party Pontoon Boat Becomes Revered Work Horse

Author: ChrisNewman
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If you hear the word pontoon and think party boat puttering on a lake, you lack the experiences of marine construction professionals. These unique vessels have earned a reputation - among those in the know - as some of the most versatile and rugged workboats. Boats that easily adapt to various and sometimes dangerous tasks. Tasks that fulfill the needs of a slew of private and public entities, including fire, recreation and wildlife protection agencies, marinas, fish and game departments, and demolition or construction crews.

Pontoon boats, particularly Chinook Boats from Metalite Industries, have earned respect because their design specifications can be tailored to payload capacity, work environment and weight demands. Width, length and buoyancy can all be modified. And bow and stern shapes can be altered to allow for the best utilization of surface space and work requirements.

Each customer for a pontoon boat will begin with a platform designed and admired for its durability and flotation steadiness. Depending on the complex or simple nature of the owners specifications the end product will be customized of everything from riggins, cleats, tie-downs, steering and enclosures - canopies, tarps and cabins.

The Columbia River weaves its way through the Pacific Northwest before entering into the Pacific Ocean near the Washington-Oregon boarder. With the river's heavy flow and elevation drop this makes for an ideal spot for the 14 hydroelectric dams. This is home to many important fish species which play an pertinent role in the local economy and ecology. Dix Corporation knows this playing field well.

Armin Vogt, a project and operations manager said his firm purchased its first Chinook Pontoon Boat in 2002 after the sad demise of an inferior pontoon: "It got crunched," he joked. The Chinooks have since assisted in sophisticated projects on the Columbia, Deschutes and Snake rivers. Dix construction feats include several lock and dam rehabilitation, as well as the development and construction of a juvenile fish bypass system at Rocky Reach Dam.

"We've hauled our pontoons all over the Northwest. We use them as a work platform doing just about everything. And we use them for hauling guys and toolboxes to and from job sites. With the type of work we do, a boat is important and stability is huge. That's one of the things the Chinook Pontoon Boats give us: You can stand on the edge and not rock that boat. You're not tipping at all," he said, adding, the stability of the pontoons has proved popular with divers. "We work a lot with divers. It seems that our boat is the boat everyone uses because it's so easy to get off and on. And, when hauling people back and forth, you can pull up to the dock, keep the engine on idleit's an easy platform for loading."

A purchase of a 30-foot pontoon by Dix recently is being used to push barges on the Deschutes River. The design has special push bars on the bow, allowing rubber tires to be hung to create a buffer between the modular barges and the pontoon.

The barges haul everything from personnel, construction materials to crawler cranes. Vogt said that the Chinook was being used as a "mini tugboat," it is also providing work platforms for the construction crew building a six-story, 80 x 10-foot porous box that will settle 300 feet below the water surface. A base structure to help regulate water temperatures in the river for Bull Trout, and endangered species.

The pontoon boats are lifted into the enormous structure's interior to access work instead of building a dock. Equipment was rigged on the boat to make such aerial lifts possible. Also, the boat was outfitted with auto-engine winches and A-frame gantry cranes to allow the boast to be anchored to rock or concrete faces with mooring lines.

This last feature was particularly important when Dix moved a bridge in Portland, Ore. The bridge was loaded onto a barge, moved downstream, and then set on new abutments. A 20-foot Chinook provided access to the site, allowing crew members to set mooring lines and prepare for the workload that followed. It was a tough job that demanded a reliable water vessel. Fortunately, Chinooks are made of 0.125" to 0.188" marine grade aluminum alloy and are filled with Coast Guard certified two-pound density polyurethane.

"We bump into things. But the way the Chinook is built - the pontoon is foam filled - its durable. Even if you punched a hole in it - no problem. And there's enough payload that the boats can haul a pretty good load. Even something as large as a pickup truck, if we wanted to," Vogt said. "Everybody thinks of a pontoon boat as a party boat. that's not it. They cut through the water very well. We move at forty-five miles per hour with our two 150-horse power engines. People don't expect that from a pontoon boat, but we demand it from our Chinook boats--and we're not disappointed.

About the Author

Chinook custom pontoon work boats use the highest quality materials in the industry to insure years of reliable and trouble free use. Chinook Boats have been used for fire boats, cable laying, surveying, marina construction and material handling.