Colorado based Lyn Morgan has just completed an eight week journey by completing the Grand Loop around, and across, North America. What is remarkable is that he did not do so on board a luxury Grand Banks or a Fleming designed for the job but on an open 'pontoon boat' powered by a single Yamaha F250 outboard.

The Grand Loop is one of the world’s most exciting and popular cruises covering the eastern portion of the USA. It includes the Atlantic and Gulf Intracoastal Waterways, the Great Lakes and Canadian Heritage Canals and the inland rivers of American heartland. To complete the trip Morgan travelled down the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico, up the eastern seaboard and back through the great lakes managing to cruise at 20-35mph depending on the conditions.

We have nothing like the extremely popular pontoon boats in Europe and many pundits dismiss them as being 'a typical American invention; nothing more than an over upholstered lounge on water'. Never the less the unsinkable triple hulled 24ft Premier Marine craft proved beyond doubt that it was both seaworthy and extremely comfortable for such a voyage – despite not having any covering greater than a big bimini top! However it did boast full size settees, an armchair at the helm, a full sound system, fridges and an ultra reliable engine.

As Lyn Morgan wrote in his blog: “It is definitely not your grampa’s pontoon boat at the summer house. The flat deck space is nice to move around on versus the mostly sloping deck of a V-hull. I can lop off big days with this boat when necessary, and the Bimini top and custom seats make the day comfortable.”

Able to carry up to seventeen people, with a vast area of extremely comfortable recreation space and built in corrosion proof aluminium, pontoon boats provide families with an ultra stable platform from which to fish, swim, dive or even use PWC. With extremely low wash and needing relatively low power it’s surprising that similar craft are not used on our lakes and rivers.