@cody- sorry for the delayed response but I tried to cut off a fingertip when making dinner last night and it was too difficult to type with only one hand.
Anyway, briefly, if you decide that you want a pontoon boat vs. some other type of watercraft, I would look for an Outcast, Buck’s Bag or Catchercraft pontoon. As someone mentioned, Outcast also private labels some boats for stores like Sportsman’s Warehouse, although from what I have seen, they are/tend to be their lower quality boats. A used good condition Outcast, Buck’s Bag or Catchercraft would be a much better choice than the CA pontoon. However, if you found a really old Scadden boat, the tubes could have been made by Aire/Outcast and you can often tell from the logo on the valve cap. Again, if an old Scadden has been well taken care of and the price it right, it would be a better choice.
What makes these boats different than the Classic Accessory boats? It mainly comes down to the quality of materials as well as fits and finishes. The CA boats use fabric shells and I have seen many of these shells split because they had sun damage/rotten fabric. I have seen them split at the seam area. Sometimes this happens on fairly new boats as they were overinflated or left in the hot sun without bleeding some air out. A pontoon with a PVC shell is far superior. A PVC shell that has welded vs. stitched seams (for instance, Outcast high-end tubes vs. their Fish Cat line) is even better. However, on a bladdered tube, the zippers will still be stiched in (a good practice is to put some Seamgrip on the stitches to help preserve them). The debate on bladdered vs bladderless is endless and comes down mainly to preferences of the various pros and cons of each so I won’t go into it here. But, in a high quality boat like Outcast or Buck’s, I wouldn’t worry about either style of tube.
A bladdered pontoon generally comes in two types of quality/cost: the best is a welded PVC shell with a high strength, lightweight urethane bladder or a cheaper stitched PVC shell with a PVC bladder. If you are buying used, try to find the first type of pontoon. If it is a bladderless pontoon, look for a welded vs. glued pontoon.
Next is the type of frame material of the pontoon boat: aluminum, stainless or steel. Aluminum and stainless are the preferred materials due to weight and corrosion resistance. Steel, like CA uses, is very heavy and prone to rust, especially inside the tubing/pipe and any place that isn’t painted (most brands) or powder coated. Eventually, the paint will chip in places and then you’ll have a rust spot. So, look for an aluminum or stainless frame. In my experience, most of the steel frames used by low end manufacturers have poor fits, finishes and tolerances and it’s not uncommon to need a rubber mallet to assemble them or a screwdriver to clear paint out of holes, etc. Sure, there are some well-made steel frames and they are more robust but you will pay a lot more for them than a CA or similar low end boat.
On a higher end boat, the included accessories will be of a higher quality, from the oars and oar locks to everything else. The CA looks like a bargain because it comes with so many accessories. However, that is how they get away with marketing a low-end boat and making it look appealing. Plus, some of them, like the wheel, will be needed because that thing weighs a ton! If you get a better quality lighter weight boat, you won’t need a cart just to go a short distance. Heck, I have a two-person high end Outcast (welded tubes, urethane bladders, aluminum frame) and I can lift on top of my roof racks all by myself - and I am a short 62 yr old woman.
As for whether or not to get a framed pontoon or something frameless like the Outcast Stealth or a WaterMaster, will depend on your intended use. I have a garage full of different fishing watercraft, both framed and unframed (a couple of WaterMasters and even an old Tote-N-Float). I have float tubes, a hardshell fishing kayak and several inflatable fishing kayaks as well as a wide, stable fishing canoe and some packrafts - in addition to a lot of non-fishing watercraft. (Some people think that I have a boat problem, LOL) Like anything, which one I select on any given trip depends on the where and how I will be fishing.
A framed pontoon excels if you have to row any distance, especially in the wind, and it will be better in a river if you need to ferry or do quick maneuvers in heavy water. If you leave them completely set up and as suggested above, simply break them in half, they aren’t that much more time consuming to set up/tear down. But truthfully, a frameless boat is just so damn convenient that lots of people chose convenience over performance. I admit that I often grab my WaterMaster for this reason. But when I know I will be on a big lake with strong wind (which means almost any time in E Wa) or anything more than Class 1 on a river, especially a bigger river, I prefer one of my pontoon boats. A great happy medium, is a Catchercraft Freestone, especially with the breakdown frame as you can strip it down and use it like a kickboat (without oars) or use the full frame.
As for which one to get your GF, it depends on if she will only go with you on lakes or large slow rivers like the Columbia. If this is the case, she might enjoy a kayak better as she can go explore more easily. However, if she will also be floating rivers like the Yakima, unless she has lots of river kayaking experience or is interested in developing those skills, I would steer you away from a kayak for her - and this is coming from someone who loves kayaks and used to teach kayaking. I think that another pontoon or frameless boat would be a better choice if she will be doing rivers like the Yakima (from Rosa upstream). She won’t need the skills it takes to kayak a river and just as importantly, she won’t get as frustrated waiting for you all the time as a kayak is a much faster vessel and harder to slow down. Instead, you might consider getting one framed pontoon and one frameless one as then when you are by yourself, you have options. But if she won’t be floating rivers like the Yakima with you, I would definitely consider a sit-on-top kayak for her.
Oh, also get an electric pump that goes into a cigarette lighter outlet. You don’t need to get an expensive one (I get them at Goodwill for $3-$5) as you only need to fill it up 90% as you’ll want to top it off by hand anyway. These days, I prefer a compact K Pump as my top-off pump as it is so easy to take along on my boat, which I always do. No matter what type of boat(s) you get, get boats and accessories that make it easy and fairly quick for you to get out on the water and have fun!
