Hi all

We are looking at fabricating a stable holding rope pontoon to replace our current system (a big boat) It will need to support a minimum of 2 people and a max of 3 or 4 and was hoping you could all share some ideas / pics / drawings with me.

Some pics of the pontoons out of the water would be good. With as much info about them as possible. ie.. types of flotation used, how they assemble, problems you have had, were you bought the gear and so on.

Any help would be welcome & much appreciated

Rod G         VDBC member

Can anyone from the SDBA help us out on this please? We have some photos from a distance of your start platform but a little more close up would be great. Gary or Juan, can you help us out here, we need to get moving on this project. thanks guys. any info would be an advantage.....Gary J.

Well I am not with any association but I will be glad to help!!!

The "starter barge" used here in the US is just a pontoon boat, The ADBA use to use an "A" Frame made from 2x4's to hold the boat in place and the hold rope, The IHBA, SDBA, NJBA has done the same except they made a arm that reaches out to the hold rope and enables the starter to raise the rope when boats leave the line.

Hey mate, thanks for that. The actual pivot for the rope we have worked out from photos I took from being on the start line at Phoneix, what we need is the construction of what we were standing on! We were thinking of a platform that could 'fold' up for transportation and fold down and lock in posistion. Do you know what the measurements are of the base? We were thinking 9'x9', is this about stable size? Could the pontoons be made of plastic from a mariner? These we have but are quite large in size. More pics of the platform would be great, appreciate any assistance. Thanks DBS. - GJ

Gary, the starting barge does disassemble, It is then integrated with the scoreboard for transport. I would guess 10 x 10.

Thanks Scott and Jerry, this is great info. Jerry, sorry mate I'm still laughing at your self messaage!!! Ive had contact from a few others by PM so its great to get the info. Will send some pics as start our construction. Thanks everyone. From the Geico, alias GJ.