TOPIC: Help me find & Restore a 1960's Kayot Pontoon?

I realize most vintage pontoons met their demise because the pontoons rusted out. The rarity of old pontoons is what makes the idea of restoring a vintage pontoon so attractive to me. Sure, I'd put aluminum pontoons under it and powder coat them white, but I can't seem to find any of those great vintage Kayot pontoon parts from the 1960's anywhere. What I want is a mid 60's Kayot Commodore. In my childhood, we had a sailing program on our lake, and one of these huge Kayot pontoon boats was the command ship for the sailing regattas. It is a fond childhood memory and I really want to find one to salvage/restore.

If anyone can help me locate some rusting hulk of a Kayot Commodore somewhere I'd be really happy!

J: Very Interesting. WELCOME to forum . NOt familar with the brand but here in East Tenn there are a ton of pontoon boats on the 600 miles long river..I will start looking.. What state / city you in .??

Good screen nick name . I am also fond of Jeeps. Had a Willys truck in fla.

Actually I'm a classic Larson boat collector by heritage. My dad collects Larsons and I do too. Falls Flyers, Thunderhawks, Sea Lion, and even a 1939 Wooden inboard. Some of my relatives worked at the Larson factory in the 40's and 50's. My dad had one of only 18 16' Falls Flyers back in the 1940's. (he's 85 years old)

It seems Kayots were made in Indiana.

I live in central Minnesota.

hi jepstr,nice to meet you,i cant help with finding one,but my father in law just redid a 1977 kayot pontoon,he started with a new floor and carpet,then new seating,here it is.if i can find the pics.john before and after pics.

That's a beauty there John! It looks like they added some built in seating by the mid 70's. As I recall, the floor in the 1960's was a thin layer of fiberglass mat, with enough resin to fully encapsulate the fibers, but still leave a slightly rough, non-slip, surface. Looks also like the corners are squared off caps rather than 1/4 circle sheet metal stampings. I painted the "command ship" once so I remember the shapes of the parts pretty well.

BTW, to all who may be concerned about copy write on the photo, I have contacted Autolit with the intent to buy that brochure from them!

Hi,
Wish I had known 15 years ago when these were going for scrap by the hundreds! They are still out there, and actually, Minnesota is the place to look. Here is the front and back of the Kaye Yacht catalog from 1957. They were built in Mankato up through the '90's, I think, when they were sold to Harris, I'd have to really look into it. I've got a lot of Kayot stuff. Give me a call. I'm surprised you're not looking for a Weere's.

Lee Wangstad

"It looks like they added some built in seating by the mid 70's"
jepster,when he got the kayot the only seat was a captains chair with a helm,he bought these seats as a full set.

Minnesota still has a ton of them on lakes, just a year or two back I saw an old steel pontoon with a green Johnson Seahorse on it.

The railings were basically chain link fence on those things too!

Thanks for the brochure Lee. That has to be one of the early ones.

please forgive the slight highjack jepstr,but do you or somebody here have a left hand steering link,for a johnson/evinrude motor,9.9 1995 motor,its so steve can change from his 1964 evinrude,over to the 9.9 evinrude for the lakes around here.we have hp limits close to home.thanks,john,boy jepster im sorry i hijacked your thread ,i guess i lost my manners somewhere,i tried to delete it,but cant,ill start a new thread,again my apoligies,john

OK John, I looked at that totally puzzled for at least 30 seconds and re read it twice wondering what on Earth left and right hand steering was. Then finally it struck me that you must have the kind that I know as "teleflex" steering.

In my world everything has pulleys, cables and drums.

JEEP-ster: Here is a link for a ad here in SO.East Tenn. Small pic seem to be close to what you asked about . Must be old has a 35 HP Evan-Roof outboard !! (maybe Evinrude .?
chattanooga.craigslist.org/boa/1911963062.html

Thanks Split,
That does look like one. Maybe a little newer model because the roof is different. I wish it were a bit closer to Minnesota.

Todd