Jonboat Findings

The biggest difficulties testers faced with the jonboat were its instability and low freeboard. Because the boat’s profile is so low to the water, we had spotters watching to make sure it never flipped over on the testers as they boarded. The preferred technique on the jonboat was to step up on the ladder and quickly throw one’s torso or leg into the boat before pulling the gunwale too far down into the water. Then testers could roll the rest of their body inside.

The stern and bow of the jonboat were the easiest places to board because they each were within reach of a seat or something the testers could grab onto. Boarding at the stern, however, was only possible because the test jonboat had no outboard motor in place.

The favorite ladders were short one- or two-step models that didn’t swing far under the boat. The Davis Swim Stirrup got high marks for its simplicity and ease of use. A simple plastic step at the end of a long, adjustable rope, this ladder was ranked #1 for use on on the jonboat.

The Garelick Inflatable Boat Ladder ranked second on the jonboat. This ladder has two plastic and aluminum steps that are curved slightly to accommodate its intended use on the rounded tubes of an inflatable boat. The steps are attached to an adjustable rope, which was critical to making it suitable for the test boats. The third highest-ranking ladder was the C-Level Sea Steps Safety Ladder. This simple webbed-strap has a single loop at the bottom of a long piece of 4-inch wide webbed material. Not only was it easy to use, but it folds up neatly for convenient storage.

Testers found the longer ladders difficult because their feet pushed the ladder underneath the boat. This made the other side of the boat sway up, towards the tester, throwing them off balance. Many of the longer ladders tended to float on the surface making it difficult to get started. This was especially annoying on the jonboat.

Most of the complaints from testers on the jonboat were about ladders being too long, those ladders without any means to shorten the length were sometimes unusable on the jonboat and required much more upper body strength than others.

View videos of the top three ladders on the jonboat below.

The jonboat was so unstable and low to the water tester's regularly pulled the side into the water when boarding.

The bow and stern were the easiest places on the jonboat to board since testers could grab ahold of the seats to pull themselves in.

The C-Level Seat Steps was the third highest ranking ladder on the jonboat.

As this tester demonstrated a boater can use a rope to fashion a quick boarding loop in a pinch.