You know a boatbuilder's serious about getting into the pontoon market when it hires an America's Cup design team to develop an original new hull shape for its Windsor Craft 240. And the stakes get much higher when the boatbuilder decides to pay a visit to its upholstery manufacturer and tells it
to transform both the lounges and chairs into the maritime equivalents of Lay-Z-Boys.

Throw in a truly innovative changing room that lifts out of the hull like a magician's box, and you have a boat that breaks the basic rule of pontoondom ' stick with what you know ' and is able to get away with it.

Breaking the rules is what Windsor Craft's new 240 does best. Forget the old-school way of putting a floatboat together ' connecting aluminum pontoons to plywood or composite decks. The 240 uses marine-grade polyethylene and stainless steel. Skip the chintzy upholstery or wobbly side railings on the bargain brands. Everything on this Windsor Craft is purposely solid. And don't you go worrying about a teeth-chattering ride; the trimaran hull was designed by Morrelli & Melvin, the same firm that created the America's Cup champion Stars & Stripes.

But the real rule-breaker on the 240 ' and part of the reason why it garnered an NMMA Innovation Award ' is the Ultra Cabana on back. Pontoon owners know what it's like to answer nature's call behind a flimsy canvas screen or in a tinny fiberglass box. On the 240, those embarrassing days are gone. Push a button, and a full-fiberglass compartment lifts from the deck of the aft end (in down position, it's a cushioned sunpad). But the Cabana isn't a rehabbed porta-john. There's 6 feet 2 inches of headroom, and the internal space measures 30 inches wide and 53 inches long. The space feels expansive rather than cramped. It has a portable head that slides out on a track (and back into a cranny when you don't need it), as well as a shower, large opening porthole, mirror and even a towel rack. The fact that it's electrically actuated is also a big plus. The Cabana sets the bar yards higher in terms of the privacy and comfort it brings to a pontoon boat (it'd also beat the heads of most small cruisers hands-down in terms of light, ventilation and space). It opens up new possibilities for pontoon boating. Instead of having to go home to change your clothes, you can easily shower right on the boat and head straight for your favorite waterside restaurant. Yes, another rule-breaker.

Like many new ideas, the concept of the Windsor Craft pontoon was an innovation born of frustration. A Genmar executive living in the Keys got tired of replacing the corroded pontoons on his boat every few months. The salt water and ocean air would literally eat them alive. So he turned to the company's Triumph brand, which has been building Roplene (rotomolded polyethylene) center consoles and sportboats for the saltwater market, with a mandate to develop a new saltwater pontoon boat.

At first, the idea seemed like mixing oil and water. Triumph was all about no-frills toughness ' not luxury. Its ads used to feature a guy with a sledgehammer beating the daylights out of a hull, which would show no signs of visible damage.' The exterior finish on the first Triumphs was an afterthought, but the finish on the Windsor Craft 240 (a resur-rected Genmar brand name) is a generation or two ahead of the first Triumphs.

It's still not in the same league as fiberglass (though you don't have to sweat it every time you come near a dock in fear of nicking the fiberglass), and it looks nicer than an aluminum pontoon ' especially a corroding pontoon. And that was the whole point of the exercise ' prolonged use in saltwater.

The trimaran hull is comprised of three pieces of marine-grade polyethylene that have been rotationally molded. The rotomolding process isn't difficult: The parts mold is injected with a high-density polymer material, loaded in an industrial-sized oven and cooked until the piece is ready. But getting a consistently flawless finish can be challenging. Triumph has taken the art out of rotomolding and uses computers to deliver a more uniform consistency to the finished products. What pops out of the mold is a single-piece boat with a turtle wax-tough exterior, filled with flotation foam.

On the Windsor Craft, however, you end up with more than a boat ' you end up with a head-turner of a hull. The pieces of the trimaran hull, specially shaped for rough-water use, are connected to the extruded plastic deck by 3-inch-wide stainless-steel crossbeams (spaced 18 inches apart). The whole corrosion-resistant assembly fits together into a tongue-and-groove system for snugness. The hull has some flex but stays super stable, even in big waves.

Comparing its ride to a pontoon boat is slightly unfair, since it's really more of a deckboat hull with pontoon topsides. Putting it side by side with a trimaran pontoon gets you a bit closer to the ride. But even then, this 240's ride is as smooth as any pontoon or deckboat out there.

Part of it's due to the deep-V hull, which parted three-foot wakes in Miami's Biscayne Bay like Arnold Schwarzenegger elbowing his way through a crowd of Democrats. The other reason has to do with the heft of the 240. With an optional 200-hp Johnson 4-stroke on the boat, it weighs 5,480 pounds. Even with the base 115-hp Johnson 2-stroke, it'll still weigh in at a hefty 5,250 pounds. Remember, this is a solid polyethylene ' not a hollowed tube of aluminum or a fiberglass deck with stringers.

Even so, the 240 posts a decent top end of 35.1 mph and feels rock-solid, even at top speed. It does have some trouble during turns at top speed, however, and the Windsor Craft rep says that the cavitation has more to do with the boat not being propped right, rather than any design flaw in the hull. (Moral of the story: Always make a test run before buying.) But the 240 tracks like a heavyweight champ, holding its course and also hitting speeds traditional pontoon boats often just dream about. In addition to that, it only draws 12 inches, so you are able to get to shallow water or even up to a beach.

What about it being saltwater-proof? Certainly the Roplene hull won't corrode like aluminum, and the company uses stainless steel wherever it can. Windsor Craft says that the 240 doesn't pick up growth or barnacles if it's used often (also a truism with most fiberglass boats), but adds that it can be bottom-painted if it sits in the water for extended periods. With its weight, this is not a boat you would want to trailer frequently.

But it looks really good at the dock. The off-white polyethylene panels that enclose the cockpit are cleaner-looking than the typical aluminum on most pontoon boats, and the powder-coated aluminum railing (measuring almost five inches in diameter) is rock solid. You can lean hard against it, and it won't flex. Positioned about six inches higher than most other pontoon boats, the railing helps give you a sense of enclosure. You feel like you're riding in a boat rather than exposed on a deck ' a definite plus if any children happen to be on board.

The Windsor Craft also has a 50-gallon fuel tank and a 25-gallon freshwater tank ' two nice features if you want to cruise all day or use it for entertaining. Storage is also one of the 240's strong points. Two in-floor ski lockers (which are 100 inches by 20 inches by 14 inches), three drawers in the wetbar console, space over a pontoon (which are 82 inches by 20 inches by 14 inches), and even a good-sized anchor locker on the bow (which is 17 inches by 21 inches) let you stow a family's worth of gear. Other notable standards: docking lights, aft table and Clarion stereo/CD player with Sirius Satellite service. A full canvas/mesh enclosure is an option for evening cruises.

The Bimini top delivers 7 feet of headroom, and the tubing is 1/4 inches in diameter ' so sturdy that you can do a few chinups. Again, you get the sense of substance in this boat. And comfort. The seats are triple-stitched marine vinyl with some of the deepest padding in the industry. You sink into them and don't want to get up. Matching front lounges (which are 19 inches by 60 inches) both have a reclining headrest and 9-inch cushion lip that is located around the edges so you won't slide off. Its L-shaped aft lounge runs 59 inches long on one end and 47 on the other. The 240's rated for 12 people, though Windsor Craft says the buoyancy in the hull would carry 49 people under the Coast Guard's formula for calculating flotation. 'Multitiered' may not be the best word to use to describe the helm seat on this pontoon. Let's just say it has nine cushions, ranging from the bolster to lumbar support to the headrest. Needless to say, it's a very relaxing place to drive with a sloped footrest underneath.

What makes the Windsor Craft 240 a unique pontoon is its ability to both stand on its own and venture outside the norm, bringing a whole new meaning to the term 'unorthodox.' By boldly rewriting the pontoon rulebook, Windsor Craft has created an interesting boat that should turn heads among pontoon enthusiasts.