While they have made jet-powered sport boats in the past, Sea-Doo has focused all their attention to personal watercrafts (PWCs) for the most part of the last decade. Whatever reasons they had for dropping boats in the lineup, though, that’s apparently ending soon with the announcement of the 2022 Sea-Doo Switch.
The outfit’s new line of boats, it equips the proven powertrain, sporty agility, and easy operation of their personal watercrafts into a sporty-looking pontoon, allowing you to get around the water on a flat-bottomed boat that drives with the ease of a jet ski. Basically, you get the satisfying feel and free-spirited fun of jet-powered PWCs in a larger watercraft that’s more stable and a lot more versatile, making for a great boat to take out to the water with family and friends.
The 2022 Sea-Doo Switch has a tri-hull design with a lower middle tube and two slightly higher outer tubes, allowing the boat to deliver the reliable stability you expect from traditional pontoons while staying nimble when it’s on the move. It’s equipped with the outfit’s Rotax 1630 ACE engine, which is more popularly used in the outfit’s jet-powered PWCs, with a variety of power options between 100 and 230 horsepower, so you can get a gentle boat for lake cruises, a muscle-packing sport boat for going buck wild in the water, or anywhere in between.
Unlike traditional pontoons, it’s equipped with handlebars for steering, so maneuvering it should feel as intuitive as a jet ski or a motorcycle, with throttles allowing you to quickly speed up and wind down as needed. It also has an “intelligent brake & reverse system” that allows the boat to stop quicker, giving you more control and maneuverability when driving in low speeds. Of course, the addition of a reverse also makes getting out of sticky spots, along with docking and launching the boat, a heck of a lot easier.
The 2022 Sea-Doo Switch has a spacious deck that uses an innovative tile system for its floor panels, allowing you to transform the onboard layout by simply lifting the tiles and moving them to another part of the deck. According to the outfit, only the driver’s chair and the helming station are fixed, with the rest of the deck available for customization at any time with no need for tools. Those tiles, by the way, can be outfitted with seats, benches, tables, consoles, and swimming platforms, depending on your own preferences, with the outfit counting nearly 100 different layout possibilities.
It’s available in three standard configurations: basic, sport, and cruise, each one available in a number of hull sizes between 13 and 21 feet. Basic gets you the standard pontoon, the modular floors, and the lower-spec engines, while the sport model adds a roof, longer hull sizes, a touchscreen GPS, a sport lounge area, and higher-spec engines. The cruise model gets the same roof, longer hull size, and touchscreen GPS, combined with an audio system, a swim platform, and the full breadth of engine choices. Each boat comes with its own tow trailer.
The 2022 Sea-Doo Switch is now available for preorder. Price starts at $17,999.