I will start with every time I get in and test something with this boat it amazes me. These are incredible boats. Darris makes an awesome boat.
This last week I set 3 personal best numbers. I’m out of room with this prop, so until I get a new wheel this is probably it for a while. Probably for the better, because the last pass pushed the limits of what I probably should have done.
I spent the beginning of the week setting up the boat up to run on top after switching over to a lithium trolling battery. I went with one 50ah. So I ended up pulling 100lbs out of the boat. That testing video is nearly done. Great results.
After getting the boat setup to run I got a wind free morning to make a few passes. I made two passes. The first was 105 and the second went 105. The first pass just briefly touched 105 and the second pass held if for a 4-5 seconds before I had to let off. Unfortunately, I hit a bug with the camera and I have bug wings fluttering on the lens for the entire pass. I used the first pass for the video.
That night we had a tournament on a local lake. It was the last one of the year and I had been promising a fellow angler a ride. It was 86, humid, and no wind. I wasn't sure how the boat would run so I told him we could try. I made a quick pass and the boat hit 96, so I thought this could be interesting. I turned around made a turn and went down the lake. I have never run over 96/97 with passenger so I took it slow getting to speed. I was shocked when the boat blew right past 99, then 100, then kept pulling and we hit 101. We still had room to run but at that point I was feeling good about it and I got out. I looked at him and said "Wow, let’s do that again". I spun it around and we did it again. Simply awesome. Two in the boat on a hot day pushing 101 tournament loaded.
Not giving up on testing I decided to go out Friday morning before work. Since I knew I was on the limiter I thought I would lighten up and see what the boat would do on the limiter with less weight and no trolling motor. When I got to the water it was just under 70 and 100% humidity. I thought why not, only so many days left before snow. I still had the trolling motor battery in the boat, but I removed some fishing poles and most of my tackle. Without that gear and the trolling motor I was 100lbs lighter than my 105 run. I made two passes. The first was a shake down and the second was an attempt to adjust and correct for issues in the first pass.
As with all testing it’s a learning process. The boat was light and while it was balanced well it does not take the same set when light without the troller. The left lean is very strong in this configuration. I really feel it is troller related. I personally think the troller acts as a wing and lifts the nose of the boat. Without it the boat nose doesn’t feel right and leans left bad. I see this when I take the troller off and put it below the front deck as well. On my boat the troller overhangs the boat by about 8”.
Pass number one was leaning left. I normally lean right to balance the boat, but that didn’t work. I got out of it as it wasn’t right and my normal tricks didn’t work. On pass number 2 I gave it a little more trim thinking that might do the trick. It did, but it put me over on the right very quickly. Someplace I didn’t want to be. I got off the gas on that pass as well. The boat is extremely sensitive to trim in this configuration. I was at 6.9 and went to 7 and that was all it took. After that I decided to call it and go back and look at the data. Both passes went 106. The boat is dialed in at 105 loaded to fish. I never drive the boat unloaded without the troller, so honestly I will probably never test that configuration again. I'm at the personal limit of where I want to be. I really don’t care what it will hit emptied out.
Bottom line -- very stable and locked in tournament form. When I get a bigger wheel 106 will most likely fall in that configuration and feel much safer.
105.1 tournament loaded personal best
101 tournament loaded personal best with 2 in the boat.
106.0 personal best with no troller and most of the fishing gear removed