I got to take our Garmin edition Z18 out yeserday and break her in. Very impressed with it. This boat was at the I cast show and has the Force trolling motor and 106sv's in dash and at the bow.
I will start with the boat and Merc. Got the first couple of hours on the engine on a very rough and windy day. Very smooth engine from idle to WOT. Had it up to just over 62 a couple of times with a 3/4 tank of gas and medium load. Great hole shot and would stay on plane below 3000 rpms. I need to raise the jack plate a little bit before the next trip. The boat rode grea in some pretty bad waves. No spray came into the boat and it didn't beat me up too bad at all. Very stable when fishing plenty of storage.
Now to the cool stuff! The Force trolling motor was great!!! Plenty of power and quick to turn. Always turns the prop out when picking it up which is handy. Quiet too. The anchor feature was spot on the couple of times I tried it. You will hit the anchor button accidently on occasion as it is on the right, rear of the pedal. I will also probably try to raise the pedal up about 3/4" to make it more comfortable.
The depth finders were super (especially the Live scope). They are easy to operate and have 4 buttons to set for your favorite screens. The side view mode was clear and I look forward to using this a lot. The live scope is unreal. I spent way too much time watching the screen. You can scan a dock and see if there are fish, brush and where they are. I was throwing an A rig and could see fish coming up to look at it in deeper, open water.
Coming out of my 901/200 Opti I was very impressed with the Z18 overall. If I can answer any questions please feel free to ask. This boat will be available in July by the way.
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. The boat overall and how its equipped. 