Botswana 2072 160HP Outback

Carpet going into the rod locker, place for 8 rods including 4 8' rods that can fit into the extension tubes.

She is finished a few days to test all systems and The African Skimmer is off for the annual Bream classic fishing competition. Will post a report when we return.

Poker table and all!!! Love it!

I didnt know they had bream fishin and poker night in Africa.

Oh yes we have it all, but being Africa, we need to make our own arrangements to keep the lights on. :LOL2:

Sick

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Thats impressive

The boat was a massive success, not so the fishing. Only two Bream caught after 3 days on the water, we did however get stuck into many small Tiger fish who always provide great entertainment. The tournament winners however did infinitely better than us and returned some very envious catches.
Back to the boat, it really has exceeded all expectations, we had 4 rods going all day and with the exception of me foul hooking my son, we rarely got in each other's way.
The Minn Kota Ultera is an amazing piece of kit and certainly places you in the exact spot to not catch any Bream. The solar charging installation left us with 83% capacity on day one and 100% on day two and three, this difference largely attributed to us learning the ropes with the trolling motor.
The Yamaha ho motor is as smooth as silk and performed faultlessly over 10,5 hrs of operation with over 200 km of river covered on day 2, average fuel consumption for the 3 days, 17l per hr at an average speed of 52 kph. The first bream was caught at 9am on day one and was alive and well in the livewell at the 5 pm weigh in, the Lowrance fish finder remains a mystery to me, but the chart plotter and GPS are great. The boat carries an awesome load at very respectable speeds very economically. I could however not imagine operating without trim as this feature is invaluable for smooth operation. I will now research impeller design to try improve an already impressive launch getting on the plane in 3,5 seconds and 50kph in 8 seconds. The new reverse bucket was also a vast improvement and this feature is now quite satisfactory. Very happy , thank you one and all for sharing, advice and encouragement.https://youtu.be/9y--OPEvLY4

A bit if fun with the trim

https://youtu.be/Z2cpvc_Z4jY

Another boat feature I put a huge amount of time into manufacturing was the stomp grate, and even though I have yet to have the inlet completely blocked, when hanging in the current against the trolling motor I get river debris collect under the hull, when I start the motor these debris end up in the inlet, one stroke of the stomp grate and it clears.
I used a linear actuator to power the unit with a non latching push button, hold the button for two seconds and it strokes down, release and the stomp grate returns to rest.
So far quite succesful.

https://youtu.be/REiKSmL3vCk

Afternoon cruise