Thanks for the great pictures and the Consumer's Report quality review!
Looks like she's sitting on her lines just about right. 'Course with two 200 lb'ers back there that will push her down some. Any place to put the batteries fwd. of the console? Maybe even add some ballast in the forepeak locker?
Gave JJ the go-ahead to send up his surplus foil. Will get it mounted in a week or so but won't be able to give it a try until the weather breaks.
Other project in the works is to replace the flimsy windscreen grab bar. Got in touch with Arc-Tek ( www.arctekmarine.com ) about having a proper one fabricated. His shop's nearby so I can run the boat over for measuring.
Guess you do have a wear problem with that cover! Only thing I can think of is to sew up some kind of thumb-less mitten made out of a mover's pad. If something like that could be slipped over the windscreen upright it might provide enough cushioning to minimize the chafe.
I´m still leaning towards trim tabs (got the itch...). I guess I can wait for Jim to give us his review. If I get them, it will be in march, when I may travel to the U.S.
I don't know if these questions have been asked before, and I see ya trolling here, how deep is the water you're normally fishing in? How deep was it in that pic? How far offshore do you have to go to get to the deep stuff? What do you normally catch? I see a lot of stuff in the front of your boat, I assume to clear the fishing area for fighting the "BIG" ones. Presuming that you carry this much on your fishing trips, does this not help with keeping the bow in the water? (Sorry for all the questions)
If I were to take the "phins" off my mercury, do you find any plusses? Does any good come from not having a doelfin? I like my setup now but am curios as to what would happen if I removed the doelfin. Would it better suit me for watersports and fishing? What do you pros have to say?
In that picture the water is about 150 feet deep. We generally fish 100 to 150 ft deep water. This picture was taken about 5 miles out of the island you see in the back (Taboga Island), which is about 8 miles out of Panama City (roughly 13 miles for Panama). During some months of the year fishing is very good this far from the city. There are other months when you have to venture out further (25-30 miles). I´ve only done it twice on my AS and have been lucky to find calm seas. It can get pretty rough in an instant. Luckily I have friends with bigger boats.
We do carry a lot of things when fishing in the sea, but the heaviest being the aditional gas (about 16 gallons) is only good on the way out. It does help with keeping the nose down. The rest is tackle and safety gear, which is not so heavy. The fish cooler goes on the bow on the way in. It also helps some.
