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In reply to Post #20
Great review Neil thanks for taking the time and effort to do this, I’m looking for a new boat and this sounds spot on 
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In reply to Post #19
Unfortunately I don’t. As per the review I had it done professionally.
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In reply to Post #6
Wouldnt have a template knocking about for the through the hull fitting for the Raymarine sonar would you by any chance ?
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In reply to Post #17
I have the app on both phone and iPad but use the bigger iPad screen for the Raymarine and iPhone for the boat app. This is just personal choice. Both do the job.👍
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In reply to Post #16
Thank you.
Do you use a tablet for your Raymarine or your phone?
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In reply to Post #15
Raymarine Dragonfly 5 which was part of a complete upgrade kit as described and proffessionaly installed although it’s not that difficult to do yourself with plenty of info on the various ND2 FB groups 👍
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In reply to Post #7
Hello mate. Which echo are you Using here and did you fit it yourself?
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In reply to Post #11
I have the ND bag (won it in a comp on facebook site) As said its massive but boat fits perfect inside it and the padding is heavy duty to say the least.
Unless you have a huge amount of gadgets and add on's (fish eye camera, tripods, deepers etc etc) then you wont need all the storage space.
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In reply to Post #11
Top man, thanks mate
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In reply to Post #11
The ND bag is very good but is huge and expensive. Too big to be really useful.
There are various others which are of the same design and probably come out of the same Chinese factory with different badges on them. These are all online and Sabre, Cult and Ultimate are amongst them. I bought the Ultimate badged one on offer from TotalFishing Tackle for £35 posted which was the cheapest of them all.
It is a well built bag, has padding, a removable mat, has two side pockets which fits all the spare batteries, ND accessories pouch etc. The zips are strong and smooth and the lid zip is backed up by Velcro. You can fit the boat in fully, but I remove the handle to keep it totally flat once zipped up.It has two grab handles which are useful and a good waterproof base. There is a zip up solar panel pocket in the lid section. The bag in the picture has just been unwrapped hence looking a bit creased. It’s a perfect size for the boat which fits neatly in it without being too small or too big - spot on. They all seem to be the same size but for peace of mind when ordering it should be approx 77x43 x25cms.
👍
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In reply to Post #4
What bag do you recommend? The ND one looks to big/wide as it has all the massive side pockets I won’t need? I was considering the Cult or Trakker ones but not quite sure which size to go for?
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In reply to Post #1
Good review and all echo's my experience.
Great bit of kit for the money. I have a speed kit and the auto pilot and as a first time bait boat user found them pretty straight forward to use.
Good facebook group with loads of support as well. Plus they have quite a lot of after market mods which look really good
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Thanks for the in-depth review Neil, seeing recently on my syndicate i was certainty impressed with the build quality.
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In reply to Post #7
Myself and a mate are considering buying one of these this year.
This is really useful, thanks Neil.
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ND2 BAITBOAT
Whilst commenting on various bait boat threads about the ND2 I have had various PM’s requesting additional info so I thought I’d write this review of my experiences. There is an ND2 review already on here but I’ll try and add to it.
Why ND2?
My last boat was an Angling Technics Microcat. It was becoming apparent that it was old technology and far more modern boats with more Bells and Whistles were available. The Microcat was 80’s/90’s Technology in the 2020’s. Research showed that the ND2 could offer me everything that I required at a price which was far cheaper than most others (including the modern Microcat variant). Very wary of the “buy cheap, the buy twice” motto, it made me think hard. I was aware buying a more economic boat could be a wrong move but the research available pointed to it being a good buy.
THE BASIC BOAT
On opening the box my first impression was how good the quality and how strong the boat hull was compared to my Microcat. Most early boats were made of ABS Plastic which is quite thin and brittle. This boat was a lot stronger and made of injection moulded plastic. If anyone has young children its’s the same stuff as the Fisher Price toys that toddlers have. Very strong rigid plastic which seems to last forever, doesn’t break when thrown around and gets handed down from child to child. The whole boat is made from this material. The propellers are under the rear of the boat and are shrouded in a tube with a streamlined weed guard protecting them so are fully enclosed. On the top of the boat in the handle assembly is the battery compartment, totally separate from the main internals of the boat and fully sealed with a rubber seal to make it totally waterproof which is miles away better than the Microcat which leaks like a sieve.. The top of the handle is secured with two Allen bolts. Two large headlights adorn the front of the boat and are very bright. Two red lights at the rear act as indicators and will indicate once when you turn the boat left or right. The on/off switch is in a prominent position at the rear as is a hook release mechanism to attach your hook to which is then operated when in position. The hull is dipped in a carbon effect finish. Twin hoppers make this a triple hulled boat, which increases stability. The dimensions are 62cm long by 40cm wide and 25cm deep making it a medium sized boat with deep triple hull. Internally, as well as the two motors, controllers and main board it is equipped with a GPS card as standard. Batteries are 14.8 v Lithium batteries and are very, very long lasting ( more on batteries later). The boat antenna is a small stubby high gain antenna with a folding mechanism to stop it snagging on overhead obstructions .
HANDSET
The handset is a single handed unit. As you would suspect it has all the left, right, forward, back functions on a main joystick as well as lights on/off and hopper release. As the boat has GPS it also has buttons for marking 4 spots and saving them as well as a home position plus hopper release. It has a rechargeable battery via a usb lead. Power, and GPS LEDs let you know what those functions are doing. As per the boat antenna it is a small high gain stubby antenna with a auto fold function .
THE BAITBOAT APP.
The App for the bait boat is free to download and mimics the handset and does everything the handset does but visually against a backdrop of the lake. You can choose a graphic display or a google maps style picture. The main difference is although you can only see 4 saved spot (5 if you count your ‘HOME’ spot) on the screen, at anyone time, you can download previously saved spots if you wish. You can seamlessly swap between handset or app on your device anytime you wish.
( More on the App later.)
ACCESSORIES
A rigid pouch contains the boat charger, charging lead for handset, Allen key for the battery compartment and two pin and 3 pin charging leads and boat and handset antenna.
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Total cost for a triple hulled, very high quality, strong boat with GPS and free APP for visual use on a device is £540.
AUTOPILOT
There is an autopilot option. Within the free app is an option to download the autopilot. This costs £199 and will auto download if requested, take payment online and is very easy to sync to the boat. Using either the App via your device or handset the boat can now be sent out handsfree to one of your chosen spots. Once there the hoppers are released manually ( to prevent accidental opening) and then on pressing the ‘HOME’ button will return home leaving you free to sink line, back lead, and set indicators.
Total cost for a triple hulled, quality, strong boat with GPS and autopilot via handset or device is £739.
VERSATILITY
Although not a huge boat compared to some other’ it’s not tiny either but its main plus point is its internal configuration which leaves a lot of space for internal add ons, unlike some other boats. A Deeper, Tolson or Raymarine fish finder can be fitted unlike a lot of other boats. It can also swallow a WiFi extender unit which does away with tripods and external WiFi extenders. It is also possible to squeeze in a Navionics Injector for lake mapping via the sonar fish finder.
Through the hull installation of a Raymarine Dragonfly 5 unit. Obviously this does void any warranty.
All fitted and sealed
IN USE
In use the boat works extremely well, seamlessly so. It is stable and will work adverse conditions. I used in Gale Beatrix and it handled itself well. Because it is 100% sealed there are no worries about it sinking. I reckon it could turn turtle and still float happily. The GPS and auto pilot are simple to use either via the handset or app on your device.. There is a calibration option which sends the boat in circles and resets the GPS satellites receiver so its always up to date. It has a payload of 3 kg which is adequate. The Microcat can do 5kg but with the autopilot I can send the boat out twice and sort my rods out in the same time as the Microcat’s single trip so therefore it can deliver a bigger payload. As the batteries are at least 10 to 20 times better than the Microcat’s lead acid ones the extra trip doesn’t matter. It is fast ( see add ons) will turn on its own axis, and is quite good in weed for a prop driven boat due to the shrouding but it’s not infallible. The one handed handset does take a bit of getting used to but once mastered is really good allowing you to hold your rod in the other hand and sinking the line, take out bows, and generally tweak your presentation., or be hands free with the autopilot.I think the realisation of how good it was came in France this year when I opted ( OK I got a got a ***** draw) to fish the shallows. I had between 18 inches to 3 foot of water and an island with an undercut bank. Fishing 200 yards out in 2 1/2 to 3 foot of water I was sending the boat out at night in an absolutely pitch black rural lake, with no light pollution, with all the lights on the boat turned off for fear of spooking the fish. Once clear of 10 yards of the bank I couldn’t see a thing, using the auto pilot to take me to my spots in pitch darkness just following the picture of the lake on my device until the auditable warning and visual map told me I’d arrived. Dropping the bait plus rig and then using the autopilot and home function, with the boat still in total darkness it came back and the audio alarm told me when it was at the home position and I could just about see it in the darkness to guide it in the last 10 yards manually. It certainly caught me fish that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.
ADD ONS
As stated, because of its hull shape and space inside it’s a brilliant boat for customising. If you want to do this from new you have to accept that you will void your warranty. I have mine fitted from the off with a Raymarine Dragonfly 5, internal WiFi extender (which I’ve used to 400mtrs plus no probs), A Navionics Injector, Speed kit, Port and Starboard Running lights, rear hopper lights, and a voltage meter. I now have a very sturdy well built boat for about half the price of a comparable boat. It’s now 20 months old so by Spring 2023 it will be out of warranty so its worked out well.
BATTERIES
The boat runs off a 14.8 lithium battery which is a long flat battery consisting of 16 cells and a battery management board and chipset(BMS). The original boats came with a 14.8 volt 10 Amp battery.
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During Covid they seemed to struggle to get hold of batteries so new boats had two smaller sized batteries connected together. Unfortunately these combined were only 7 amp so I would advise anyone to try and get a boat with the better 10 Amp single battery. ALTBatteries also sell a x14 amp battery which was approx £100 before the world went mad, not sure what there are currently (no pun intended) My fish finder and WiFi is hardwired in so will draw current all the time the boat is switched on but I’ve never had a problem with running the batteries down to minimum. It’s not very scientific but running a boat for 6 days, using the fish finding quite a lot on day one then sending 3 rods out about 200 mtrs+ 4 or 5 times a day and the 10 AH battery was at 11 volts by day 5 requiring a change of battery to a bigger 14 Ah one which was still at 80% on the 7th day seems very good to me. To be honest unless you spend literally hours and hours studying the lake bottom, battery life won’t ever be a problem. If you are using Injector technology to map a lake then you upscale accordingly. Normal use -superb.
Batteries are totally separate from the rest of the electronics and the battery compartment is fully sealed
Handle assembly, battery compartment top and rubber seal. (Note moulding rinds on underside adding strength to handle.
NIGGLES.
I find the hook mechanism fiddly. I normally use size 8 curveshank hooks with a line aligner which makes it awkward to place it in the release mechanism which may not be the case with a size 6 Ronnie Rig for example. I also don’t like the way it stretches the line aligners as they hang there under the weight of the lead. Finally if using a standard lead clip which holds the swivel very lightly as its designed to do, the weight of the lead can cause it to discharge as you send the boat out. Gripping the swivel more tightly negates the whole purpose of the lead clip so I now put the rig and lead in the hopper itself and ignore the hook retainer mechanism.
Small particles can get stuck in the hopper doors. Not a big problem. I’ve never had problems with the doors opening because I always put small particles (hemp, micro pellets) in last over bigger baits and keep them to the other side of the hinge. Occasionally I’ve had them stop me closing the doors when refilling the hoppers, so I now carry a bamboo skewer in the boat bag and just run this along the hinge gap before closing the hopper prior to filling with bait. Simple solution.
A few app niggles. If you were an early adopter you had version 1 of the App, this was a device specific App which saved all your data to your device so phone/ internet connection wasn’t required - great for being in the middle of nowhere. Plus, all your carefully saved spots were in your phone - not on a remote server. The MK2 version required a signal to save on a remote server plus in a really stupid move, it transpired that if you had auto updates checked in the setting it just overwrote your entire history of saved data with no warning. - not good to say the least as people lost all their stored spots!! If you are a newer user this isn’t such a big issue and to be fair even the likes of Apple/Google etc are known for ****ing up updates, so although for the earlier user it was *****, in the bigger picture…… make your own minds up. The App isn’t the best and there is room for improvement….as long as the improvement is part of a proper well thought out path and implemented properly.
A few specific niggles that I’ve found is you use the app to release the hoppers it shows an icon of the boat and hopper1, hopper 2 and hook release. If you press hopper 1, then the hopper will open but he icon closes so you have to re-open it to do hopper 2, reopen it if you want the hook release. Not a big problem but if you are on a big windswept lake the time taken to reopen and release the ext hopper the boat could have blown 10 Mts or so off course. The icon needs to remain open until you close it. To get around this I use the handset if it’s really windy as it takes about 0.5 of a second to drop both hoppers. Needs to be addressed though. The root tree could do with improving too.
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Part 4
3RD PARTY ADD ONS
Via 3rd parties the following add ones not already mentioned can be added, some without any modifications.
Bait Spirals
Winch cameras
Zig rig holders
Hopper covers
Modified hopper doors
Various addition lights and voltage meters
Coloured headlight lenses
Speed kits
Quick release battery bolts
Heavy duty batteries
PVA bag covers
Pods/ cradles
Solar Panel Chargers
SUMMARY
An extremely well built, robust boat that can be used in the most adverse of conditions. In its basic form it is extremely good value for money, being cheaper than most if not all comparable boats. Its hull design makes it a good candidate for upgrading and can be fully kitted out with the latest technology for a fraction of the price of comparable boats. Battery life is exceptional and batteries are lightweight. A Tri Hull configuration makes it very stable. Its low basic price point should not make it be regarded as a ‘cheap boat’ - it’s better or easily as good as any out there.
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