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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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| | | Mark-G | | Posts: 2551 |  | | [ MODERATOR ] | |
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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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| | | Mark-G | | Posts: 2551 | | | [ MODERATOR ] | |
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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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| | | Karlos | | Posts: 13093 |  | | [ MODERATOR ] | |
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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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