In various forums, Facebook groups etc that I follow, panel-floor sibs tend to be considered too faffy, heavy and generally hard work to set up every time. Most recommendations tend to be towards models with high pressure V-floors.
Having models of both Sibs (wood floor YAM 380S and V-floor Honwave T-32 IE) I like them both but tend to prefer the solid floor as it feels more like a "real boat", especially when it comes to fishing.
The time it takes to set up is comparable between the two sibs. The V-floor takes approximately 10 minutes while the wood floor 15 minutes. Deflating is the opposite as the YAM just needs a roll up while the T-32IE requires extra deflation with it's foot-pump in order to fit in it's bag.
Below I have a video of how I inflate my YAM 380S in less than 15 minutes.
As you can see it's fairly easy and having two pumps, really speeds things up. The recent addition of the trolling motor adds a bit of time but its worth it!
The title referes to my recent acquisition of a Haswing Cayman GPS bowmount trolling motor. Its the cheapest model offering a GPS-anchor feature and even though I spent only a couple hours playing around with it, I'm very pleased with its performance. Most of the fishing I do requires lots of moving about and usually over rough ground. Drift - fishing on a SIB is a pain and the constant anchoring and retrieving of the anchor, accompanied with the losses from snags, really deducts from the fishing time. Needless to say, I've had my eye on one of these motors for a while. They are used extensively in fresh and saltwater overseas and slowly becoming more common in freshwater here in the UK. For some reason they haven't caught on in the salt here.
My main issues with getting the motor were obviously the cost but also finding a way to mount it on the bow. I've put down a deposit for a new boat, but not gonna see it in the "flesh" till Summertime as the F-Rib production has been affected by covid etc this year. Anyway, I got the motor, and I decided to make a marine ply frame to mount it flat on the bow and held there by straps that connect to the sib's bow D-rings.
The end result may not look the prettiest (further designing might be necessary), but it works and feels secure enough.
I took the boat out the other day with a biggish tide and 20+mph winds and the thing actually worked! Can't wait to get out for some proper fishing with it now...
Fishingwise, either because of the weather or work commitments, I really haven't done much at all. Had a nice session over at the West side of the island but nothing spectacular. Its been disappointing this Autumn, that I haven't done nearly as much fishing as last year and the times I was out, conditions were not good for topwater fishing. It is what it is though and I'll hopefully get some good fishing next week. Here's some pics and videos of late.
This has been a testing year to say the least, but I do hope it will end on a more positive note.
