Texas Transplant
Well-Known Member
Well, I finally got my new (used) Stratos to the lake yesterday afternoon. It was clear sky, about 72 degrees with a 2-3mph breeze at best. Put the life jackets and several other items in the boat, hooked it up, wife came along and we headed out.
No problems launching her, other than had to put it a little further into the water than I expected before it started to float off. Before unhooking from the trailer, made sure the engine cranked. Starts pretty easily, with not much fuss.
Launched her and immediately tried to start getting used to the hot foot and 'blinker trim' controls - both new to me. Got the wife on board and idled out to navigation lane to put it up on plane for the first time.
Note to Tex: Next time, call Trepman FIRST to get planing instructions.
Anyway, trimmed it all the way down and started to accelerate. Bow goes immediately up, and wife gets very nervous and upset. After calming discussion, we tried again. Short story was that we played the up and down bow game for about 5 minutes before finally getting it up and moving well on plane.
Took it to a creek (running about 40mph) and fished for about 30 minutes. Gave me a good chance to check out all the fishing controls and trolling motor. That 12/24v trolling motor (though old), works like a champ. Quiet also. Front live well pump not working, but I may have popped a fuse while messing with the batteries. Rear live well works fine. Called Trepman and got instructions.
When ready to leave the creek, motored back out to a good location, told the wife to hang on, and just hammered it. Man, Trep was right. That thing just leaps up on plane and goes like a scalded dog. Wasn't clocking it, but it couldn't have taken more than 1-2 seconds to be fully up and ripping along nicely. Didn't ring it all the way out, but managed around 4800 rpm's at around 53 mph once. Still need to play with and 'tune' the trim controls for optimum performance.
Did some handling manuevers with the boat, trying to learn the in's and outs. Handles real well, and runs extremely good. Got back to the dock after about an hour, and the wife loaded it on the trailer with little or no problem. She was somewhat worried about putting it 'all the way' up on the trailer, but handled it pretty well.
Hoping to get out on Saturday for some real fishing. Here's a couple of pic's taken after the run, and a nice seafood dinner.
Tex
No problems launching her, other than had to put it a little further into the water than I expected before it started to float off. Before unhooking from the trailer, made sure the engine cranked. Starts pretty easily, with not much fuss.
Launched her and immediately tried to start getting used to the hot foot and 'blinker trim' controls - both new to me. Got the wife on board and idled out to navigation lane to put it up on plane for the first time.
Note to Tex: Next time, call Trepman FIRST to get planing instructions.
Anyway, trimmed it all the way down and started to accelerate. Bow goes immediately up, and wife gets very nervous and upset. After calming discussion, we tried again. Short story was that we played the up and down bow game for about 5 minutes before finally getting it up and moving well on plane.
Took it to a creek (running about 40mph) and fished for about 30 minutes. Gave me a good chance to check out all the fishing controls and trolling motor. That 12/24v trolling motor (though old), works like a champ. Quiet also. Front live well pump not working, but I may have popped a fuse while messing with the batteries. Rear live well works fine. Called Trepman and got instructions.
When ready to leave the creek, motored back out to a good location, told the wife to hang on, and just hammered it. Man, Trep was right. That thing just leaps up on plane and goes like a scalded dog. Wasn't clocking it, but it couldn't have taken more than 1-2 seconds to be fully up and ripping along nicely. Didn't ring it all the way out, but managed around 4800 rpm's at around 53 mph once. Still need to play with and 'tune' the trim controls for optimum performance.
Did some handling manuevers with the boat, trying to learn the in's and outs. Handles real well, and runs extremely good. Got back to the dock after about an hour, and the wife loaded it on the trailer with little or no problem. She was somewhat worried about putting it 'all the way' up on the trailer, but handled it pretty well.
Hoping to get out on Saturday for some real fishing. Here's a couple of pic's taken after the run, and a nice seafood dinner.
Tex
