I am very pleased with the boat and motor. It carries four with ease and my Filipina wife was reassured a boat can travel safely without catig (outriggers).
The blessing went well and she has been named "Rock & Roll."
More pictures to follow, hopefully with some fish on the hook or in the cooler. We have marlin and tuna here so anything is possible.
The boat is about to leave on an excursion to a FAD (Fish Aggregating Device) which is simply a float in the sea. We experienced strong wind and waves almost nine miles offshore so we fished at the FAD for only a short time. True to Morten's word, the boat handles very nicely with an 8 hp. motor. On calmer water we can easily go 10 knots or 20 kph. The next day a nice 14 kilo tuna was taken there and I bought it. You can see the much appreciated sun shade I installed.
This boat handles very well in adverse conditions. We had 7 to 8 foot seas with wind and we did take on some spray which was easily bailed out. I was very impressed. Two of the three with me were quite nervous about conditions but they are used to riding in a native canoe with outriggers. I appreciated the water's warmth here in the tropics. Those of you with Google Earth can look up 6 53' 37.2"N, 125 53' 48.9"E to see the location off Samal Island in the Philippines.