My cousin bought one however he actually inserted the Keel part so it glides nicely on the water. Seems like Saturn made the seams stronger as well. Probably welded instead of glued unlike the last few yrs.
@@ErickMartinSucre Oh niiice. He also said besides the seams being better, the actual pvc material is probably thicker because he hit quite a few debris in the water and it`s still stands unlike the last time. Not sure.
I've owned the FCB290 for a couple of years now. It's a great little fishing raft, quite rugged. I can comfortably fit myself + my 2 sons (12 & 14) in the front when we pack lightly for a quick fishing trip out on a local creek or lake...I've even had it out on the Upper Niagara river. I use a Newport NV-series Transom-mounted electric trolling motor for propulsion...55 lbs of thrust which is sufficient for cruising rivers/lakes and getting into those hard-to-reach areas that larger boats can't get into for fishing. Expect 5-7mph on a 55 lb thrust trolling motor...on a deep cycle size 24DC battery, you'll get 6-8 hours on the battery before it needs a recharge. If I'm on my own, I'll throw the 12V deep cycle marine battery in the front and use only one of the two aluminum bench seats. If I take a passenger, I'll put the battery in the rear near the transom. It's easier to install the bench seats before the chambers are fully inflated btw. Electric motors are just easier to deal with but I wouldn't recommend it for cruising in big water where you want the raft on plane to travel longer distances. The air floor is nice...when it's fully inflated it's nice and solid, almost as solid as a wooden or fiberglass floor. The transom is definitely rugged enough for a higher HP gas outboard motor. I have a 20 ft Bayliner boat I use throughout the warm weather seasons, but this FCB290 raft is great for quick trips during the timeframe when my boat is winterized. It fits nicely in my pickup truck bed fully inflated for easy transport.
@@ErickMartinSucre As long as you're not wide-open-throttle the whole time, intermittently using the motor to cruise around smaller waterways, it'll last the whole day. Keep in mind I'm using it for fishing, not traveling so the motor spends a lot of time completely off. Never had it die on me even when I thought I was pushing the envelope. One of these days I'm going to forget to charge the battery and end up rowing my way back to the launch.
@ChrisG9978 Nice! When I first started, I had an SK396 kaboat, with a Minn Kotta 30lb thrust motor, with a small battery. I usually laster about am hour or so on the water.
@@ErickMartinSucre Makes sense...if you're going to use a trolling motor as your main source of propulsion, you want to use at least a 75Ah+ marine deep cycle battery. The one I use is a size 24 marine deep cycle, 101Ah (meaning it can run a 55 lbs thrust trolling motor at continuous wide open throttle for about 2 hrs). The drawback is the battery weighs almost as much as the entire raft, 55-60 lbs...though that's not much heavier than a 5 gallon gas tank.
@ChrisG9978 Whoa! That is one heavy battery. I've been ok with my 2 outboards so far. I use my 6hp Tohatsu when going to small rivers and such, and my 12hp Hangkai for everything else.
It's not a bad choice. It light but tough, it also has a rubber guard running on the bottom where you can place a pool noodle under the airdeck floor and make a makeshift keel. Catches plane nicely too.
Thanks man I love the channel! Really interested in one of these just nervous because I live in LA and I might be stupid enough to try to take it to Catalina…
