Prowler Elite 4.5

[Alun]

I'm about to invest in a kayak mainly for SWFF, and seeing as it's the newest of the prowler line up have my eye on the 4.5 elite, I'm fairly tall 6'4" so want to be sure I can fit in it before shelling out £530. Does anyone own one yet in the north/mid wales area, none of the dealers have them nor will they get them in on approval understandably.

 

I'll not be going miles from shore initially so should I invest in a smaller kayak or go for the longer boat first off?

 

Alun

[Starvinmarvin]

Simon Everett has one, picked it up last Friday, he's in Ireland this week.

 

For your height the Elite 4.5 will be fine, as for investing in a smaller yak, you might get the bug and decide on getting something to play in the waves with, but for now I would stick with your first choice, I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

 

SM

[SpeciMan]

The Prowler Elite may be the new P13 in terms of popularity.. my local shop mentioned that they will be concentrate on selling the Elite once more of them hit the shore . Scupper Pro availability not looking too good (waiting time of at least a month) so an Elite may be coming our way too. Will wait to read Simon's thoughts on his.

[Starvinmarvin]

Totally agree SpeciMan, even more so once the Angling Ready versions hit our shores later this year.

 

SM

[OKreally]

The Prowler Elite may be the new P13 in terms of popularity.. my local shop mentioned that they will be concentrate on selling the Elite once more of them hit the shore . Scupper Pro availability not looking too good (waiting time of at least a month) so an Elite may be coming our way too. Will wait to read Simon's thoughts on his.

 

Scupper Pros are due next week, Elites are ex-stock with more arriving on the same container from NZ.

 

Apologies for private mail...I don't like to sound like I'm advertising on the main site.

 

Mr Everett has promised shark teeth imprints in his new Elite to prove he's lost virginity!!

 

Cheers

 

Andrew

(Johnson Outdoors)

[Alun]

Totally agree SpeciMan, even more so once the Angling Ready versions hit our shores later this year.

 

SM

 

Do you mean the ones ready wired with fish finder etc. The one I'm thinking of is the angler edition

[Captain Fishy Finger]

Recieved my Prowler 4.5 Elite complete with fish finder (humminbird 363) on Monday. The service from my supplier (West Midlands Canoe Centre) has been fantastic. Upon unpacking everything it would appear that the bits to fit and make work the fish finder were not present (bracket to fix fish finder to kayak, power lead with inline fuse, battery holder and battery). I e-mailed WMCC on Tuesday and telephoned them, they forwared my email to Andrew at Johnsons. This morning I phoned WMCC and was told that my email had been forwarded to Andrew at Johnson and it would appear that the bits to make the fish finder ready version of the Prowler Elite 4.5 are all optional extras & that Andrew would be in touch with me ( i still have not had any contact from him). So it would appear that if you want to spend nearly a grand on a fish finder ready version of the prowler 4.5 Elite and a Humminbird fish finder be prepared to pay extra for the optional extras that make it work. (by the way you get all these bits in New Zealand. mind you isn't that where these boats come from? (strange that)).

[hatter3]

Do you mean the ones ready wired with fish finder etc. The one I'm thinking of is the angler edition

hi all the 4.5 elite is in now and you can try befor you buy victoria pier angling they have them in stock

and they look dam good just give them a ring for more details

[OKreally]

Recieved my Prowler 4.5 Elite complete with fish finder (humminbird 363) on Monday. The service from my supplier (West Midlands Canoe Centre) has been fantastic. Upon unpacking everything it would appear that the bits to fit and make work the fish finder were not present (bracket to fix fish finder to kayak, power lead with inline fuse, battery holder and battery). I e-mailed WMCC on Tuesday and telephoned them, they forwared my email to Andrew at Johnsons. This morning I phoned WMCC and was told that my email had been forwarded to Andrew at Johnson and it would appear that the bits to make the fish finder ready version of the Prowler Elite 4.5 are all optional extras & that Andrew would be in touch with me ( i still have not had any contact from him). So it would appear that if you want to spend nearly a grand on a fish finder ready version of the prowler 4.5 Elite and a Humminbird fish finder be prepared to pay extra for the optional extras that make it work. (by the way you get all these bits in New Zealand. mind you isn't that where these boats come from? (strange that)).

 

Hi - If you are the email address with mention of a gardener in it then please check your hotmail account. I replied this afternoon on receipt of Roger's email & have copied him on it. Please do feel free to contact me by phone if anything is not clear. Hopefully on reading it it will become self-explanatory. The parts you have only require a battery to make them come to life for instant use.

 

For general information - There are two versions of the Elite, only one that we have at the moment & that is because when the boats were ordered some nearly three months ago there was only the one - the fishing ready version was just a concept. The boats take 8-12 weeks on the water so it's not possible to order for the next day. The parts are being flown up by air & will be here in the near future, hopefully next week.

 

It is true that while the Elite is exactly the same price as the Prowler 15 despite the extra features, the fitted version will, not unnaturally, be more expensive...sort of a Ghia as opposed to a GLX perhaps?

 

I am sorry if anything has been confusing - check out the www.johnsonoutdoors.co.nz - It does make it quite clear that the two versions have different prices.

 

Regards

 

Andrew

[snakey1]

Have to agree with captain fishyfinger as we both purchased the prowler elite 4.5 with the intent to use them mainly for fishing and were told that the price for the fish finder ready version was approx £70.00 more than the standard version and after reviewing Johnson Outdoors New Zealand site (they don't appear to have a uk based one) we opted for what we assumed would be the anglers version.however the only apparent difference i can personelly make out is that you get the transducer boot with it which i could have made up myself for a damn site less than £70.00. not only that but the hole which is moulded into the kayak to allow for the cables to be threaded from the fishfinder into the hull to the battery was sealed with a plug which appears to be glued in place (not so fishfinder ready after all).

Pictures published on the Johnson Outdoors site also appear to show the premoulded screw fittings for the supplied forward mounted scotty rod holder(also a standard in feature in new zealand though not apparently the UK) however there are no premoulded screw fittings on the forward part of the 4.5 elites cockpit meaning that if you want to fix the scotty rod mount(supplied as standard in New Zealand but not in the UK) in what one would assume to be the premoulded fixing area either you have to drill holes in the yak which i thought these premoulded fittings were there to avoid or you can't and as they aren't supplied anyway i suppose it doesn't really matter.

Maybe we were mistaken in thinking that a fish finder ready version would truly be that and that we in the UK would be getting the choice of the same 2 versions (basic & angler) as those good folks in New Zealand with add on custom variations available at an extra cost but apparently not.

We were both intending to head over to tywyn (our usual haunt for several years now)this weekend to christen our new yaks however due to the work that we have to carry out to make the elites fishfinder fitted i think this weekends merryment will have to be postponed.

On a happier note many thanks to Roger and the guys at The West Midlands Canoe Centre they couldn't have been friendlier or more helpful and i would recommend them to anyone

As for johnson outdoors i await to here via the captain or this forum on their view of our observations but personnally i am of the opinion that after spending a reasonable amount of money with them only to then be told that what is supplied as standard in NZ are optional extras in the UK and therefore cost extra that someone somewhere is taking the p*ss.

For those interested the standard prowler elite UK version is £529 the fishfinder unready version £599,the uk fishfinder/angler version comes with transducer boot as standard, the NZ version comes with the transducer boot, scotty rod mount, hummingbird fishfinder mounting plate, 12V 7 amp hour battery and cradle, and battery cables with in line fuses all as standard.