Leader Pro

I was one of the first to test the latest version of the Boatman Leader Pro.

What a boat, what a luxury…

The first impression immediately indicates that quite a few things have changed and that afterwards I only applaud.
What immediately stands out are the new bumpers at the front and rear, these are an absolute added value for protecting the hull against unwanted impacts against rocks or concrete quays, who has never had it before…. never say…. never…..

The boat itself in this model is performed in the very nice "carbon look", you are for it or not, but the black version is no less beautiful, however, on the black version you will soon see an accidental damage, everyone can do this happen once.

The operation of the hand-held transmitter is perhaps not the most commonly known on the market, but the manual provides solace here when using it for the first time. The transmitter is very visually oriented, and once mastered an indispensable part of your boat, and equipped with very handy gadgets.

Does all this have to be used, of course not, the boat can also be controlled manually, but trust me, once you have used its extra gadgets you do not want to do it without more. I compare it with a car “automatic”, you don't want it but once you've used it you don't want to be without it.

The GPS contains 56 waypoints, of course way too many but hey, they are there now. When creating a waypoint you can now also give each point a name or a number, whatever you want. It may seem redundant, but I think it's a huge improvement.

On the screen of the transmitter you can clearly see the connection to the boat, the battery power of the boat and of course the battery status of the transmitter.
You will also see the number of connected satellites, the connection status with the boat as well as a direction indicator (direction you are sailing with the boat)

Furthermore, all feed hatches are indicated, both visually and with a number, if the hatches are opened, this is also immediately visible on the screen.

There is also an icon of a "hook release" on the transmitter, the "hook release" is attached to the back of the boat and actually ideal for using a back lead, so you can also attach your hook line to it, but choose yourself I don't immediately.
I just spoke of hatches, but the boat has 2 separate feed hatches in the middle of its hull that you can open together or separately as desired.

On the sides, the boat also has the option to place 2 small food bowls, so you can drop another +/- 1 kg of feed, this is not necessary, but it is possible.

Furthermore, a button is provided on the transmitter to calibrate the boat, this is ideal to guarantee the correct operation of the compass. This button is also used to manually open or close the “hook release”.
The boat is "full auto-pilot" which means that once the waypoints are set you can approach them fully automatically. As soon as you request to sail to a waypoint, the transmitter asks whether the boat should open its feed hatches upon arrival at the chosen waypoint, this is possible for all hatches, but also 2 hatches, for example, and the others manually.

The boat departs completely independently to the waypoint at your command and automatically drops all the feed if desired. And now it comes….. the boat is so advanced that afterwards it sails back to the “homepoint” even without your own input. Suppose that the transmitter ever runs out of battery power, the boat will also return to the “homepoint”.
The above can of course all be done manually, but the convenience serves people and technology and why not use it.

Furthermore, there is a holder at the top of the transmitter, with this you can click the depth gauge on the transmitter, so that everything is kept together very conveniently.

Depth sounder has a range of approximately 300m, the boat itself has a range of +/- 500m.

By the way, when starting up the transmitter, you can choose on which side the control takes place, so it depends on whether you are left or right-handed.