Now, on to something that I find curious. Why the jackplate on a 21
foot bay boat?

I have a 20 foot 200 C Ranger

http://www.swsports.org/images/Ranger.JPG

Good looking rig

that has a good running solid performing FICHT which had a jackplate
on it when I purchased it. I got rid of it after about a month -
totally useless.. If you are looking for shallow water operations,
that's that the trolling motor is for - in particular if you have the
24 volt. You probably had a jackplate on that Cajun and that's
probably useful in that application, but on a bay boat?

The bay where we bought our place is very shallow and most boats use
hydraulic jack plates to raise the engine to motor out of shallows and
get on plane without digging so much mud. Once on plane you can lower
the engine back to running depth. Supposedly this boat will get on
plane in about 18 - 20" of water - jack plate and trim tabs are
supposed to reduce that by 4-6" - we'll soon see if that's true. Never
had one on the Cajun nor needed it. Toledo Bend is a pretty deep lake
for the most part and a set depth worked fine for me. I guess you
could optimize your speed but it went plenty fast for me.

And while I'm on the subject, don't buy a Motoguide Great White series
trolling motor. Mercury does not support Motoguide in any sense of
the word, they violate warranty terms and the new digital control
boards are prone to fail - it's a horrible design. Almost as bad as
the older switched design. Buy a MinnKota Riptide series instead.

Glad to know that - I'll keep that in mind when I get ready.

Nice boat though.

Thanks - looking forward to getting it wet.

Later,

Tom