Leader Pro Carbon 2024

The first impression immediately indicates that quite a few things have changed and in retrospect we can only applaud that.

What is immediately noticeable 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… say never… never…

The boat itself in this model is black. (no photo of black version for now)

In the 2024 version, the boat has received a few nice upgrades.

One of them is the new handle, what a fantastic upgrade, if we say so ourselves.

The handle is now double extendable, which allows easy transport, even with the new extension for the feeding hatch.

The boat feels completely different from its predecessor and certainly in a positive way.

Furthermore, the extension described above is also a serious added value, expanding your feeding capacity to no less than 7.2 kg of boilies (depending on the boilies themselves). And with particles this will become even more.

The extension and the new handle can also be used on previous models of the Leader.

What is also new is the option to switch off your sonar. On waters where bait boats are common, tapping the sonar may cause a startle reaction in the carp on the site. And hence the extra on/off button next to the on/off button for the entire boat.

A small cone antenna replaces the larger sonar antenna and the boat’s antenna has now become a snap-away antenna.

And finally, the connection points of the antennas are now better protected with caps, equipped with handy tabs so that you can no longer lose them.

We think it is a worthy upgrade and this upgrade makes the boat a lot more attractive without having to change the price.

Regarding operation:

A small adjustment was also made to the transmitter, the frame around the waypoint has finally been made clearer so that it can also be seen better in daylight.

The operation of the handheld transmitter may not be the most common on the market, but the manual will provide some relief during first use. The transmitter is very visual and, once mastered, becomes an indispensable part of your boat and equipped with very useful features.

Does all this have to be used, of course not, the boat can also be controlled manually, but believe me, once you have used its extra gadgets, you don’t want to be without it. I compare it to an “automatic” car, you don’t want it, but once you’ve used it you don’t want to be without it anymore.

The GPS contains 56 waypoints, obviously 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 seems redundant, perhaps, but I think it is 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 in which you are sailing with the boat).

Furthermore, the 2 feeding hatches are indicated, both visually and with a number. When 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 is actually ideal for using a back lead, so it can of course also be used to attach your hook line, but you can choose your own. we don’t immediately agree to that.

We speak of hatches, but the boat has 2 separately operated feeding hatches in the middle of its hull that you can open together or separately as desired.

Furthermore, there is a button on the transmitter to calibrate the boat, this is ideal to ensure the correct functioning of the compass. Use this calibration every time you start a new session. 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 have been determined you can have them approached fully automatically. As soon as you request to sail to a waypoint, the transmitter asks whether the boat should open its feeding hatches upon arrival at the chosen waypoint.

At your command, the boat departs completely independently to the waypoint and automatically drops all the food if desired. And now it comes… the boat is so advanced that it even sails back to the “home point” without your own input. Suppose the transmitter ever runs out of battery power, the boat will also return to the “home point”.

The above can of course all be done manually, but the convenience serves people and technology and why wouldn’t you use it.

There is also a holder at the top of the transmitter, on which you can click the depth gauge, which keeps everything together very conveniently.

The depth sounder has a range of approximately 300m (measured 379m !!!!), the boat itself has a range of +/- 500m.

When starting up the transmitter, you can choose which side the controls are on, so it depends on whether you are left or right handed.