78 | AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019 | TCFF
T
he courier waved goodbye as he
dashed down the driveway (it was
Friday of course), leaving behind
a neatly wrapped box from Xplorer Fly
Fishing. We knew it contained the new
Journey Deluxe II V Boat, the big brother
of the first Journey. With the success of
the first V Boat by Xplorer, its newer
counterpart would have a lot to live up to.
A fresh start to a cool morning next to
an enticing-looking trout dam in Mpu-
malanga had us eagerly unpacking the
latest and greatest that would see us
streaking ahead while the others followed
in our wake. Pumping up the boat was a
breeze as it comes standard with a sum-
mit valve adaptor, which makes the days
of holding while pumping a thing of the
past. (You will need to buy a hand pump,
as it does not come with the boat.)
Within ten minutes, we had both pon-
toons pumped up and admired the boat
in all its glory. The great thing about
having two pontoons is the safety aspect
and the reduced chance of both pontoons
going at once, leaving you stuck in the
middle of a dam with a deflated float
tube.We slid the high-density foam seats
and backrest in place and clipped the
backrest into the coinciding clips. We
stuffed the pockets with all the fly fishing
paraphernalia we could and to our
amazement we didn’t seem to fill the
pockets they were so spacious. They’ve
been made larger to hold the big compet-itive fly angler’s boxes and everything else
one needs when out in the middle of a
dam. These pockets are easily opened
with double side-by-side zips, which
make ease of access simple. Feeling that
we had what we needed, it was time toJourney Deluxe II V Boat
This issue:TCFF tests Xplorer’s new V Boat and finds that it has all the bells and whistles.PRODUCT REVIEW TCFF staff report
“IT WAS QUICKLY DECIDED THAT ONE
COULD STAY ON THE BOAT ALL DAY WITH
EASE AS IT OFFERED SUCH A
PLEASURABLE EXPERIENCE ALL ROUND.”