The
San Diego Sailing Center now sells both the Macski Kingfisher and the Explorer. They will have demos available to try out after the Del Mar show.
I can't remember the exact price, but I think the Kingfisher is about $1500.
I think I'd be pushing the load limits on a Kingfisher if I were to try to load any fishing gear on it. I'd still like to have one just for playing in the surf and general paddling. From the reviews that I've read, most fishing skis aren't that much faster than the average poly yak, but they are designed to handle the surf that is common in South Africa. There are a number of ski makers in South Africa, but Macski is the only one that I know of that is shipping full container loads to the US. All others get sent LTL and I've seen reports that the damage in transit rate is over 50%.
Other makers:
Kaskazi
Tomski
Eric's Canoes
Makski
and my personal favorite
Stealth Performance Products
The Stealth site has a gallery with some awesome pictures
http://www.stealthpp.co.za/Gallery.asp#
Stealth has a couple of models that I think I'd like. The B.F.S-2006 is a conventional fishing ski that has a greater load capacity than the Macski Kingfisher. They also have a new design that is not on their products page yet. The new design is more like a conventional SOT yak than a fishing ski, however, it retains many of the typical ski features.
The ski is in the foreground and the new yak is in the back. They just tested the yak at a fishing comp in Mozambique a few months back.
The designers solicited input from members of the Australian Kayak Fishing Forum when they were working on this.
The South Africans have to deal with some pretty nasty surf conditions. The fishing skis are designed to handle this big surf and provide protection for the fishing gear and catch.
Even if you didn't fish from them, the fishing skis look like they would be fun in the surf.