Released on the fishing industry in July of 2023 at ICAST, the Force® Kraken is staged to expand Garmin’s award-winning trolling motor series to a wider range of boats and environments.
Industry representatives got a first-hand look at a special ICAST On The Water Event as part of the Super Tuesday festivities, and the response was universally positive. The Kraken was on the minds – and lips – of the 13,000-plus attendees throughout all four days of the show and beyond.
The original Garmin Force debuted in 2009 to much fanfare, subsequently taking home the repeat honor of the highly coveted Best of Show award in the annual New Product Showcase at ICAST. A lot has changed in the fishing industry since then as new players have entered the trolling motor market, advancements in technology have seemingly come at a lightning pace, and much of what was new in recent years is now considered industry standard. Never content with just reaching the industry standard, Garmin is set to take trolling motors to previously unheard of places as the time has finally come for the Kraken to take over the world as it begins shipping to key dealers.
The Garmin Force Kraken is the most powerful trolling motor the recreational fishing market has ever seen. Coupled with Garmin’s most precise anchor lock technology, Kraken is designed with longer shaft lengths and a pivot-style mount for easy installation on boats where bow space is limited, like skiffs, bay boats, center consoles and multispecies fishing boats.
Silent and powerful, Kraken’s brushless motor uses a high-efficiency propeller to produce 100 pounds of thrust on a 36-volt system, or 80 pounds on a 24-volt system, plenty of power to work from reef to reef and battle strong winds and currents in even the fishiest of rough open-water conditions.
Kraken delivers Garmin’s most precise positioning technology to help keep the boat on top of the structure so anglers can stay on the bite longer by utilizing multi-band GPS signal reception and integrated AHRS (attitude and heading reference system) for heading hold. In calm conditions, the Kraken can decelerate the motor when it’s within approximately one meter of the user-selected location. And in rough conditions, Kraken can apply more aggressive motor speed for improved performance on larger boats.
With wireless integration to a Garmin chartplotter, anglers can create routes, patterns, and tracks for the trolling motor to follow while they fish. Control of the Kraken doesn’t stop there as the wireless remote can be used from anywhere in the virtual anchor lock, autopilot functionality, heading hold and point-and-go gesture steering—plus it floats. What’s more, a compatible Garmin smartwatch, like the award-winning quatix® 7 series, can also be connected to Kraken to control steering, anchor lock and more, right from the wrist.
Select Kraken models include a built-in GT56UHD all-in-one transducer with Ultra High-Definition ClearVü and SideVü scanning sonar along with CHIRP traditional sonar for brilliant image clarity of structure and fish below and to the sides of the boat.
For the first time in the industry, anglers can install forward-facing sonar, like LiveScope™, on a pivot-style trolling motor by conveniently routing the transducer cable inside the trolling motor shaft thanks to Kraken’s new LiveScope cable management system. With the Kraken LiveScope Mounting Bracket (additional purchase required), any LiveScope transducer can be installed and operated in all three modes—forward, down and perspective. This can keep the LiveScope cable safe from damage during stow or deploy and can keep the trolling motor and deck space clean and free of clutter.
Led by decades of marine industry expertise and innovation, Kraken is engineered for harsh marine environments and built to withstand the rigors of extreme fishing conditions. It’s backed by a 3-year limited warranty and a lifetime limited warranty on the shaft, along with support through an ever-increasing servicing dealer network.
Kraken will be offered in white in 63-, 75- and 90-inch shaft lengths, or black in 63- and 75-inch lengths. Both black Kraken models are sold with a GT56UHD transducer. Suggested retail prices range from $3699.99 to $4299.99. For more information, visit garmin.com/force.
