Didn’t they almost tip over Guam!!!
That was just a nasty rumor... Dan
I gotta be honest. I don’t understand this 203 tippy narrow beam thing guys are worried about.
i have a wide beam Triton now, and my narrow beam 203 was significantly more stable... driving and sitting still. Doesn’t matter.. and my best friend still has his 206 and the 203 was only a slightly more prone to leaning.
i will say that I think this “tip over thing” people are talking about might hafto do with in proper operator actions during conditions on the trolling motor. example, steering into the wind/ waves instead of fighting them sideways with a constant swinging boat etc.
I am sure the tippy part is also from fuel slosh since the tank is pretty much full width of the hull. Lower the center of gravity by dropping it down and put it under the floor and turn it to run the centerline of the boat instead of side to side. Problem solved. Deck isn't much narrower than bass cat pantera. My brother had a champ 168 and then later a 190. Even the 168 was a smoother drier ride than alot of 18-19' moats of that time, and I would have put the 190 against any other manufacture of bass boats for ride comfort and being dry at the end of the day. Not the fastest hulls out till you put some chop on the water then everyone else was running behind the champ prop wash. I fish big lakes like Sam Rayburn and Toldeo bend where you have to run boat lanes and cant always turn the boat to approach the waves in ideal ways. If you look at a phoenix hull it is some kind of modified wedge with alot of bow lift so it rides good in rough stuff and with the bow lift is fast when conditions are right.
I wish the 203 would be more of a stripped down version to keep price down and allow the buyer to only add what they want.
The tippy feel is from the v hull all the way to the stern and no rear sponsons.Its not that it’s a skinny boat just the nature of the beast.Ranger ,Charger,basscat and a few others are flatter at the rear half of the hull which gives you a lot more bottom in the water from side to side .The 210 is a different hull in the rear than that of the champions of the past.My Buddy just bought a Cajun and that thing has the very deep V of the champions not the most stable boat but does seem to ride good.
Charger took their hull design from a Skeeter/Champion from years back and married it to the likes of a Ranger butt that way you got the wave cutting hull with a hull that would trap some air and run good with great stability at rest.
Well, the whole rear deck layout and all has to be addressed in order to accommodate modern rigging i.e. 4 batteries, duel power pole pumps, perko switches, and a 4 bank or two two bank charger. I had to do a lot of finagling to get all that in my 187 which has the same rear as the 203. I am forced to use sealed batteries as i would not be able to refill standard batteries with water.
I am interested to see what they come up with. I would hate to see the underseat storage and cooler go away. I have yet to see a boat with a better built in cooler than a champion.
'98 187 Elite, 175 EFI (Serial 0G750796)
I would totally miss my under seat storage
Not excited about losing my underseat storage at all!
2000 Ranger 520DVX 225hpdi
No ^^^ if I was upgrading it would be 797 or 521 or Phoenix 21 or ballistic 223 etc.Something wide and long.Thats just me and some may like the skinnier hulls.
Why would you go narrow for speed and rough water ride when you can get as much speed and better ride out of a wide hull? I agree with TOC upgrade is going to be long and wide 797 or Ballistic 223 or their 204 that is coming out soon.
So....nothing else to talk about like a ghost town here most the time.
True ...
until 2 more weeks when the 203 is done it’s pretty boring around winter .
2 more weeks
Any updates or specs