I see the New Gambler Prices are now available.

[Stratovarius]

Reply to above post by Gamblerman65
The 209 was the best boat in my opinion it came out of hole without having trim tabs and ran better in rough water. much better than my Sterlings. In my opinion when they did the Nils notches thing to the rear of boat and they cut away the bottom of boat at the rear to gain 1-2 MPH in 2000 the boat would not come on plane without passenger moving to front deck and also never handled rough water as well. The model 209 which was 20' 9" was then called 2100 and was only 20' 7" Their answer was to install outside mounted trim tabs to correct the problem. they looked so ugly I just order a 2001 with inside mounted trim tabs even though 2000 was only 4 months old. My opinion is under cutting the bottom hull to where you can't hardly reach the boat drain plug and trim tabs that require replacing occasional actuators was the biggest mistake made to the greatest and sharpest boat on the water. I still prefer the Sterling as it is best coolest looking boat on the water. I constantly have other competitors at weigh in coming to look at my 2012 Sterling while ignoring newer model boats.
I was on a 3 way call last night and listened to the new owner Scotty G talk for over an hour about what is going on at this moment with new issues being addressed on the boat and I was truly impressed with what he is doing and I honestly believe Gambler will be back stronger than ever under this mans ownership of a boat that was once the greatest boat on the water and ignored for higher profit salt water boats he was also making.
I owned 2010, 2011, and 2012 Sterlings that the only changes made in those 3 years was the color and motors and I don't think he ever made any changes after that. I'm pretty excited about what the new owner will be doing to bring this boat back to its rightful position as the premier boat on the water.

I would love to see a 20' boat based on the 209 hull, maybe a touch wider, but with a more modern layout(proper storage in the back deck and livewells in the middle). My 209 handles amazing, doesn't need trim tabs, and is just a sweet, fast, awesome looking bass boat. I think the nail was hit on the head here, as I don't really have a need for balancing a hd jack plate, trim, trim tabs, water pressure, and chine walk at 70+ mph. Just give me a boat with a hull that works well with a manual plate, 250 hp, and let me drive that sucker without all the band aids of a poorly notched rear end.

[H.Murphy]

2-16-2020-Gambler 21 Prop Testing (1024px).png

[yupitsme]

2-16-2020-Gambler 21 Prop Testing (1024px).png

Sum ting Wong... Slip numbers, using 26p, come up -1.1 @ 6000 rpm max for 250 SHO.

[H.Murphy]

First of all, I appreciate when folks have enough grey matter to not just take whatever someone says on the internet as gospel. Good on you man.

The discrepancy here is that the worked Ballistic prop has an effective pitch that’s probably closer to 28” than it is 26”. That puts the theoretical slip ratios more in the 5-12% range above 80 mph. The GPS speed was logged directly from the Lowrance unit, and RPM directly from the Yamaha using a microprocessor-based data logger over the NMEA 2000 network interface. That being said, the only info we don't actually know for certain is the effective pitch of this prop.

If you are wondering how a 25" prop could magically behave more like a 27" or 28" after just some cup work, it's due to the way Michigan Wheel shapes the Ballistic props. In fact my prop guy actually called me after digitizing this prop and explained that there was an abnormally large amount of pitch in front of the cup area near the tip of the blades, and that there was less cup than normal. He warned me that adding the extra cup I was asking was going make this prop act “much” larger than it did previously.

[RAM-LC]

Somebody’s not educated on the Ally’s. The Sterling is still probably the most gorgeous bass boat out there though.

Not even remotely close. I have no idea where he got his information from, but he is completely off.

Anyhow, back to Gambler/Sterling.