Originally Posted by Hickory Legend
I think you just won this argument, mic drop!
I think you just won this argument, mic drop!
thought everybody knew that, so wouldn't that make the phoenix a splash of the 210 elite?
Guess so, since the current Phoenix management, was the then Stratos/Champion management.
sorry hick, pick that mic up, somebody had a Obama moment. jarhead would be right champion,stratos,charger,phoenix=mutt
Stratos didn't buy Champion, Genmar did in 2001 then moved production to Murfreesboro, getting out of the lease at the Mountain Home plant. Champion had its own president and management staff, a complete line of boats, not just the 3 Elites that went to Stratos once Champion was shut down. Gary Clouse and the others that were terminated worked for the Stratos brand. Scuttlebutt was that Gary contacted Irwin Jacobs to purchase Stratos. Irwin hopped a plane to Murfreesboro and fired him and two others. They ended up buying the B-Line facility and molds, then designed the Phoenix. Phoenix then is closer related to Stratos than Champion.
I think after all the transitions Gary Clouse ran Stratos/Champion, and answered to Randy Hopper. Hopper came in and told them, Stratos would become basically a small low end boat provider for Ranger dealer's. He told them Champion would be fased out at end of next model year, but they were not going to tell the Champion dealer's.
Clouse then sent a letter to Irwin Jacobs offering to purchase Stratos. Jacobs sent Hopper down to Stratos to terminate Clouse the next day. The other two resigned unexpectedly, and joined Clouse in starting Phoenix.
Irwin Jacobs placed Don wood as president of Champion and Don answered to Irwin, not Randy. After the Genmar bankruptcy in 2009, Platinum Equity ended up with most of the Genmar boat lines, both fishing and recreational, and put Hopper as president of Fishing Holdings. Champion was shut down in 2010 and the 3 Elites, 210, 202 & 187 (I believe) were rebadged as Stratos. Clouse had been gone for a few years and was never had anything to do with the Champion brand. Interesting note was that Irwin supposedly tried to buy Champion from PE with the 2-3 of the recreational brands he got back from them, but they wouldn't sell it.
Mic still needs dropped.
But i know phoenix came from Bumble Bee, but didn’t Phoenix eventually make their own hulls or are they still a copy of the original? Same thing with Legend, came from Hawk and eventually made their own hull.
Phoenix is a totally new hull not off the bee, they had a beeline, line of boats that where the old style hull.
triton ,phoenix and stratos are almost same hull design nothing like the champion or charger design.And now nitro is using the stratos hull design.
Last edited by TOUCH OF CLASS; 04-04-2018 at 01:26 PM.
Reggie...183, not 187, went to Stratos Elite lineup with the 210 and 202.
Clouse never had anything to do with Champion. Lots of strange rumors still bouncing around...
Now I'm totally confused... Dan
That's why I qualified it with "(I believe)" ... figured I had a 50/50 chance of getting it wrong and sure nuff
Me too. It doesn't make any difference to me if it came from a Velociraptor and an Armadillo, I still like my boat. It's a Charger, only thing that matters to me.Now I'm totally confused... Dan
Jim
I got nothin
Clouse fished a lot of tournament around here, word on the street was he wanted to make some changes to stratos but was not allow to, so put them on the elites, guess only he knows for sure. Lea, what year did the elites come out, 2004?
Elites may have come out sometime around 1992. Don't think there any prior to that, but again, I could be wrong. The Elites were just the option package that included all options available on the different models. The non-optioned out models have been known as Contender, Tournament and CX over the years. The Beam Forward (Alan Stinson) Elites came out in 04 with the 198. I don't think that the 206 was ever considered a beam forward hull. It's actually a pre-Genmar boat, and the basis for the 210. The 210 was in 06 and the 183 in 07. Also the 198 was replaced by the 200 in 07 which was replaced by the 202 in 09. The 183, 202 & 210 were rebadged as Stratos in 2010 although there were a few Champions by virtue of customers telling them they would buy a boat, but wanted Champion on the side. So PE obliged them to get the sale. One of Champ's bay boats (I think it was the 24 Bay Champ) was rebadged as a Ranger. At the end, they were building several salt water boats (Bay Champs, Sea Champs and Coastal), a multi species (Fish Hunter), and a sweet Fish & Ski (214SX). So they were more than just the "Elites" everyone has come to know in recent years. I know they sold a ton of salt water boats.
Really good reading in this thread.
Thanks!
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