As some of you know my last boat was a 196 Champion. Prior to this I owned 2 Rangers and a 181 Champ. I grew up fishing in Champions as that is what my dad owned and he was kinda like Pat in that he would rather step in a pile of dog poo then step into a Ranger. Not sure how I ended up in Rangers. Guess I bought into all the hoopla or whatever.
Anyway, I ended up selling the 196 to a fella up north. He fishes alot on the Miss river. It so happens that he was fishing with a guy in a tx that had a Stratos one day and they were running up a feeder creek off the Miss. It was a winding little feeder creek so they were going around 45 I think he said. Well, on one of the turns the Stratos let go and they ended up on top of a log at the bank of the creek. He was thrown from the boat and said he felt the prop just barely nick his leg. He was a little sore to say the least. Was still limping around when he came to look at my boat. He got out of this very lucky with the prop still spinning. The driver wasn't thrown so the kill switch was never pulled until he got his senses back.
He tells me this story when he calls about my boat. So I tell him that he need not worry about that happening in this Champion. He ends up down here to look at my boat and we go to the lake and I give him a little demo ride in it doing my best to simulate running a creek channel at around 60 mph. Needless to say this sells him on the boat. He leaves a happy camper with his new to him Champ in tow.
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