On my second gambler, my first was a 183 gt and i loved that boat. But today I went out to see if i had fixed a problem i have been having with my merc. The wind was bad, real bad, not to mention the tornado warnings and hail storms ,while sitting on a point the waves were breaking over the bow, everything was white capping. If you stood up it would try to blow you out of the boat. Easy 3ft plus rollers (I know these are not that big) but the 97 209 took them on like it was nothing, I was really impressed with the way it handled it. Going to guntersville next week for a few days and now i have the confidence in this boat to get me back in bad weather. Been caught up there in some storms that will make you head for shelter and wait it out. I did not even have to drive it like my other boats, adjusting trim, cutting across the lake to hit them at an angle and so on. Just turned into the wind set the trim and gone.