What a shame!

[dac244]

Befiore moving to Tenn., Champion was made in Mountain Home, Arkansas.

The hull design did change when they moved to Tenn. in 04 or 05 if my memory serves me correctly. my dad has a 223 that i think is an 04 model, and i believe the 223 was one of the last models to move out of the Arkansas plant the next year. when they moved to Tenn, thats when they started the Elite series hull.

I got the chance to look at one of the Stratos Champion series boats or whatever it is called at the Cinci show a couple weeks ago. It was a 21' boat (a 210 or whatever they are calling it), and the only difference was the sticker on the back of it. The model stickers are still champion stickers, and the seats even still had the champion boats logo embroidered on the back of them. I too had heard the rumors that they were going to do away with this hull design to eliminate competition between the other premium brands at platinum equities, When i asked the salesman about this, his exact response was..." i would not ever look for this hull design to go away. with the loyal following that Champion has, if they did away with this hull, there would be a civil war."

LOL. Dont know if the guy knew what he was talkin about or not, but i guess time will tell.

Why do away with something that works and works well. but with that being said when it comes to business it's anybodys guess.

[dac244]

I wonder how the dealer thing is going to work out lets say you sold champions but didn't sell stratos are they going to let them sell the stratos champion elite?

[kiddrock]

I wonder how the dealer thing is going to work out lets say you sold champions but didn't sell stratos are they going to let them sell the stratos champion elite?

Dont know for sure how it will work, but the particular dealer that had this boat at the cinci show had the Champion, 2 Stratos, and 2 Tritons all sitting side by side.


Kinda off subject, but i also looked at a new Ranger there that had the Black lights and navigation lights built into the rub rail that goes around the outside of the boat (LED's). I know some guys that have done this to their boats, but this was the first one I had seen that came from the factory like this. Not sure how durable it is in that location, but a neat idea just the same.

[Issy1]

That's why I bought a BasCat. They are owned by the Pierce family and have been building boats since 1973. Their customer service has won the JD Power award for customer service for last 5 years and they build IMO the best boat bar none.

[R19]

The three modles of Champion's/Startos Champion Elite are
210 @ 20' 10"
202 @ 19' 8"
183 @ 18' 3"

All other Champion models were phased out.

[walkeraviator]

Heard from an inverifiable source, in 2008 stratos had 12% of new boat sales and champion only had 8%. You will nitice that tw guys who were driving champions in the elite series are still in the same boats but wearin stratos name. I think this will be the case at dealers as well. Champion seller will probably be given the option to sell as stratos.

I don't see either the elite or evolution series boats being dropped as there is room for bit designs on the market. The sad thing is the elite is more vulnerable to being cut because it is closed to competing with Ranger than the evolution hulls.

[CTFSHWHISKER]

i hear since p e bought jeff boat thay are going to make barges in flippin ark too.
will have the ranger stickers applied to them.

[walkeraviator]

i hear since p e bought jeff boat thay are going to make barges in flippin ark too.
will have the ranger stickers applied to them.

LMAO...

[dac244]

i hear since p e bought jeff boat thay are going to make barges in flippin ark too.
will have the ranger stickers applied to them.

That brings back memories I worked there from 78-82.