Thread: 20 Foot Champion?

Kaz have you some great advice. He has been in the boat business for a long time and really knows most brands of boats inside and out. Lots of knowledge and he has been a huge help to me and many others on here when making decisions on buying boats. By tippy I believe he means when walking from one side of the boat to the other it will really lean. I had always ran Champions before my current boat. They are great great boats but like he said they have a narrow front deck width. Ill keep and eye out for one as I am also looking for another friend. Bass boat central has a great classified section just for boats. They are broke out into different brands. Great place to look when buying and also a place to look for similar boats to get a value of what they are bringing. Just don't get in a hurry and the right one will come along.

Gofish, i dont wish to overstate the "tippy" part, for its day it was ok, fiberglass boats in that era had beams more narrow than models that came along later. And it was certainly more stable than a lot of smaller or inferior designed boats. Again, what it did possess is probably the best ride of any in that day. Jigging15 and many others liked their Champions a lot, his model that he had was after they started widening them out with a 90 inch plus beam. They "did" have wood in them in the 80s, like every other fiberglass boat did in the 80s. The engine would be my first priority to get comfortable with on the boat you describe, Good Luck, there is good boat advice on this site from many long time users.

Originally Posted by kazualobzerver

Gofish, i dont wish to overstate the "tippy" part, for its day it was ok, fiberglass boats in that era had beams more narrow than models that came along later. And it was certainly more stable than a lot of smaller or inferior designed boats. Again, what it did possess is probably the best ride of any in that day. Jigging15 and many others liked their Champions a lot, his model that he had was after they started widening them out with a 90 inch plus beam. They "did" have wood in them in the 80s, like every other fiberglass boat did in the 80s. The engine would be my first priority to get comfortable with on the boat you describe, Good Luck, there is good boat advice on this site from many long time users.

It sounds to me like you know more about those boats then I do and I really do appreciate the input. I had a 05 Ranger 520 comanche and it really hooked me on fiberglass boats, but I had a lot of money wraped up in it and at the time I was still working. It was tuff to see it sit so much with that kind of investment. Then this boat came along and I saw and opportunity to get into a well taken care of 20 foot fiberglass without a lot of investment. I was concerned about the front deck being so narrow, because I fish with my son and we mount two seats up front. We're both about 6 foot 3 and over 200 pounds so we need plently of room. We bought a 2011 lund 1725 pro guide, because we got a good buy in it, but it is run by a 75 h.p. merc tiller handle and I'm not really crazy about that. We fish down in Mississippi for 30 days each spring and we have a lowe 180w that we took last year and I did'nt care for the way it handled in the wind and that the deck was so high. Long story short I thought the champion would handle the wind better. Thanks kazualobzever. Rodney.