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PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2018 9:33 am 
Hi guys, I am new to the FW club and looking to buy a 2007 200 SS. We love the boat, but we have not seen it in person (It is 300 miles away). I wanted to hear from current 200 owners how many people do you usually have in the boat?
We are concerned that it may be a bit small for us.
We have 2 kids, so it is 4 of us the boat 90% of the time. Occasionally we will get 2 more adults and up to 3 kids. We do mostly watersports (tubing, wakeboarding, etc. ) Boat will be stored at the cottage.
What do you think? Too small?


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PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2018 4:27 pm 
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Goldfish

Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2011 6:37 pm
Posts: 31
Location: SF Bay Area, CA
It will depend upon the interior configuration, and how much stuff needs to be carried.

Interior Configuration:
The back-to-back lounger configuration with twin jumpseats (on either side of the engine) will have more floor and seating space, at the expense of storage space with the Sunsport seating with 2 buckets and a rear bench.

Stuff:
If you need to carry all the watersports gear, food, towels, clothing for 9 (4 adults, 5 kids) for the day, then the 200 will most certainly feel too small. If you're planning to use the cottage as your home base, and return for food, or to drop-off/pick up gear, and you're just carrying what the cooler can hold, towels under the bow seats, and the tube or wakeboard will be behind the boat with one or more of your passengers most of the time, it's probably fine.

I have had a 180 since 2003, when my 3 kids were 5, 8, and 11. We nearly always had 2-3 friends along for the day (fewer as the kids got older and bigger!) Most of our boating is on a river delta, so we don't have a base camp on land to drop-off and pick-up; so we were all in it for the entire day on the water with everything we needed. The 200 has more space devoted to the aft swim platform than the 180, but the interior space is similar (maybe an extra 8", plus about 3-4" wider at the beam). With our dual lounger and jumpseat configuration, 5 people was comfortable, 6 was OK, 7 was the maximum, when skiing, boarding and tubing. We made efficient use of all the available storage space, and tried to bring only the essentials. We were always able to have a great time on the water, but if I had the space, I would have gone bigger (210.)

Best of luck.


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PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2018 10:47 am 
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Goldfish

Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2015 6:12 am
Posts: 31
Location: Bellaire, Mi
5 in cockpit, 2 adults in bow, or 3 kids in bow. Max. 8 total


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PostPosted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 9:59 pm 
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Joined: Thu May 27, 2010 9:10 am
Posts: 1488
The SS should have Captain seats with bench in rear....mine is the 210 SS but seat configuration is same. Buy the boat for your most common use and it will be plenty room for 2 to 3 adults and 3 kiddos.

It will get cramped but fine with 4 adults and 3 kiddos. The havoc starts when everyone trying to stand when stopped and trying to get boards tubes and skis rigged, but that's with any boat.

If I'm not mistaken the foot differencell is mainly in between aft bench and captain seats. I boated with 3 to 4 adults and 2 to 3 kids for years in 19.5 Bayliner SS with no issues.

I will say getting a cushion top ice chest with rubber no slide strips glued on bottom solved the snack and drink chaos. I put this in open area of bow...move hinges to short side so lid opens for easy access.
The underseat ice chest in aft is useless as tits on a boar.

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PostPosted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 10:29 pm 
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Your use of this boat sounds to be the same as mine...everyone organizes them differently but imagine what all you will be using and you will find that boat will have sufficient storage...to give you an idea, I do the following:

Drinks and snacks in that bow ice chest I mentioned....spare ice, drinks in the pain in ass icechest under aft bench center seat...all wallets, car keys etc in the passenger console useless icechest to stay dry....tow ropes under side of aft bench seat and few emergency nerd orange life jackets on other side....more orange nerd life jackets under Sunpad storage...I carry 7 or 8 more nice life jackets under bow seats so there's jackets close to everyone....tube, skis and wakeboard in floor storage if no tower racks...bumpers in side panel cubbies along with tie off ropes for docking...towels, air pump, ski mirror storage in the storage behind bow backrests until kids get them wet then their everywhere...garbage bag under aft seat with tow ropes.

All works well for me except for pulling out stuff from floor storage cuz no matter what's on top, the kids want to ride what's on bottom.....i highly recommend a tower, regardless of board towing advantages it gives place to haul boards which are always in the way.

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08' H210SS
VP 5.7Gi


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PostPosted: Sat Feb 17, 2018 8:44 am 
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Joined: Thu Jun 29, 2006 10:26 pm
Posts: 5661
Location: Long Island NY
I have an '88 H-200 with the rear bench seating. It is longer than the newer ones being 20'9" including the swim platform. I would not put more than 5 people in this boat. In rough conditions you do not want people in the bow, due to the fact that with a bow rider you need to keep the bow high up to keep the boat from getting swamped. If you load it to the point where you have to use the bow seating, it can get dangerous in rough conditions. Not a fan of a bow rider loaded to the max in rough water conditions. They should have built them with higher decks and big self draining scuppers like fishing boats.

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
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2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 17, 2018 10:20 pm 
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As Lou said...bowriders are not designed for big waves and are rated for "inshore" use. Meaning lakes, coastal waters and bays...the max wave designation with inshore is 6.5 feet.

This is way under Offshore or Ocean ratings...but if your like most of us bowrider crew you have no desire to be on water with waves anywhere near 6 feet.

I will say the four winns has a much greater r freeboard height than my prior low profile bayliner. You do need to be mindful about not nosing down into waves. Usually happens when cutting power as you head into wave...this is a big issue with some low profile bowriders like some of the wake boats.

In short, if water kicks up pull the kiddos out of bow for safety....i will say I'm a calm boater and if waves are too big to wakeboard, knee board or ski then I'm not going out. It's a matter of knowing your boat and limitations.

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08' H210SS
VP 5.7Gi


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