www.iFourWinns.com

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One of 4 Previous (Sold) Boats:
2000 Four Winns 268 Vista

Current Boat: 2004 Chaparral 235 ssi cuddy

I went to the Montreal boat show 2 weekends ago and came back with a new 2011 H200 4.3l with all the options. Got a really good deal. Now I caint wait for spring to come . Hoping that Willy the ground hog was right on his early spring forecast.

Congrats on the new boat ! I was all over a 2011 H200 at our GR boat show this weekend, but I could not get my legs under the steering wheel, unless the wheel was all the way up, and the seat was all the way back. Helm/Dash was just mounted too low for me, and there is not as much freeboard in the H200 as I expected. Just curious if it was a "good fit" for you?

Also, with the seat all the way back, there was only 16 inches between the back of the seat and the front of the aft bench. Not much space compared to a few others I looked at. I had tape measure in hand at the show.

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One of 4 Previous (Sold) Boats:
2000 Four Winns 268 Vista

Current Boat: 2004 Chaparral 235 ssi cuddy

See Capt'n, it's like I told you before, there is a lot of wasted space in these boats and you wind up going up in size to make up for it. My ancient '88 200 (which actually measures 20'9") has about 19-20 in between the front buckets and the rear bench with the front buckets all the way back. Compared to the current 200, it is 13" longer, there is more room in the bow and more room between the front buckets and rear bench. The seats are also higher off the deck, in the newer one I felt like I was sitting in a hole. It has as much if not more room that the current 210H, with much better engine access. The wrap around seats look good but make the interior more cramped. Where does everyone put their legs?

We have the big sun pad and no one ever uses it. I noticed that on the older models, the sun pad was just big enough to cover the engine compartment and the rear integrated swim platform was smaller than current models. When I re-did the whole interior, I thought of building a dog house with the 2 jump seats but I didn't want to give up all the storage that the sun sport seating gives. That would have made the inside HUGE though, with about 3 1/2 feet between the front buckets and rear jump seats.

Space efficiency is expected in modern vehicles, boat manufacturers should start thinking about it too, with the cost of fuel going up again. They USED to have more space efficient designs, but gave that up in the name of style.....

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

You are right Lou, not good utilization of space. I looked at about a dozen different boats at the show this weekend, did some measuring and was amazed what I found. Some builders put emphasis on cockpit space, some on bow space, and some just want a huge sun pad. There were two boats that had the right mix of space and storage in the cockpit. Both had sunpads that were big, but not enormous. Both were 19 foot boats (20' LOA). One had 24 " from helm seat to rear bench, and one had 30" from helm seat back to rear bench. Both these measurements were with the helm seat back as far as it would go. So.... some builders DO get it, just not all of them.

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One of 4 Previous (Sold) Boats:
2000 Four Winns 268 Vista

Current Boat: 2004 Chaparral 235 ssi cuddy

Not much FW in Hartford a few weeks ago either. Kind of surprised, I was expecting more.

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Joe Coppola
2001 Four Winns Horizon 210