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One year SS 203 review.
89checkmate
Member Posts: 148 ✭✭✭
Well it's been a year with our 203, thought I'd share my experience so far, over all I'm very happy with the boat, couple of things to watch out for if you are a new owner tho, just to save you the hassle.
A few of the fittings for the sink leaked after a few weeks, tightened everything and it's been good since.
The gauge panel came pretty loose after the first 20 hours or so, I didn't notice right away and lost a few of the mounting plates in the bottom of the boat that I couldn't get back, I was able to order them for free from my dealer and when I tightened everything back up I put silicone on the threads, been a non issue since then.
I do have some small cracks in the gel right up at the front near the corner of the anchor locker, not sure what could be done about that but it hasn't gotten any worse than it was last year.
Just last week my wife had the boat for the week while I was at work and at some point the bolt that holds the lower support pole for the Bimini fell out, luckily the pole didn't fall off and was just resting in the plastic clip that holds it, I noticed it hanging there as soon as I walking up to the boat, can't believe it didn't fall off, I found a stainless replacement bolt at a local hardware store and then removed all the hardware on the Bimini and re-installed with loc-tight, hopefully no more issues with that now, and for the record it's the strongest Bimini I've seen on a boat, very solid and moves very little at speed.
A few things I don't like are the way some of the compartments aren't sealed, you have to be careful where you put stuff or it falls in somewhere that you can never get it back, anchor locker and under dash panel are worst areas.
Now the good stuff, the 200 optimax pushes it at 53 mph GPS with just me and I can still see 45-47 with a full load of people, 7 people and 3 on the tube it still has plenty of power, it's also one of the best boats I've ever owned for fuel economy, because you can reach a decent 30 mph cruising speed at 3500 RPM it's not wide open all the time so it doesn't have to work that hard, we pulled the kids on the EZ-ski for 6 hours straight last Tuesday and it used less than 1/2 a tank, about 2900 RPM most of it, so again it doesn't have to work that hard, I've always believed you will get better fuel economy if you put the max rated HP on the boat and am glad I went that way again with this boat.
Also it's a pretty good feeling when someone in a 18 or 19 ft runabout wants to race and you pull away from them with your party barge, haha.
I always get people asking me about the boat and compliments on it everywhere I go, I did option it out as much as I could when ordering it so it does have that high end look to it, all the hardware is very top notch, nothing has broke, very solid boat, whenever I take anyone for a ride they can't believe how well it handles and how it really moves for a big boat.
We've got just over 70 hours on it now and sad to say it will be going into hibernation again soon as our boating season here in Saskatchewan pretty much ends mid September but looking forward to next year already!
Thanks for reading and here's some pics from the last year! This boat should serve us well for many years to come!
A few of the fittings for the sink leaked after a few weeks, tightened everything and it's been good since.
The gauge panel came pretty loose after the first 20 hours or so, I didn't notice right away and lost a few of the mounting plates in the bottom of the boat that I couldn't get back, I was able to order them for free from my dealer and when I tightened everything back up I put silicone on the threads, been a non issue since then.
I do have some small cracks in the gel right up at the front near the corner of the anchor locker, not sure what could be done about that but it hasn't gotten any worse than it was last year.
Just last week my wife had the boat for the week while I was at work and at some point the bolt that holds the lower support pole for the Bimini fell out, luckily the pole didn't fall off and was just resting in the plastic clip that holds it, I noticed it hanging there as soon as I walking up to the boat, can't believe it didn't fall off, I found a stainless replacement bolt at a local hardware store and then removed all the hardware on the Bimini and re-installed with loc-tight, hopefully no more issues with that now, and for the record it's the strongest Bimini I've seen on a boat, very solid and moves very little at speed.
A few things I don't like are the way some of the compartments aren't sealed, you have to be careful where you put stuff or it falls in somewhere that you can never get it back, anchor locker and under dash panel are worst areas.
Now the good stuff, the 200 optimax pushes it at 53 mph GPS with just me and I can still see 45-47 with a full load of people, 7 people and 3 on the tube it still has plenty of power, it's also one of the best boats I've ever owned for fuel economy, because you can reach a decent 30 mph cruising speed at 3500 RPM it's not wide open all the time so it doesn't have to work that hard, we pulled the kids on the EZ-ski for 6 hours straight last Tuesday and it used less than 1/2 a tank, about 2900 RPM most of it, so again it doesn't have to work that hard, I've always believed you will get better fuel economy if you put the max rated HP on the boat and am glad I went that way again with this boat.
Also it's a pretty good feeling when someone in a 18 or 19 ft runabout wants to race and you pull away from them with your party barge, haha.
I always get people asking me about the boat and compliments on it everywhere I go, I did option it out as much as I could when ordering it so it does have that high end look to it, all the hardware is very top notch, nothing has broke, very solid boat, whenever I take anyone for a ride they can't believe how well it handles and how it really moves for a big boat.
We've got just over 70 hours on it now and sad to say it will be going into hibernation again soon as our boating season here in Saskatchewan pretty much ends mid September but looking forward to next year already!
Thanks for reading and here's some pics from the last year! This boat should serve us well for many years to come!
Post edited by 89checkmate on
Comments
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Here's a few more just cause I'm picture happy, haha.
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Great looking boat, I have had a very similar experience!
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@89checkmate, It's been 5 years she's been pushing my SS 188 around and this is still one of my fav pics. Just a thing of beauty. Another month and she's coming out of her winter slumber.------------------------------------------------------------------------------2010 Hurricane SS 188 OB
2010 Mercury Optimax 200HP / Mercury SS High Five 19P
2010 Trailmaster SC trailer
