Fishing Boats: Champion Boats

Friday, 9 November 2012

Champion Boats

Champion Boats was founded by John Storie in 1975. It was located in Mnt. Home Arkansas. He began making tri-hull boats in a small shop just outside of Mnt Home on Hwy 5 North. Around 1977 he wanted a bigger/faster/better boat in a v-hull style so he sent my grandfather (a salesman) to a Skeeter dealer in Texas and had him buy a plain old gel coat Skeeter Wrangler. They brought it back, ripped it apart, splashed it adding some of this and that and Storie had himself a V-hull. Aparently it was changed so much that while it was related to Skeeter you could hardly tell in terms of performance and ride. Storie wanted a rig that was fast, smooth ride and a DRY ride hense the Champion arrow and flaring of the upper hull (this kept you from getting sprayed) This was the begining of the 86 inch beam Super V's most notably the 16'8. The 16'8 took off like wildfire and that rig sold very well for years. I was told that they wedged the rear of the hull to save weight but soon realized what it did in terms of performance and kept it. Think the 16'8 as the flagship for Champion. The 16'8's were 150 rated and just ran like hell fire. I was told this was around the time when Mercury went from inline 150s to V6 150's. This was back when 65 mph was just screaming. My father had a early 1977 16'8 that was orange, Gramps had one that ws banana yellow and balck, Storie's was black and I think Bill Pace had a blue one. It was a real sight for a little fella to see all those boats banked at the Champion BBQs at Cranfield.