On Thu, 21 Jun 2007 23:50:06 -0400, "Tony"
wrote:

I am looking at a 1997 201WA Proline with a 135 merc. Fresh water boat any
good or bad comments. Very clean boat, either been on hoist or trailer,
stored in a pole barn for winter.

I'm not a big fan of the 20 foot Prolines. To me, they are much too
light in terms of weight and even the open CC are cramped without a
lot of space to move around. If you are on the tall/big side of the
scales, they aren't very comfortable - passengers seems like they are
sitting right on top of you - hard to fish from without having to
worry about smacking somebody in the head with a lure. A lot of this
has to do with the smallish beam (8') and the dead rise which is 20
degrees or thereabouts. Another issue with Prolines of this size I've
been on is that they are very tippy. By comparison, I can stand on
the gunwale of my Ranger CC and the boat doesn't budge. Stand on the
gunwale of a Proline and the boat will tip halfway up the freeboard. I
think that's a fair test because I'm 6'3" and 250 last check. :)

Fit and finish are ok. Being so light, that engine will push it along
very nicely and you will get decent economy - the boat is spec'd out
for a 150 max so it's right in the "good" power range.

Depending on if there is a T-top/hardtop/canvas combination, I'm
guessing the owner is asking $12,000/12,500. Without looking it up,
it's trade-in value is about $7500 (depending on where you live) so
figure a reasonable offer is around $10/10,500 for a ten year old
boat.

One issue will be the engine, so you will want that checked by a
dealer mechanic - pay for an hour's shop time to have the engine gone
through with the usual, engine hours, compression, general condition,
lower unit oil, etc. Don't use the mechanic where the boat is - use a
different Merc dealer - just precautionary. Be aware that a lot of
dealers service departments won't deal with engines that are ten years
or more old in particular if they are older technology - like carbed
engines. That's not a firm rule, but it's becoming more and more
common.