^^Alan^^, above you mentioned not being familiar with the Pro XS Merc - my 2019 Impact had a 150 Pro XS. Ran it 5 seasons...never had a single issue...maybe I got lucky! Last year bought a 19ft G3 with a 200 Yamaha VF on it. So far...so good. But like you said, Merc and Yamaha sell so many motors every year...kinda like Ford and Chevy trucks, be many folks that have issues, but in the big picture would guess the percentage with problems is pretty small. If I found the boat I wanted and it had a new Merc on it, would not hesitate to pull the trigger...but that's just me! Above you hinted at maybe a new boat...what are you looking at!
The exact model is something I still haven't decided on. My current 2004 Fisherman has been an absolutely fantastic boat overall, powered by a Yamaha.
Probably the closest thing to it nowadays is the Lund Crossover (the new Fisherman just seems off, to me). I've always been an aluminum boat kind of guy simply because it's hard to put behind my childhood of camping on the shore of Sak and just beaching the boat overnight. But nowadays that just isn't reasonable given the Corps' position on shoreline camping over the past 20 years. So, glass is certainly on the table and would provide a much better ride than I've grown accustomed to over the years.
One thing I am pretty sure of is that I don't want carpet in the boat, not a single piece of it. My fishing nowadays involves a lot of gravel roads and the dust in the carpet is nothing short of awful. I see Lund is now selling some boats that don't have carpet. That's probably one of the more important things, as silly as that sounds.
Whatever I get will complement my Fishing toon, which gets used when I take several people with me, or I have someone elderly I want to take fishing, my stepdad is 87 and has become an avid angler over the past 20 years.
