Cranking the wheel hard over when you're at wide-open throttle isn't one of our favorite maneuvers in a strange boat, because there is always the chance that you'll launch one of your passengers (including yourself) off the front of the boat. With the 320 hp 6.2L MerCruiser Bravo Three twin-prop stern drive, we were running at just shy of 50 mph. Get Ready for Some Fun Out on Lake Cadillac on one hot Midwestern day, we had our chance to run the new 234, and it performed way beyond our expectations. At its last dealer meeting, several new models were at the company's Cadillac testing facility dock, including hull number one of the completely redesigned 234 Funship - one of the first new Four Winns models to be built under Genmar ownership. Despite the uncertainty and chaos, we saw little evidence that Four Winns was shuttered for the better part of the first half of 2001. Genmar also initially purchased the Chris-Craft line but immediately sold it to London-based Stellican Ltd., while Brunswick Corp. Bombardier acquired the world-famous brands of Johnson and Evinrude motors, while Genmar acquired the Four Winns, Hydra-Sports, Javelin, Lowe, Seaswirl and Stratos boat lines. had teamed up with Canadian industrial giant Bombardier to make a joint offer to the bankruptcy court for all of the U.S. Four Winns and seven other OMC boat-building companies would survive the coal left in their Christmas stockings that year and just a few months later find themselves part of the growing Genmar family of boat producers.

The plan, apparently ill conceived, was not to be, as OMC would shock the industry by declaring bankruptcy in December 2000. Two summers ago, David Jones, the head of Outboard Marine Co., stood before an assembly of Four Winns dealers from around the country and hinted at his plans to turn this Cadillac, Michigan boat builder into the next Bayliner.

Probably the best part of the new Funship - other than its solid performance - is its layout.

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