I'm leaning quite a bit more towards a new Sterling.  Time will tell, but that's what my gut is telling me. 

 

Any real seat time in a new(er) Sterling would be appreciated.  I can't seem to find a website or even a model line up.  I'll be looking to order a 22' with a 300 Mercury Racing Motor. 

Research Gambler. The Sterling is a Gambler.

My uncle had a Gambler 2200 with a 300 Yahama. I believe it was a 2005 or 2006 so I'm not sure if that's considered "newer". The biggest thing it had going for it was that it was insanely fast. I'm not sure what top end on it was. My dad had it into the 80's before he shut it down when we were driving it. I know that the internal fuel pump went out on his motor so it motor was noticeably chugging while running and it'd still run mid 70's. Aside from the speed though, the boat itself didn't impress me. The layout wasn't the greatest, lot's of wasted space sacrificed to keep it light. The back deck was very small for a boat of that size (to keep weight towards the back of the boat) but there wasn't a whole lot in the way of storage back there. They had bass chutes which were second lids for the livewell, you put fish in there and it'd slide down and into the livewell. I assume they were to keep others from jumping out, but it too away about a foot of storage space on each side. The compartment lids were flimsy. The rod locker lids were long and when you would lift them you'd see them visibly bow. The console was poorly laid out with the only location for mounting a locator being way down on the console where your leg would partially block the screen. 

 

I haven't really seen much on Gambler lately other than a few adds in Bassmaster for their Sterling model. I did find a video on the Sterling though which looks like they have corrected quite a few of those issues I commented on and made the boat a lot more fisherman friendly. Here's the video on it https://vimeo.com/8804545 Their website mentioned is kind of a joke and looks like some pages no longer even exist.