Van Staal VS200 - The last surf reel I will ever own?

I'm not sure what took me so long, but I finally bought my first Van Staal reel (VS200) this past Friday.  For years I have been using either a Penn Slammer 500 or a Shimano Spheros 8000 neither of which could stand up to a single season of fishing Montauk without exhaustive maintenance.  Last Tuesday while fishing the sand beaches in Bridgehampton I destroyed yet another year old Spheros (full of sand and stripped gears) so it was time for a new reel.  Not wanting to stick to the same pattern of buying a new reel every year I decided to take the plunge and go for a Van Staal VS200.   Two things had prevented me from buying a Van Staal sooner; the price and the fact that I had never used a reel without a bail.  I realize I could have bought 5 Van Staals for what I spent on inferior reels and as for my fear of fishing with no bail, silly, I picked it up immediately in no small part to a quick instructional video featuring Craig Cantelmo.  I caught 4 28" bass on my first trip out with the VS200 so have yet to test its legendary drag system but I have no doubt it will live up to all the hype.  I will update this review as I put the VS200 to the test.