258 Journey vs 228 Seafarer, for the windy west coast?

I have owned a 228 for the past 8 years and love it. One of my fishing partners has a 258 with twin 150's and it is better in every way. I have been out in some pretty ugly conditions off the Oregon coast in both, and the 258 is a more substantial boat. If I were to do it all over again, I would definitely get the 258 with twins, I think it is the perfect trailerable boat.

Just remember that old adage.....there is no replacement for displacement. It holds true for several categories of endeavor.

If the one dude with the 258 is near you, maybe reach out to him and see if he would be willing to take you out for a ride on his boat? I've also got a 228 Seafarer and have no complaints with the boat. That being said, I'm trolling for salmon and checking crab pots in the Puget Sound, which is mostly all protected waters without a ton of swells, at least during the summertime when I'm out boating. I do like that the 258 Journey is a longer/wider boat as well as has the option for twin motors on there if you wanted them. That being said, a few of the features aren't exactly my favorite... the first being that it's only an 8'6" beam. The stern has the bang cap/plate as opposed to a transom bracket like the 228 Seafarer/232 Gulfstream will have on it. The stern also has a door which I'm not sure I would personally ever use all that often, and one of the biggest things would be that it just has a small cutting board in the transom. Comparatively, the 232 Gulfstream in a 2006+ model still has the enclosed transom with the transom bracket, no bang cap/plate, it's a 9'3" beam and it has a pretty large fish box in the stern of the boat. The dry weight of the 232 Gulfstream is also essentially 300 lbs heavier than the 258 Journey at 4,605 vs 4,320 lbs, so even though the 232 Gulfstream is a shorter boat overall, it's also a heavier boat. The centerline length of the two boats also isn't that much different in that the 232 Gulfstream has a centerline length of 23'5" vs 24'9" for the 258 Journey, so just over a foot longer. With the 228 Seafarer being only 22'2". If I was in the same boat, pun intended, I'd maybe look at the 232 Gulfstream as well, or instead of the 258 Journey. It seems like the two tradeoffs that I've heard with the 232 Gulfstream are that it has kind of a funky style of cabin with the bunkbed style of sleeping area, and that it has a considerably wider beam, making it more difficult for some to trailer/launch or whatever on their own.

c1steve said:

Where I am we have 4'-8' swells, but little in the way of 2'-3' chop.

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I boat here in Sardinia where we rarely have swell, but we have stiff afternoon thermic breeze what create 1-3 ft 3 sec chop.
For many years i worked during Europes Winter in Cost Rica where we had at least 3ft swell but up to 10ft and swell was never a problem with any boat i had or was on, but combined with a windy day it became horrible.

My experience is that for short period and steep chop boat length and width is the key for more "comfortable" boating while drifting, anchored, trolling or at planing speed and for the conditions here i believe that 28ft is the minimum where behaviour changes considerable. GW hulls work very well but for speeding with 3ft chop a deep V hull would speed up the time to reach a destination, if this is needed.

As already mentioned by others, do extensive sea trials with boats under snotty conditions so that you will notice the difference and think about going longer, at least 27ft.

Chris

Bigger is better if you can swing it.

Short story: We were set to sea trial a 228 many years ago. The dealer just happened to also bring along a 258. We stayed 'inside' and there was a 1'-1.5' wind chop. The 258 rode significantly better. I still preferred the transom of the 228. My wife preferred the ride of the 258 and that's what we got.

I will say that the 258 does not like to catch air under the hull beneath the helmsman's feet. So on significant wind chop, say more than 2' and closely spaced, its either put the tabs down or slow down, whatever you have to do to catch that next wave withe sharp V on the forward section of the bow.