I currently live in Denver Colorado but I am moving permanently to Sturgeon Bay Wisconsin in June of next year. I have cash in hand of 45,000 and it seems to be burning a hole in my pocket. I’m looking for a Grady white 30 foot or less cuddy cabin as my first ever real boat . I see a lot of Grady‘s for sale but they all seem to be salt water besides the obvious salt issues does fiberglass break down with salt water should I try and just find a freshwater Grady instead? Then comes the issue of, does it have a trailer no trailer how do I ship it? does it have to be shipped to a dealer versus to my house. Or do I wait to buy in person next year or will all the gradys be sold .
Advice needed !
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Mustang65fbk
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I'll take a stab... I just bought my third boat on the east coast and drove it back across the country a few weeks back. I'll put the link to the thread below, but the gist of it is that I live in Seattle, saw a 2004 GW 228 Seafarer out in Maryland at a GW dealer, flew out to look at the boat, bought it and rented a U-Haul truck to trailer her back 3009 miles home to Seattle. This is the third time I've done this for a boat, the previous two times were for boats called an Arima, both of which were 21'. My reasoning for buying them on the east coast is because of the price, as they're about double out here in Seattle as opposed to the east coast. Typically I'll pay an accredited marine surveyor to go out and inspect the boat for me, do the sea trial run and basically act on my behalf for the potential purchase. The GW dealership that I bought the boat from said they don't do over the phone purchases or transactions though, so I had to show proof of purchasing a plane ticket, fly out there and they held the boat for me for 24 hours until I told them if I wanted it or not. Long story short, I don't think you'll find much above 25' in length that's a model year 2000 or newer for $45k or less. I bought my boat for $26.5k, of which they had it listed for $28k and have seen older, rougher and less optioned boats sell for $10k more than what I paid for mine.
I'd figure out what kind of needs you have for the boat... are you just going to be fishing by yourself or are you constantly going to be having 3-4+ out people out with you. If you're like me and most of your friends or family members work and you do a lot of fishing on your own or with only one other person then a 20'-22' boat would be perfect for you. If you're consistently fishing or boating with 4-5 people or more, then maybe think about a 232 Gulfstream and larger. That being said, the price difference between a 208/226/228 vs a 232 is oftentimes quite considerable, and depending on the year of boat, you might not have enough money for a 2000 and newer 232 Gulfstream. I like the 228 that I bought because it has an enclosed transom with a transom bracket attached, the floor is all one level with no steps or stairs, it will fish 4-5 people with relative comfort and I like the cabin design better vs the bunk bed style cabin that the 232 has. It's a large boat for only being 22', yet the overall length with the bracket is more like 25'+, it's trailerable and can be launched/retrieved pretty easily by just yourself and/or a buddy. The 228 has an 8' beam vs the 232 which has a 9'3" beam, of which in a lot of states that requires a special wide load towing permit and is a considerably larger boat for one person to manage. To answer your questions, it's always preferable to have a boat that hasn't been in saltwater because the salt does a lot of damage to just about anything. But the saltwater itself isn't going to really "break down" the fiberglass... more along the lines of just making it dull in the finish. But nothing some buffing/waxing won't fix up, depending on the severity. Even freshwater can get into the fiberglass and rot the insides if there's damaged or it isn't sealed correctly. Which is why I always recommend a surveyor to come look at the boat with me, or more often for me, since it's usually an out of state purchase for me.
My biggest recommendations would be to hire a competent marine surveyor to inspect the boat... they'll look over everything and do a sea trial run with you, and typically cost less than $1k to do the whole thing. They'll check for moisture readings on the hull, go over the entire motor, do a sea trial run, make sure everything works and that the boat is in the condition as described. Go to Uship.com and get quotes from where you're looking at purchasing the boat from and where you're wanting to have it shipped to. They're kind of like eBay but in reverse, you post your transportation needs and shipping companies will send you quotes as to how much it will cost. They have reviews and ratings of the companies on the site as well and being in the center of the US, I'm thinking it probably won't cost you more than $2500 or so to have a boat shipped to you. I've not gone this route before for a couple of reasons, first would be that every time I've checked, their rates were anywhere from $4k up to over $7k and at the time, I had more time than money to do the drive myself. Other times it's been the opposite, like this time where I had more money than time, but the shipping companies were all 2-3 weeks out before they could even get to the boat. And then it would take them a week on top of that to get the boat out here from Maryland... so I was looking at 3-4 weeks before I'd see the boat, and I was already out in Maryland so I decided to do the drive again myself. I also wasn't sure what would happen and who would be responsible if there was an issue with a trailer tire/bearing/axle blowing out while they towed it back and I'm a couple thousand miles away. Or if the boat showed up damaged and the dealer blamed the shipping company and vice versa. So, I decided to do all of the trips on my own. It doesn't have to be shipped to a dealer, it can be shipped directly to your house but again, I'd have a competent surveyor look over the trailer as well to make sure it's ready for the journey. Or at least have a tire/automotive shop look it over first before driving potentially a couple thousand miles. I've always had a trailer with all my boats because I need to get them from point A to point B and don't have a slip to store them in. You could look for a freshwater only Grady, but considering they're made in North Carolina and meant as an East Coast fishing boat, you might be looking for sometime. Luckily winter is more of a buyer's market and you'll probably start to see a good deal of boats pop up here and there for considerably less than summer prices. Check all of the major boat sales websites, Craigslist and so on. If you decide to do the drive yourself or have someone ship a boat out to you, remember that winter is also upon us and the roads are going to have snow and ice on them very soon. Just something to watch out for. If you have a local GW dealer, go down and check them out in person to see which one you think might best fit your needs. That being said, the 226/228 models have been discontinued, as well as other models over the past several years, so unless the dealer has something used, they probably won't have any to walk around in.
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www.greatgrady.com
I'd figure out what kind of needs you have for the boat... are you just going to be fishing by yourself or are you constantly going to be having 3-4+ out people out with you. If you're like me and most of your friends or family members work and you do a lot of fishing on your own or with only one other person then a 20'-22' boat would be perfect for you. If you're consistently fishing or boating with 4-5 people or more, then maybe think about a 232 Gulfstream and larger. That being said, the price difference between a 208/226/228 vs a 232 is oftentimes quite considerable, and depending on the year of boat, you might not have enough money for a 2000 and newer 232 Gulfstream. I like the 228 that I bought because it has an enclosed transom with a transom bracket attached, the floor is all one level with no steps or stairs, it will fish 4-5 people with relative comfort and I like the cabin design better vs the bunk bed style cabin that the 232 has. It's a large boat for only being 22', yet the overall length with the bracket is more like 25'+, it's trailerable and can be launched/retrieved pretty easily by just yourself and/or a buddy. The 228 has an 8' beam vs the 232 which has a 9'3" beam, of which in a lot of states that requires a special wide load towing permit and is a considerably larger boat for one person to manage. To answer your questions, it's always preferable to have a boat that hasn't been in saltwater because the salt does a lot of damage to just about anything. But the saltwater itself isn't going to really "break down" the fiberglass... more along the lines of just making it dull in the finish. But nothing some buffing/waxing won't fix up, depending on the severity. Even freshwater can get into the fiberglass and rot the insides if there's damaged or it isn't sealed correctly. Which is why I always recommend a surveyor to come look at the boat with me, or more often for me, since it's usually an out of state purchase for me.
My biggest recommendations would be to hire a competent marine surveyor to inspect the boat... they'll look over everything and do a sea trial run with you, and typically cost less than $1k to do the whole thing. They'll check for moisture readings on the hull, go over the entire motor, do a sea trial run, make sure everything works and that the boat is in the condition as described. Go to Uship.com and get quotes from where you're looking at purchasing the boat from and where you're wanting to have it shipped to. They're kind of like eBay but in reverse, you post your transportation needs and shipping companies will send you quotes as to how much it will cost. They have reviews and ratings of the companies on the site as well and being in the center of the US, I'm thinking it probably won't cost you more than $2500 or so to have a boat shipped to you. I've not gone this route before for a couple of reasons, first would be that every time I've checked, their rates were anywhere from $4k up to over $7k and at the time, I had more time than money to do the drive myself. Other times it's been the opposite, like this time where I had more money than time, but the shipping companies were all 2-3 weeks out before they could even get to the boat. And then it would take them a week on top of that to get the boat out here from Maryland... so I was looking at 3-4 weeks before I'd see the boat, and I was already out in Maryland so I decided to do the drive again myself. I also wasn't sure what would happen and who would be responsible if there was an issue with a trailer tire/bearing/axle blowing out while they towed it back and I'm a couple thousand miles away. Or if the boat showed up damaged and the dealer blamed the shipping company and vice versa. So, I decided to do all of the trips on my own. It doesn't have to be shipped to a dealer, it can be shipped directly to your house but again, I'd have a competent surveyor look over the trailer as well to make sure it's ready for the journey. Or at least have a tire/automotive shop look it over first before driving potentially a couple thousand miles. I've always had a trailer with all my boats because I need to get them from point A to point B and don't have a slip to store them in. You could look for a freshwater only Grady, but considering they're made in North Carolina and meant as an East Coast fishing boat, you might be looking for sometime. Luckily winter is more of a buyer's market and you'll probably start to see a good deal of boats pop up here and there for considerably less than summer prices. Check all of the major boat sales websites, Craigslist and so on. If you decide to do the drive yourself or have someone ship a boat out to you, remember that winter is also upon us and the roads are going to have snow and ice on them very soon. Just something to watch out for. If you have a local GW dealer, go down and check them out in person to see which one you think might best fit your needs. That being said, the 226/228 models have been discontinued, as well as other models over the past several years, so unless the dealer has something used, they probably won't have any to walk around in.
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Finally a Grady White owner and finally got her back home safely...
For those of you that "know" me, I've been looking for a GW 228 Seafarer now for just over the past year. I live in the Seattle area and have a beach cabin on Whidbey Island here in the Puget Sound. For about 4 years, I'd owned a 21' Arima, that I also ironically bought in Maryland, and that...
www.greatgrady.com
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