Went to the show yesterday and it was a lot better than last year... but dealers still had a limited supply of boats to show. Grady only had a couple of cabin boats... the 360 and 300, may have one other but they concentrated on bow riders and center consoles. Two years in a row and no 330... that was disappointing to me... that's the one boat I wanted to get my wife on. For the most part Grady's are Grady's. I did look at competitors in the 33-38' range from Pursuit and Boston Whaler. Both Pursuits (345 & 385) were very nice boats but for me they missed the mark by not having an Island berth on either boat and the vberth tables were odd shaped in an effort(I guess) to give you an easier exit from the berth... not sure they gained much there. The 385 lloked like to would require custom bedding... extremely wide vberth. The 345 Conquest Boston Whaler was a different story: cockpit was great... had a fairly wide, fold away stern seat that you could lay down on... no support arms to get in the way... and no legs eithr. They also offered a port side fold away seat, that could fit 2 people, instead of rod storage. $ gunnel rod holders and three across the transom. Transom live well. Two in the floor fish boxes. Port side Bait & tackle prep area with sink and optional electrical grill . Starboard side refrig/freezer. Center helm configuration with plenty of seating and all seats had the same line of sight as the captain on the side they are seated... so the admiral can now see where she is headed. he helm area can also be an open configuration( solid glass to the hardtop forward with electric center window, and 50/50 glass/plastic on the sides) or none open configuration(all solidsides). Both models have canvas rear drop curtains. The cabin was fantastic... at least for my wife and I. Nice queen island berth. Hanging cedar closet, flat screen tv, rod holders against starboard side that could hold 5 6.5. rods with 50wides on them. Sette that coverts to another berth and has additional storage, over sized refrig, 2 burner electric stove, micro wave, coffee maker etc. Mid berth was completely accessable with numerous use options. Only concern was I thought the head could have been laid out better especially right over the head itself... not really a lot of head room there. Also... Pursuit put a lot of focus on easy access to batteries (which are in the helm, nicely hidden awaa at floor level) and easy access to any fitting that may need work in the future. The access to below deck in the cockpit was great... the greater portion of the deck between the in deck fish boxes lifted right up with the aid of gas pistons... once you got it going(very easy) it continued to open by itself. All preventive maintenance can be done in that area as well as work on the diesel genset. To top it off that part of the bilge arae had a completely finished off sub floor above the stringers... not more bloddy hands working in that area.
You could also order a factory tuna tower, fully rigged, with pro-layout riggers. Otherwise the rigger option was hardtop mounted.
I still had two other concerns... the boat was powered by (3) Merc 4 stroke 300 Supercharged Verado's... I know nothing about them especially their track record on quality, reliability and fuel burn. Supposedly they get around 1 mpg but I'd have to see that to believe it. My Yamaha F250's have spoiled me. I'm also not sure if Boston Whaler has made it all the way back after revlon and reebock treated it as a cash cow and ruined the brand. Apparently Brunswick ownership is a different story... they seen to be investing in the Whalers and listeningto customers. Bottom line... the Whaler 345 is my wifes #1 choice :wink: ... if only I could afford the $420K boat show price.
By the way... the 360 is now over $525k and the Marlin was $265k with most options and a genset... not sure if that included riggers.
You could also order a factory tuna tower, fully rigged, with pro-layout riggers. Otherwise the rigger option was hardtop mounted.
I still had two other concerns... the boat was powered by (3) Merc 4 stroke 300 Supercharged Verado's... I know nothing about them especially their track record on quality, reliability and fuel burn. Supposedly they get around 1 mpg but I'd have to see that to believe it. My Yamaha F250's have spoiled me. I'm also not sure if Boston Whaler has made it all the way back after revlon and reebock treated it as a cash cow and ruined the brand. Apparently Brunswick ownership is a different story... they seen to be investing in the Whalers and listeningto customers. Bottom line... the Whaler 345 is my wifes #1 choice :wink: ... if only I could afford the $420K boat show price.
By the way... the 360 is now over $525k and the Marlin was $265k with most options and a genset... not sure if that included riggers.
