Opinions on this Transom

I’ve looked at a lot of boats for sale in the last 2 years. My moisture meter has been with me for each inspection. Maybe just the boats I saw but most of the Grady’s had elevated moisture in the transoms. However, I also saw this with other brands that used wood int their transoms too.

It does not take much neglect for the transom to soak up water. That bang cap and exposed transom was a bad idea for so many years.

Grady transoms are thick though and even if they get wet, your outboard is not going to fall off on day 2.
 
NHAngler said:
I’ve looked at a lot of boats for sale in the last 2 years. My moisture meter has been with me for each inspection. Maybe just the boats I saw but most of the Grady’s had elevated moisture in the transoms. However, I also saw this with other brands that used wood int their transoms too.

It does not take much neglect for the transom to soak up water. That bang cap and exposed transom was a bad idea for so many years.

Grady transoms are thick though and even if they get wet, your outboard is not going to fall off on day 2.
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i guess the closed transom are much better? Like on the 228 are 232
 
"i guess the closed transom are much better? Like on the 228 are 232"

YES

And, what's better than that is:
(1) No wood in the transom (newer boats), and
(2) No balsa coring anywhere (gunnels, decks and hard tops).

All older Gradys suffer from these two issues.
I would say 100% of all older Gradys are wet in various places.

Water intrusion in the plywood and/or Balsa core however has to be really bad for there to be a structural weakness.

If you can't deal with this reality - buy an aluminum boat (which aren't perfect either).
 
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This is one of the many reasons why I got a 228 Seafarer. I'd heard about people having issues with the other Grady White models with the bang cap/plate on them, the 208 Adventure being one of them. The other things I didn't like about the 208 Adventure were the layout/design involving a motorwell, that takes up a good deal of space as well as most of them don't seem to come with a hardtop for some reason. I was briefly considering them, as well as the 226/228 Seafarer and the 232 Gulfstream, before I ended up finding and purchasing my boat. The 226 Seafarer is like the 208 Adventure where it has the bang cap/plate on it as well as the motorwell style of transom, as opposed to the 228 Seafarer/232 Gulfstream that both have the enclosed transom as well as a transom bracket. I much prefer the latter having an enclosed transom and the outboard being on the transom bracket as opposed to the motorwell, and it seems like most all of the 228 Seafarer's/232 Gulfstream's come with a hardtop, which is a non-negotiable for me. I haven't heard of many 228 Seafarer/232 Gulfstream owners having to replace their transoms and imagine it would either take some considerable damage/neglect/catastrophic failure in order for that to happen, as about the only locations water could come in would be smaller things like fittings, thru hulls, hardware and so forth. Lastly, in terms of price, I paid $26.5k for my boat back in October of 2021, which my boat is a 2004 GW 228 Seafarer with the factory hardtop, Yamaha F225 that had just under 1k hours on her at the time of purchase and an aluminum I-beam trailer. I believe I got a very, very good deal on my boat, but I tend to compare pricing, and just wanted to give that bit of information as the boat you're looking at is listed for $24.5k and it seems like it's been listed on BoatTrader for sometime now. Good luck and happy hunting!
 
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