On Mon, 16 May 2005 12:48:00 -0400, "Harry.Krause"
wrote:

Capt John wrote:
Your forgetting a few things. That is a hell of a lot of money for a
boat with outboards. I was at the NY boat show where they had one.
Their were lots of people that looked at the price tag and commented
"they can't be serious". And don't think for a minute that boat is
going to hold it's value. Large outboard powered boats drop fast when
the engines start getting hours on them. A thousand to fifteen hundred
hours on outboards is close to, if not the, end of the road, but a
diesel powered boat, their just getting started. By the time you equip
that boat your not that far away from a "real" boat price. Second, that
boat is not going to ride like an inboard powered boat. When the sea's
come up, that throttle is going back. And third, their's just so much
space lost to the outboards as compared to an inboard powered boat. Try
fighting a large, uncooperative fish with those outboards in the way.
Do yourself a favor, wake up, that boat is a bad idea that you'll
regret for a long time.



1. I am not planning on buying one.

2. Boats generally don't hold their value. Gradys do a bit better than
most, though 36' is new territory for the maker.

3. The old adage about diesels just getting "broken in" at 2000 hours
may still be true for the high-displacement, slow turning, naturally
aspirated, relatively low output diesels of the past, but much less so
for most of the modern diesels going into boats today. You'd have to
have two 500 hp diesels to equal the top and cruise speed performance of
these three outboards because of the extra weight of the diesels. And
those two big diesels are going to cost two and a half times as much as
these outboards.

3. With engines and fuel, this GW is going to top 16,000 pounds, I would
guess. More than enough weight for her length, and more than enough to
take on the ocean as well as other boats in her class. I am sure the
fuel tanks are forward.

4. The outboards won't be in the way of fish fighting, unless the fish
is straight down from the transom. If that happens, the captain can spin
the boat so the angler can fight the fish. And since very few sportsmen
these days bring their large sportfish aboard, tag and release can be
handled off the gunwales, as on an inboard boat.

Look, I like inboards myself, but GW is willing to gamble on the market
for its new boat. Based on the several 330s I have seen around, I'd bet
the company sells the few it plans to make each year.


Oh...forgot. With outboards, no diesel smell, no diesel puking.

Nice post, Harry. Informative and not in any way political or full of
name-calling.

I would love to have the GW 228. To me it's got just the right amount of room
for three people to fish and has all the amenities needed for a nice day with
wife and grandkids. Plus it doesn't cost as much as a nice house in Solomon's!
--
John H

"All decisions are the result of binary thinking."