Grady Admirers at my Boat Yesterday

[onoahimahi]

I was waxing the hull yesterday at my club and a couple members stopped by to chat. One of them owns a plumbing company and is proficient at welding and was admiring the hardtop. He was noting how it was extremely well constructed in a very-heavy-duty way with all the different tubes and bracing, miters, etc. He said that anodized aluminum is difficult to weld because you have to get hot enough to get through the anodize but not too hot to splatter the aluminum and that there is a small operating window to perform this. He said it is less expensive to bend tubing around corners then to weld the miter joints that are in my hardtop. He pointed to the hardtop on a same-sized Pursuit right behind mine and the difference was clearly visible - bent tubes with no miters and about half the bracing and tubing. I love my Grady

He currently owns a big 36 foot diesel but said one of his first boats was an Overnigher that was bulletproof and he sold it for more then he paid for it...

 

[ElyseM]

I've said it many times. GW is not perfect, but if you really go thru your boat, you will see what you pay for. good luck, ron

 

[SmokyMtnGrady]

Welding aluminum is tricky but aluminum is the backbone of the bicycle industry for entry level mountain and road bikes. Now all the really nice bikes are carbon fiber. You need an inert environment to weld it because the oxygen in the air makes the welds weak. As much as others might not like the hard top designs of the Grady, I think it gives the boat a unique look.

Now dont get me wrong, I do like the integrated look of the Express models offer, it does look nice, but the lines of the Grady hardtop kind of make the boat what it is. I often can recognize a Grady coming at me on the water by the shape of the bow and the lines of the hard top. We get those compliments on the water too especailly where Gradys are rare in my neck of the woods.