GW Tournament 225 research

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Deep Blue

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Hello all,
I sold my Sailfish and am looking for something smaller, I like the size and features of the 2003-2008 Tournament 225. Unfortunately they're all on the East Coast so it looks like I'll have a long tow home.

Do they have electronic shift, or was that an option? I can't find anything in GW's literature. I'd love to hear from Tournament owners about the intricacies of the boat and any maintenance issues I should be aware of, for example do you need to replace the fuel tank after X years?

Thanks in advance.
 
Electronic shift? As in throttles? Newer motors have digital or fly by wire throttles but the older ones were I believe all mechanical until recently. Or at least anything of that vintage should be mechanical. I’ve bought 3 boats, including my current 2004 Grady White 228 Seafarer, back on the east coast because they can be found for half the price or less than what they sell for out here on the west coast. If you can find the right boat for the right price back east, I’d have a surveyor inspect it first but I wouldn’t hesitate to buy one just because it isn’t convenient. I’ll take price over convenience any day of the week.
 
I spent about a year looking at 225 Tournaments up and down the East Coast before buying one last May. None had digital steering. Being that Yamaha engines, at least the 225hp common to this model, did not have NMEA 2000 connections until ‘06, I doubt digital steering was an option. (The two are not connected, but I would expect electronic networking would have occurred first).

In my research, I did not find any common issues with this model. It came down more to how well the boat was maintained (especially since most spent their life in saltwater). Now, the engines of this era are another story given the Yamaha exhaust issues in the 225 and 250hp this hull utilized. (Google if not familiar. Plenty out there on this issue).

As for engines, many will disagree but I found the 225hp a bit underpowered for this hull. I am not a speed guy, but hole shot was poor, and particularly an issue if trying to pop up a skier. From my research, the 225hp of this period put out around 206hp, while the 250hp put out over 260. If you plan on going with newer power, the newer models are 4 liter vs the older 3 producing higher torque, so hole shot improves,

One small detail, especially if the boat is for family use, many had a center pad to make the front one large platform. I would get one of these. My family almost always uses it.
 
As mentioned in the other thread, yes look back on the east coast for a boats, as they're generally a much better deal than what they sell for out here on the west coast. And, there are generally a lot more dual console style of boats out there as opposed to at least in the Seattle area, where most people have a walkaround style of boat because of the colder weather/waters. In regards to horsepower, if I had a choice I'd likely get the F250 as opposed to the F225 just because. I don't necessarily think that the F225 is really "lacking or incredibly underpowered", but it can leave some people wanting a bit more. I personally have an F225 on my boat, of which she'll do almost 45 mph in perfect conditions at WOT, which I don't ever need to go faster than that speed and typically do around 20-25 mph when I'm cruising. She trolls slow enough to fish for king salmon and she has a pretty decent hole shot, though I've never pulled a skier or someone on an inner tube behind the boat before. It is possible that you might have the incorrect size/pitch of prop on the boat and that changing it up could help out with your hole shot a bit. A call to Ken at Prop Gods is always a great resource in such things. I always recommend anyone looking at purchasing a boat always have it inspected by a certified marine surveyor before buying it to see what all is wrong with the boat and/or what repairs might need to be made on it. Good luck either way.
 
Yamaha debuted electronic shift in 2007 on the V8 F350, I believe. I’m not sure when that migrated down in to the lesser HP models.
 
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