I actually just spent a little bit over a year looking for a 1998 and newer Grady White 228 Seafarer and finally found a 2004 back in Maryland this last October. I live just north of the Seattle area and it seems like everything out here is ridiculously overpriced, and that's especially true with boats. I bought my 2004 GW 228 Seafarer with a 2004 Yamaha F225 and with less than 1k hours as well as a 2009 aluminum I-beam trailer in fantastic condition for $26.5k. I then trailered her back home to the Seattle area with a rented U-Haul truck at 3,009 miles without any incident. My previous boat was a 21' Arima and I wanted a bigger, nicer, newer and more comfortable boat as the Arima would pound quite badly in the 1'-2'+ chop. For me, the 228 Seafarer is about the perfect boat for what I need it for, which is fishing, crabbing, cruising and so forth in the Puget Sound. The Puget Sound is protected and isn't the open ocean, so the conditions are usually pretty mild mannered but in October of last year I had the boat out in front of Edmonds with pretty decent winds and I'd say at least 5-6' waves. The boat handled great, I never felt uncomfortable or unsafe and is 100x the boat that the Arima was. The reasons for going with the 228 Seafarer were because it's a bigger, heavier, longer boat than the Arima, it has a deep vee, a more comfortable ride, it doesn't splash water over the front and sides like the Arima did and it's still decent on fuel economy. I love the enclosed transom with the transom bracket on the back, it has a ton of fishing room and I really like that the floor is all level, without any steps or stairs to trip or slip on. The cabin is a nice size, the cockpit and helm area are just fine and it's an all around fantastic boat. I've admittedly never been on or looked too seriously into a 248/258 Voyager because I honestly think it would be a bit overkill for my particular needs.
As stated above, the helm area is a bit narrow on the 228 Seafarer, but you can solve that issue a bit by taking the inner armrests off the seats to help being able to walk through more easily. I haven't done that yet on my boat but I plan to, as I'm about 6'2" tall and 265 lbs or so. The only other "gripe" that I have is that a little more fishing room wouldn't be terrible. The 228 Seafarer has 6 seats and going off experience with using my last boat, I don't think I'll use all of those seats very often, if at all. It would be nice option to be able to change up some of the seating options to allow for more fishing space. But then again, the boat does fish 4-5 people rather comfortably and I don't usually ever fish more than that. Just something that would be nice to have if you ever did need it. I do love having a 4 stroke motor and after going from my uncle's boat that had twin 2 strokes to myself owning 3 previous boats with 4 stroke motors on them, I wouldn't ever own another 2 stroke, unless the price was too good to pass up on. A buddy of mine has a boat with twin 2 stroke Etec's on it and they're loud as well as smoke quite a bit, and you have to have the oil reservoirs that you always have to check on. My 4 stroke is quiet, doesn't smoke and it does pretty decently with regards to fuel economy. Just make sure you have any early 2000's Yamaha 4 stroke checked out for the very common dry exhaust corrosion issue which several of them had/have. It's about a $2k to have fixed for you, and that's if the parts are even readily available. I always recommend that anyone who is seriously interested at looking or purchasing a boat to pay a surveyor to come out and look at it with/for them. Good luck with your search!
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