How does beam affect ride?

[luckydude]

Generally yes, but in Lucky's case bigger may not be good enough to meet his expectations. That's what we're debating here.

And I am grateful for the debate. I think I was about to pull the trigger on $350K boat that I would not like. That makes me a rich guy but I'm not so rich where that is noise, that's a really big deal for me. I need to get this right. I'm liking the dual console options, I need to see if anyone on the west coast has one of those. I doubt it but maybe.

 

[family affair]

My gripe about the 275 is the hardtop. It doesn't leave a lot of open cockpit space, and the cockpit is likely smaller than your 228 to begin with.
IMO the Pursuit hardtop makes for more room.

 

[glacierbaze]

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[TortugaBob]

Lucky, you are sure putting more thought into it than I ever did going to a Marlin. Making me rethink my decision? Gulf of Mexico is much different than Pacific, and I am glad to have for 3' x 5 seconds. I was sold on the fact I never felt scared as a kid in a smaller Grady Cuddy, and I appreciate the stability on drift with lower deadrise, speed was never a consideration. Drifting and slow troll is where I spend most time. My buddy has a Donzi 35 cigarette and gets on top, dry most of the time unless chop and wind. Marlin is heavier too, more HP to push it.

As others have said, give and take on features, comfort, ride, speed. I dedicate the whole day to being offshore, so giving up 10 mph being out 30-50 miles is not that big a deal.

 

[brdawg2001]

Great question and some good thoughts here..beam to length ratio is extremely important and frankly, Grady boats a generally too beamy. I actually think my 273 Chase is one of the best riding gradys at 8 6...Those big beamy 33s get it done with mass...that is why the regs, sea vees and such are not..there is no perfect hull though...

 

[gbgrady208]

This is an interesting discussion and one of the earlier comments is important: "What he considers a rough ride in a Marlin might not be the same as your impression if you were his passenger.". My son was fine on the ride (as the passenger) and didn't seem phased by the chop or the ride. I'm more of a fair weather boater and don't like the pounding ride - - same is true when I'm off-road on a Polaris or in a 4x4 truck. I prefer to slow down a bit and have a great ride than punish myself with speed. There is a material difference between my 208 and my Marlin in virtually all conditions and when I had the Marlin docked in the SF Bay (vs. the pacific ocean) we made the ride south down the the bay from the Golden Gate Bridge in half the time with the Marlin than the 208 - - due to handling and ability to handle the chop, not speed capability itself. And, the comparison being made here is not apples to apples as there was a roughly two hour time difference between Larry's 228 journey and my Marlin journey in conditions that were degrading by the minute. In fact, my son commented how strange it was that we didn't see any other boats on the ride back to the harbor - - everyone had already gone in because of changing conditions. I'm thrilled with my Marlin and feel the material difference in the ride compared to the 208. Everyone is different and I did not ride in a Marlin before the purchase and couldn't be happier with the features, function and performance of the boat. It handles the rough stuff well within my comfort zone and gets me where I want to go materially better than the 208. Typically mornings are calmer on the Pacific Ocean and it gets me where I want to be quickly which is more important to me than how fast I get back to the harbor to start cleaning and putting the boat away until the next adventure. Again, different goals for different people.

 

[Jrspawn]

I have a Marlin and absolutely love it! Ive been in some pretty snotty conditions and felt very safe in it. Its not a speed boat, but it handles good for the size at comfortable speeds. Didn't you post days ago you had already ordered and new Marlin? I would have hoped you've spent quite quite a bit of time on one before pulling the trigger. Its a big purchase to base off of thoughts and others opinions.

 

[HMBJack]

My inputs on this topic:

All Gradys since 2000 have the SeaV2 Hull. They have essentially the same design no matter what size.
While on the ocean, if you see a 22 footer off in the distance, then when you get close, you realize it's a 30 footer. The overall SHAPE - length, beam, depth and height - all proportionately grow as you go up in size. This is the proprietary secret of the SeaV2 Hull designed by C. Raymond Hunt who also designed Bertrams by the way. And Bertrams had a good run right? Ray Hunt knows his stuff...

So, in a head-to-head comparison of any two 22 footers, like a Whaler Vs. a Grady, most people would say the Grady rides better on an overall basis.

But compare a 22 foot Grady Vs. a 30 foot Bayliner - most people would say the Bayliner rides better. NOT because of the beam or anything to do with the shape of the hull - but because of the weight. Any 30 footer probably weighs 2X of any 22 footer. So I submit, the added weight of a larger boat makes it feel more comfortable because it takes much more energy for the ocean to knock it around. It also takes much more energy (i.e. Horsepower) to lift that object out of the water and get it up on plane.

I upgraded from a 22 Seafarer to a 33 Express. No comparison in ride (or economy). But I think it's the weight factor that helps upsizing the most. I do however appreciate that SeaV2 design by Mr. Hunt!

and P.S. Marlins are GREAT boats. There's a reason why GW still makes them!

 

[blynch]

I find it difficult to believe that an 8200lb walkaround wouldn't provide a dramatically better ride than a similarly shaped hull weighing less than 4000lbs. I also find it difficult to believe that a 5000lb dual console provides the most comfortable fishing platform.

Count me on "team stick with the dream boat!"

 

[magicalbill]

My inputs on this topic:

All Gradys since 2000 have the SeaV2 Hull. They have essentially the same design no matter what size.
While on the ocean, if you see a 22 footer off in the distance, then when you get close, you realize it's a 30 footer. The overall SHAPE - length, beam, depth and height - all proportionately grow as you go up in size. This is the proprietary secret of the SeaV2 Hull designed by C. Raymond Hunt who also designed Bertrams by the way. And Bertrams had a good run right? Ray Hunt knows his stuff...

So, in a head-to-head comparison of any two 22 footers, like a Whaler Vs. a Grady, most people would say the Grady rides better on an overall basis.

But compare a 22 foot Grady Vs. a 30 foot Bayliner - most people would say the Bayliner rides better. NOT because of the beam or anything to do with the shape of the hull - but because of the weight. Any 30 footer probably weighs 2X of any 22 footer. So I submit, the added weight of a larger boat makes it feel more comfortable because it takes much more energy for the ocean to knock it around. It also takes much more energy (i.e. Horsepower) to lift that object out of the water and get it up on plane.

I upgraded from a 22 Seafarer to a 33 Express. No comparison in ride (or economy). But I think it's the weight factor that helps upsizing the most. I do however appreciate that SeaV2 design by Mr. Hunt!

and P.S. Marlins are GREAT boats. There's a reason why GW still makes them!

HMB:

Good analysis except for one correction.

The 232 Gulfstream, as I wrote about on this thread, sports a 9' 3" beam in a 23 ft package. This qualifies it as a "Widebody," for want of a better term. It is the only Grady that departs from the beam-to-length ratio that the rest of the lineup has.

This translates into a rock-solid, stable boat that will assuredly pound in anything over 2 ft seas, taking into account the ongoing exception of offshore long interval ocean swells.

 

[SmokyMtnGrady]

There is some really good information here. The feel of a center console will be different than a walk around . A 22 foot Fisherman Grady center console is built on the exact same hull as the Seafarer and Freedom 225. The center console will feel perhaps better riding because the helm is shifted back a couple feet. Put me in a bean bag chair at the back of the 228 and it is smooth as butter riding boat.

You may feel like the 271 rides better than a Marlin. maybe it does based on feel but it will be a wetter and colder boat. The Seav2 hull appreciates proper trim to take advantage of the the variable deadrise geometry bottom. Perhaps the guy running the Marlin doesn't have it trimmed right to the sweet spot. I don't know.

I know this . One, be it a 228 or Marlin I am not fishing in 7 foot seas even at 11 seconds , at least I am not going out intentionally . I may get caught in sone bad weather ,but that's different. I am not you and it's not my money ,but I am buying a Marlin over a 271 everyday . It's bigger, it's drier and offers more of what I want in a boat . The Seafarer is a great boat for it's size and it will run with the best of them in the 21-23 foot range .

 

[gbgrady208]

it’s quite possible that I don’t have trim set to perfection. with less than 100 hours on my Marlin I’m still figuring out what feels best. I feel as though

 

[gbgrady208]

iPad sent too fast... I feel as though I’m getting it close based on ride and fuel efficiency. Definitely need to spend more time with trim experimentation.

 

[luckydude]

I know this . One, be it a 228 or Marlin I am not fishing in 7 foot seas even at 11 seconds , at least I am not going out intentionally . I may get caught in sone bad weather ,but that's different. I am not you and it's not my money ,but I am buying a Marlin over a 271 everyday . It's bigger, it's drier and offers more of what I want in a boat . The Seafarer is a great boat for it's size and it will run with the best of them in the 21-23 foot range .

7@11 is fine unless there is a lot of chop on top of it, I've gone out in that quite a bit chasing tuna. It's when it is X@X, for pretty much any value of X, it gets nasty, that's a steep slope on the swell. 6@9 is doable in the 228 but it is right on the edge of no fun. 5@10 is fine, anything nicer than that is considered a pretty flat ocean around here. It's the chop on top of the swells that makes it bad, 2 days ago it was 3@9 but it had all sorts of chop on top and it was pretty crappy.

I'm not interested in a 271, I mentioned it because I've been out in it more than I have in a 300. The boats I'm considering (and yeah, I put money down on the Marlin but it's months from starting its build, I would suspect they'd let me switch models):

Marlin, beam: 10'7", loaded weight: 11,700
Freedom 285, beam 9'6", loaded weight: 9,330
Freedom 275, beam 8'6", loaded weight: 7,900
and just because I've got experience on how it is in snot:
Canyon 271, beam 9'6", loaded weight: 8,640

If the smallest beam is what I want, then the 275 is looking pretty good. It's still fairly heavy at about 700 pounds lighter than the Canyon and a foot narrower. I initially dismissed dual consoles, they seem like more of a party boat than a fishing boat, but I've realized I do 100% of my fishing from the rear of the boat so dual console is fine. I don't care about the cabin on the Marlin, I use my cabin just for storage.

So of the 275, 285, or 300, which one would pound the least?

 

[Mustang65fbk]

Lucky... I'm assuming your 228 has trim tabs on it? I believe you were talking in a previous thread about changing up the size/pitch of your prop... any idea what you have currently? It might worth a couple of phone calls and maybe invest in a different sized/pitch of prop that's better for getting the boat on a plane at low speeds and try that out first? That, and I'm assuming your boat has trim tabs, but if it doesn't then I'd definitely add those as well.

 

[luckydude]

Lucky... I'm assuming your 228 has trim tabs on it? I believe you were talking in a previous thread about changing up the size/pitch of your prop... any idea what you have currently? It might worth a couple of phone calls and maybe invest in a different sized/pitch of prop that's better for getting the boat on a plane at low speeds and try that out first? That, and I'm assuming your boat has trim tabs, but if it doesn't then I'd definitely add those as well.

Bennett tabs and I changed to a 15" 4 blade prop at the suggestion of Ken at propgods.

 

[Mustang65fbk]

Bennett tabs and I changed to a 15" 4 blade prop at the suggestion of Ken at propgods.

Did the new prop help at all with being able to plane at a lower speed? Might be worth a phone call back to him and explain what's going on, if you haven't done so already.

 

[HMBJack]

Luckydude,

Marlin all the way per the list you presented. It's literally a ton heavier than the next heaviest boat (my point above).
Plus it has the longest waterline (helps bridge across those square waves we deal with in our area).

You're well advised to go out and take a ride on the boats you're considering. Preferably in snotty weeather.
No one here with a key board can do that for you...

 

[luckydude]

Luckydude,

Marlin all the way per the list you presented. It's literally a ton heavier than the next heaviest boat (my point above).
Plus it has the longest waterline (helps bridge across those square waves we deal with in our area).

You're well advised to go out and take a ride on the boats you're considering. Preferably in snotty weeather.
No one here with a key board can do that for you...

It's not so easy finding people that want to drop what they are doing and take you for a ride. I'm trying.

 

[luckydude]

Did the new prop help at all with being able to plane at a lower speed? Might be worth a phone call back to him and explain what's going on, if you haven't done so already.

If it made any difference it is maybe a 1/2 of a mph difference. I really couldn't tell though what I should do is run the boat, switch the props, run the boat again. It was not some magic fix.