Looked at a 228 today...

[Venator]

And unfortunately walked away.

New member here, my wife and I have been looking at 'whats next' for our boating life (currently in an '01 Sea Hunt 172). I've been wanting a walkaround style for a while so we've been looking at just about everything out there. Avoiding the Trophy's, the Prolines, looking at the Wellcrafts, the Hydrasports, and of course the Gradys. Idea was to stay 22-27 feet, weighing all the pros and cons (want to trailer? only 1/2 ton? single? twins?) anyway... stumbled upon the 232. Beautiful boats. Huge fishing space. Towing... ehh not so much. At least not with my truck. So we find the 228. Closed transom, 1/2 ton towable, decent cabin space, seems perfect. Looks like a much 'bigger' 22 than other brands.

And then what do you know, an older 1994 model pops up online for a decent price. Now I know that's an older boat, but I'm not afraid of a little sweat equity. So I head on down today to take a look.

Gelcoats in mostly good shape, maybe 3 too many layers of bottom paint, but ok, we can handle that. Couple of decent chips that could be filled, nothing bad yet.

OX66 steering arm is really, really rusty. Ok, it's an older motor, and I'm not averse to the idea of repowering this thing in the nearish future. Or if these arms can be swapped out fairly easily, who knows, I can research that when I get home.

Step up on the deck, ok, deck feels good, aaaand then the fuel tank hatch. Oof. Super soft and bouncy. ok.. ok... we can refurb that without too much effort. Pop the port battery hatch cover off and stick my head down. Not bad. Looks pretty clean, considering the age. But hey - there's a ever-so-slight vertical crack on the leading edge of one of the reinforcing ribs glassed to the transom. Uh oh. I give it a firm tap with my fingertip... and my heart sinks. Sounds hollow, like the wood inside has turned to dust.

And I just start imagining that if I started chasing that bad wood, how far would I be going.. down into the stringers? Into the transom itself? If I were to pop off that spongy hatch over the tank, what kind of other horrors might I find?

I didn't mention that I redid the transom on my little Sea Hunt back in 2017, so it just brought all sorts of PTSD out of me.

Anyway. My sad tale for the day. If you guys see a nice condition 228 around anywhere, keep me in mind.

 

[nuclear]

I came from a SH 172 to the GW 228 so it's a great step forward. Don't get disheartened and keep looking.

 

[Ky Grady]

Definitely don't get discouraged. The 228 is a highly sought after boat. Keep looking. Great size and capability for most people. Easy to trailer without permits.

My 228 actually found me. I was asking questions about them on here and one of our members reached out through private message and said he was interested in selling his. I was in the process of selling a sports car to make way for a boat. He understood and we talked daily from January '17 till I got the car sold in April '17. Had a gentleman's agreement on it and he never advertised it elsewhere. Made a road trip from Kentucky to Tampa Florida in late April of '17 and brought her home.

I was looking for one with a F250 but the price was right on this one and he also worked with me on price so I could have the exhaust done on the F225. Hope to repower in the fall of '21 to the 4.2 F250. The F225 has served me well so far, just wanting to max out the HP for the boat, which was the original plan all along after the purchase.

Keep looking, you'll find one.

 

[MooseheadDoc]

At least you have a good idea how to evaluate a used boat and are willing to listen to your head instead of your gut to a greater degree than most! Agree with your comment about "feeling big". I'm new to my 208. We are very much in downsizing mode and my goal was to find a small boat that "felt big". Bingo.
Good luck. If you kiss enough frogs you'll eventually find that prince.............

 

[Venator]

At least you have a good idea how to evaluate a used boat and are willing to listen to your head instead of your gut to a greater degree than most!

Unfortunately it's like most effective lessons, personal experience. When I bought my current boat, I was so excited (first real boat!) that I didn't look deeply into the bilge or anything like that. Eventually I discovered a large crack on the inside of the transom, and the typical weeping 'rust' marks down the bolt holes (from my understanding, actually wood tannins). It wasn't rotten too badly yet, but was very wet and I think the crack had come from the water freezing.

It was months of tearout and rebuild. Very happy with how it turned out, and I learned a LOT, but it's not something I'm ready to do again... unless maybe it's a very sweet boat (something I see myself holding on to long-term) at a very, very sweet price.

 

[Venator]

Definitely don't get discouraged. The 228 is a highly sought after boat. Keep looking. Great size and capability for most people. Easy to trailer without permits.

My 228 actually found me. I was asking questions about them on here and one of our members reached out through private message and said he was interested in selling his. I was in the process of selling a sports car to make way for a boat. He understood and we talked daily from January '17 till I got the car sold in April '17. Had a gentleman's agreement on it and he never advertised it elsewhere. Made a road trip from Kentucky to Tampa Florida in late April of '17 and brought her home.

I was looking for one with a F250 but the price was right on this one and he also worked with me on price so I could have the exhaust done on the F225. Hope to repower in the fall of '21 to the 4.2 F250. The F225 has served me well so far, just wanting to max out the HP for the boat, which was the original plan all along after the purchase.

Keep looking, you'll find one.

Yeah, and this boat didn't check all the boxes for me. Was missing rocket launchers. Had no bow pulpit. No trim tabs. All things that could be remedied/overlooked, with used boats it's not always easy to find everything. Maybe the 'one' is out there that has more of the options I need.

 

[Ky Grady]

Yeah, and this boat didn't check all the boxes for me. Was missing rocket launchers. Had no bow pulpit. No trim tabs. All things that could be remedied/overlooked, with used boats it's not always easy to find everything. Maybe the 'one' is out there that has more of the options I need.

It will be. It's great that you're aware of the normal options that are a plus to have. My '04 had pretty much all available options for the '04 model year, offered by Grady-White. Granted I've replaced a lot of them with new and updated pieces, but they were all there originally.