Looking to upgrade to a bigger walk around. Narrowed it down to either the sailfish or a marlin 300. We go to the upper cheasepeake bay area and stay on the boat for a week. We also go to the Indian River Marina for a week and a couple of weekends and we always stay on the boat. We can manage staying on the offshore 24 for 2 to 3 days. When we stay longer we bring a searay cabin cruiser. Look at getting rid of the cabin cruiser and getting a bigger walk around designed for offshore and inshore fishing. My budget dictates it will be a late 80's or earlier 90's model. Which one would u choose for living aboard for up to a week And why?
marlin or sailfish for extended stays?
- Thread starter lime4x4
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Fishtales
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Had a SF for 5 years and the Marlin for 8 now. If you can afford it, the Marlin is the boat. Rides much bigger and more room in the cabin. If you are spending that much time on it, I'd check the 30 Express, bigger cabin.
We stay on our 91 Marlin like it just fine. We also have a Sea Ray 340 cabin cruiser. The Marlin is our primary fishing boat. For our family of five ,our three daughters use the Marlin and the captain and I stay on the Sea Ray. Sometimes the wife and I will take the marlin to Cape Lookout the night before we head out to the Gulf. Its comfortable for two not sure beyond that. I have a honda generator and a small A/C unit that we got at lowes that keeps the cabin comfortable. (run the vent out the window) For the size of the cabin it is very functional. Always impressed with Gradys use of space. I really can not think of any improvements that i would make. Good luck There is a nice 90 on ebay I believe it is in SC
I took my 94 Sailfish out yesterday after three weekends of bluefin tuna fishing on a friends 96 Marlin. The first thought when I got back on my Sailfish was "Who shrunk the boat?" They are practically carbon copies of each other except for the size and where it is the most noticeable is in the beam.
Younger, thinner folks (or newlyweds) will disagree but he V-birth area of the Sailfish really only sleeps one comfortably and my wife gets that when we overnight. I sleep in the mid berth. The Marlin's mid berth is both longer and wider then the Sailfish's and the V-birth is correspondingly larger as well. However, the differences are not "night and day." I suspect you will be uncomfortable on either boat after a whole week so the question will be how much discomfort are you willing to put up with when weighed against the other features of the two models.
As long as I have an open invitation on my buddies Marlin to scratch my tuna itch, I'm happy with my Sailfish for the time being. For one thing, his Marlin uses perhaps as much as 50% more fuel than my Sailfish. I watch the fuel burn rate with his old-tech 2-strokes and he barely gets 1MPG. Sometimes I see 1.1 but just as frequently see .8 or .9. The Marlin ride is much more comfortable - it's more of a plower then a banger. It is a bit slower than the Sailfish, however - mine screams at 48 MPH. I occasionally fish solo and can easily handle the Sailfish by myself when docking (except when there is a crowd watching :?) My buddies Marlin has a bow thruster so it is very easy to dock but without that, it may be a bit more of a challenge to dock solo (although I'm sure guys here do it.)
Younger, thinner folks (or newlyweds) will disagree but he V-birth area of the Sailfish really only sleeps one comfortably and my wife gets that when we overnight. I sleep in the mid berth. The Marlin's mid berth is both longer and wider then the Sailfish's and the V-birth is correspondingly larger as well. However, the differences are not "night and day." I suspect you will be uncomfortable on either boat after a whole week so the question will be how much discomfort are you willing to put up with when weighed against the other features of the two models.
As long as I have an open invitation on my buddies Marlin to scratch my tuna itch, I'm happy with my Sailfish for the time being. For one thing, his Marlin uses perhaps as much as 50% more fuel than my Sailfish. I watch the fuel burn rate with his old-tech 2-strokes and he barely gets 1MPG. Sometimes I see 1.1 but just as frequently see .8 or .9. The Marlin ride is much more comfortable - it's more of a plower then a banger. It is a bit slower than the Sailfish, however - mine screams at 48 MPH. I occasionally fish solo and can easily handle the Sailfish by myself when docking (except when there is a crowd watching :?) My buddies Marlin has a bow thruster so it is very easy to dock but without that, it may be a bit more of a challenge to dock solo (although I'm sure guys here do it.)
Me and wife can stand being on our 27 foot cabin cruiser as long as the weather isn't extremely hot. The main thing the wife needs is to be able to stand up in the cabin area and to have a stand up head. The sailfish would be slightly easier to tow compared to a marlin. Both boats have ample fishing room. Both boats have ample live wells and fish boxes and both boats have enclosed transoms. I've found a few sailfishes on the 20K to 25K range. Most marlins i found are 40K. Is the extra 20K worth the wider beam and bigger cabin?. We could a do a week on the offshore if it had a stand up cabin and head. I've also found a few project marlins and sailfishes which i'm not agnaist if the price is right.
We have an 05 Sailfish. It's fine for my wife and I for two nights...that's probably about the limit. We'd prefer the Marlin or more so the Express but the cost difference was too much for us. If you can afford it, go bigger. As much as we love our Sailfish, we still secretly wish it was bigger.
lime4x4 said:
You could probably find a decent older Marlin closer to 30K. Here is one for $22K:
http://www.boattrader.com/listing/1990- ... -102249584
For Gradys that old, I'd be tempted to look for one that has already had the transom replaced. Either that or find one that needs a transom at a good price and do or have it done. (My transom was replaced in 2006 after only 12 years.)
I'm not opposed to a project boat. I've put transom's in before. Know how to fiberglass, rewire and work on the engines. Since i'm looking at late 80's basically because i like the lines of that era. then again boats of that age suprise ya. My 86 offshore the transom is still solid yet. Just because the boat is 30 years old doesn't mean the boat is water logged or the transom is shot
lime4x4 said:
I hear you but there were issues with the early eurotransoms where rainwater tended to get in from the top and rot things from the top down.
Checkout this thread - TBone's posts in particular - that is what happened to mine:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9907
A Marlin repair is discussed here with photos. They tackled it from the inside. Mine was done from the outside which seems like an easier way to do it.
http://forums.bateau2.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=27833
Cheers,
-Scott
I have owned both the Sailfish and the Marlin. Both great fishing boats, however the Admiral (i.e.., wife) would only spend 2 nights max on the Sailfish. The Marlin has much more room and we have spent over a week at a time on it. If you can afford it go with the Marlin.