Welcome to the forum and congrats on the first post! A few things... if that 2006 GW 232 Gulfstream is the one with a decal of Stewie from Family Guy on it and says "Quahog, RI" then it's very much a scam. Another forum member sent me a link to it the other day on Craigslist where it was "for sale" in Jacksonville, Florida for I think the same $28k price. Yet it's really being listed for sale in Virginia on BoatTrader.com for $57k, as linked below. You know what they say about life... if it sounds too good to be true then it usually is, and that is a "too good to be true" kind of price, even on the east coast. Of which, I think you're definitely going to have to look on the east coast in order to find anything decent for less than $30k. I actually just bought my 2004 GW 228 Seafarer back in Maryland earlier last October for $26.5k that included the boat, motor and trailer. I rented a U-Haul truck and trailered her back to Seattle over 3,000 miles over the next 4.5 days and did all of that because of the price. There was an identical boat that sold out here on the local Seattle Craigslist ad for $55k a few days after I got back into town with my boat. So coming from somebody that looked for a 228 Seafarer for well over a year, I don't think you're going to find any good deals on Grady's out here on the west coast. As Seasick mentioned, I'd go for the newest model year you can afford and would also go down to your local marina or Grady White dealer on a nice day, see if you can make some friends and if they'll let you step on their boat and look around. I think that will definitely help you decide more easily as to which boat is going to be best for you. I personally live in the Seattle area and prefer smaller boats that are more fuel efficient and with a single main motor. Around here we have "vessel assistance" options on our insurance, I think mine is an extra $30 a year, for towing while on the water. Which between that, the relatively mild and protected waters around here along with paying extra for a boat with twin motors and maintenance costs/upkeep, I don't personally have any reasons to get a boat with twin motors on it. I row out to my boat on a mooring buoy from my beach cabin on Whidbey Island and basically start trolling for salmon as soon as I take the boat off the buoy.
Before I bought my 228 Seafarer I went to the local GW dealer that had a 232 Gulfstream for sale, stood on it and wasn't a fan. I didn't need the extra wide 9'3" beam, I wasn't a huge fan of the layout, the stair/step up to the helm area and especially not the bunk bed style cabin. I also hear in some states that you need a special towing permit for towing a 232 Gulfstream because it has the wider beam on it. Not sure about your particular state or not though. I like my 228 Seafarer better because it feels like the space is more usable, the floor is all one level and without any steps/stairs and I like the cabin layout much better. On top of that, it feels like a bigger boat since it has the transom bracket on the back and I've heard the overall length of the boat is like close to 25'+. Also, it's very easy to trailer as well as launch/retrieve/fish/captain and just about anything else on your own. Not saying that 232 Gulfstream is impossible or even difficult to do all of those things with, but it's going to be easier with a smaller, lighter and most importantly narrower boat. That being said, the 232 Gulfstream is a longer, wider and heavier boat so I'm sure it's likely going to do better in the chop and other elements better than my 228 Seafarer will, because of course it's a considerably larger boat. But my 228 Seafarer handles the waves and chop just fine, and way better than my previous boat which was a 21' Arima. That thing would pound like crazy in the 1'-2' chop and was pretty much unbearable. I have seen several Grady White 248 Voyager's for sale over the last several months for pretty decent prices and they have an 8'6" beam as opposed to the 9'3" beam like on the 232 Gulfstream. You can also get them with a single motor or twin main motors, just depends on what you want and how much you want to spend. Some guys like twins for redundancy in the event of one motor failing that you can still get in on the second one, which you could also do with a single main motor as well as a kicker motor. To me, I personally don't see the need for my particular application as I'm not going 40-50 miles each way to go fishing. I saw the below boat on Craigslist the other day in South Carolina while I was casually perusing the internet for boats... doesn't appear to be too bad of a boat, although I'm assuming there's no trailer since there isn't one pictured or even mentioned. With 232 Gulfstream's still being produced I think they're going to bring more of a premium than a 248 Voyager, that was discontinued I believe in the early 2000's?
Find Grady-White Gulfstream 232 boats for sale near you, including boat prices, photos, and more. Locate Grady-White boat dealers and find your boat at Boat Trader!
www.boattrader.com
