The Boating Forum - Thoughts on a good WA, 22-23ft range?

My wife gave me the nod to start looking for an upgrade in size from our 19CC. she wants something with a small cuddy. I thought a WA would be best, good for fishing, good for her. Anyway, I would like to pick up an OLDER hull with a newer engine. 21-23 Ft Range.

Anyone know what some of the best late 80's, 90's hulls are? Any particular ones to avoid? I just started looking and I would rather go with a game plan and some good advise.

Grady White Gulfstream 23'

Bob

Do a search on "WA" for the last year. There have been some very good threads with lots of participation.

Also look at the Grady Seafarer's.

Plenty of older hulls, late 80's-early 90's for sale, mostly with original power. Unfortunately most of the sellers think their engines will go forever and if you add the cost of the hull with older engines to the cost of a repower you end up more or less at the same cost of a late model used hull with late model engines.

What I am saying I think is that an old hull with brand new engines costs as much as a late model hull with late model engines.

I am right there with Seajay. We started out looking for an older outboard hull figuring to repower. But once you look at the risk you take with an older outboard and at what a new outboard costs, you are quickly in the realm of much newer hulls with original power. We ended up staying with our original game plan though and just not buying an outboard powered boat. Instead, we bought a late 80's Shamrock inboard with a low hour engine. Even if the motor had turned out to be a dog, a brand new 5.7 bobtail motor installed is still less than half the cost of a 200+ hp outboard. The 22' Shamrock is a very nice boat with a different hull design than the wet riding shallow vee of the 20' boats. And they still have a keel for running gear protection (which is an important consideration for me since I stress tested mine by running over a submerged dock section after hurricane Isabelle and did not so much as ding the prop). So, IMO, the 22' Shamrocks are very nice boats and might be an alternative worth considering.

I like the Hydra's and Grady's - probably my top two choices. I called Grady Customer service and everything prior to '98 has considerable non-treated wood. That makes me a tad concerned about rot considering I own a 2000 Hull now with no wood. You guys have a good point with the later models and later engines. I just started to look so I will probably throw a couple of specific queations up once I get really serious about one particular make. Grady and Hydra do have some really nice 22 ft hulls. Thanks for the input.

Seajay is unfortunately right most of the time. I have been around lots of power and sailboats for a number of years, so I know what goes wrong. Buying an 80's hull with original power is asking for trouble; not saying you can't do it, if you just buy a good hull and trailer for cheap. Putting value on an old motor will be hard on the wallet. But yes, all sellers think their engines are just great.....it ran like a top last week!! It never ceases to amaze me how inflexible sellers can be on their price just because theirs engines run, completely disregarding the age. And as soon as they start talking about "rebuilt" I just shake my head; who did it? Where are the receipts? Was it rebuilt or completely remanufactured? Was everything replaced or just a piston or two? Be dubious. I know those of us without deep pockets have a hard time rationalizing the cost of a later model, but in the end you probably save money.....and have a better boat. It's just that up front that hurts........

Just a thought. Everyone seems tobe concerned about rot with boats that used wood. while this is something tobe concerned about. I've found many older boat that have been as soild as the day they were built. They were built with the right amout of glass and the proper wood. How good is a boat built with no wood but the same poor workmanship i,ve seen in some of the older boats i,ve worked on. Has the workmanship and quality control improved on these
NO WOOD boats ;?
Exposed composites will soak up water to,right?
Just thinking out loud.