2024 Grady-White Freedom 375 Review

Split consoles are back in vogue as buyers look to use their boats differently. Most centre console owners are all about fishing, with entertaining incidental and occasional, but the split console owner tends to spend time equally divided between fishing and entertaining.

In Australia, this type of layout is starting to suit more owners who want a fast and nimble luxury boating platform that's an alternative to a larger, and slower, bluewater cruiser.

A shining example of this new format is our subject for this test, the Grady-White Freedom 375.

The Grady-White Freedom 375 is the second largest member of the Freedom line of dual console boats, outsized only by the all-new flagship, the Freedom 415. 

Short Marine, Grady-White’s Australian importer, doesn’t see too many first-time buyers stepping into the larger boats. Instead, they’re moving up from smaller models in the Grady-White range, sticking with a brand they know, trust and more importantly, like.

The typical layout in this class is the incredibly popular and successful formula of party up front and business out the back.

Forward of the cockpit is dedicated to entertainment and lifestyle, while the aft section is optimised for fishing. It’s a formula as comfortable catching the New Year’s Eve fireworks in the bay as it is running wide, trawling for tuna in 80 fathoms.

Australia’s Short Marine, which has supplied our test boat, has the Grady-White Freedom 375 priced from $1.9 million delivered to Australia and fitted with the default driveline – three 450hp Yamaha XTO Offshore outboard engines.

The boat is positioned as a premium offer, and the standard equipment list more than backs this up. A quick look at some of the highlights – not everything – shows an air-conditioned helm and cabin; an electric-adjust shade cloth extending off the trailing edge of the hardtop; a Bluetooth audio system with eight backlit speakers; wireless phone charging station for the skipper; handheld cockpit and foredeck shower with hot and cold freshwater alongside an aft raw water washdown system; a cockpit side door with a drop-in ladder; a pair of half-moon bow tables that drop down to make a bench seat; a wet bar backing onto the helm seat featuring an electric grill, fridge, sink, drawers and integrated rubbish bin; vacuum flush head; twin windscreen wipers; an anchor windlass with helm and forepeak controls; bow thruster; an 8.0kW diesel genset and a Seakeeper 5 gyroscopic stabiliser.

The brightwork is all stainless steel, including the steering wheel; pop-up cleats; 17 cupholders; handrails, through-hull fittings; quick-release fender cleats; cockpit toe rails and more.

There are more rod holders around the boat than many people will have rods to put in them

Also included is Siren Marine’s remote vessel monitoring system allowing owners to keep an eye on their boat via a smartphone app. Because the engines are from Yamaha, the helm’s fit-out includes Helm Master EX joystick control.

A short list of factory options includes a choice of hull colours replacing the white gelcoat; a 5.5-metre outrigger kit; U-shaped aft lounge seating instead of the fold-down bench; a TV built into the hardtop; and a bow shade cloth.

Our test boat has the optional pastel blue hull and a pair of outriggers, giving it an added sportfish-hungry look.

Grady-White’s entire range of boats, ranging from 5.5 metres up to 13.7 metres in length, is built on top of the SeaV2 hull. The hull has been refined over the years to give what Grady-White describes as the driest, softest, and most stable ride in the industry.

The Freedom 375 features a moderate deadrise at the stern rising to a deep vee at the bow. A Grady-White signature is that the depth of the vee is carried a long way aft of the hull, further than a lot of other designs.

This gives the Grady-White Freedom 375 more righting momentum while underway, making it more stable in quartering or following seas.

The hull itself is hand-laid using a solid fibreglass base and a foam core fibreglass sandwich for the sides and composite stringers internally. All voids are foam-filled to help with flotation in the event the boat is swamped.

The hull is given a five-year transferable factory warranty, while materials and workmanship carry a one-year warranty.

The Grady-White Freedom 375 is delivered to Australia prerigged with its engines. If you’re keen to get a boat rigged with Yamaha’s hard-to-get flagship 450hp XTO Offshore V8 engines, this is one way to do it.

The Freedom 375 is also equipped with an outboard engine freshwater flushing system built into the transom. It’s a simple process of tilting the engines up out of the water, fitting a hose to a single outlet, turning it on and letting it run.

The Grady-White Freedom 375 features a self-draining cockpit and two 11,000-litre-an-hour bulge pumps.

There’s a fairly standard layout for this class of boat and Grady-White Freedom 375 doesn’t buck the trend.

The heavily flared bow, framed in a low handrail, creates a huge amount of space forward for a bow lounge, accessed via a central companionway between the two large consoles that are shaped so that they maximise the headroom in the voids below.

There is good under-seat storage forward, and a fold-up seat base in the middle that gives easier standing access to the anchor locker.

The Grady-White Freedom 375’s anchor is hidden away in the bow's stem, out of sight from the helm. The forepeak hides a huge chain locker fitted with a winch, foot controls to raise and lower, and a washdown system.

Moving aft, the split console features the helm to starboard and the first mate’s L-shaped two-seater bench seat, which can add a removable table, to port. A deep underfloor storage box, supported on gas struts, is located in between the helm chairs, while overhead is a large sunroof.

These seats back onto an entertainment space featuring plenty of seating and a properly equipped wet bar/galley station with a sink, drawers, a Kenyon electric grill and an Isotherm fridge, all optimised for cold drinks and fresh burgers. The space can also double as a bait preparation station at a pinch.

On the opposite side is a large, high-backed two-seater lounge facing aft. It is formed into the back of the helm seat and includes a pull-out storage drawer built into the seatback, as well as another below the seat. An electrically adjustable section slides out to convert one side of the bench into a chaise long.

Our test boat has a flip-out lounge seat along the transom, converting the space into a large entertainment zone. When stowed, it is raised from the cockpit floor to make it easy to get a toe under while fishing.

A small transom door opens to a flat deck with a telescopic swim ladder.

Over to starboard is a large dive door that includes a drop-in ladder.

The accommodations are split between an under-console living space to port, and a multifunction head compartment to starboard.

We’ll start with the head compartment. Swing open a large door and descend three steps and you’re in a long, narrow, almost catamaran-like tunnel of space. Right forward is an electric-flush head that faces aft.

This is a huge space with good standing headroom, so when it isn’t being used as a toilet and shower – it’s also a wet head with hot and cold water on tap – it’s a great after-swim changeroom.

On one bulkhead is the Grady-White’s electrical switch panel, and below it is a microwave oven – odd given a small galley space is below decks on the other side of the boat. Good large and small item storage abounds, there is a mirrored vanity unit, and an opening porthole lets in natural light and airflow.

Duck out of the console and walk around in front of the starboard first mate’s chair, and you’re standing before the access door to the under-console living space.

This door is huge, appearing to swing what feels like half the console out and around to provide almost enough access space for two people to head below side-by-side.

Three steps down, and forward of you is a settee that can convert into a berth with the help of an infill cushion. There is plenty of cupboard storage built into the space.

To one side are the controls for the Grady-White Freedom 375’s airconditioning system. The space is flooded with natural light, and again, an opening porthole provides airflow.

Aft, in a crawl space under the mezzanine floor, is a large double-size bed that runs almost the full beam of the hull.

The Grady-White Freedom 375 is a high-performance boat, so it's good that it is backed up with a high-performance helm.

The helm station is a step up from the cockpit floor. The starboard helm is a practical and comfortable space to sit, although the two-seat bench behind it has no side support so in rougher conditions the co-pilot will wash from side to side if they don't have a firm grasp of the handhold in front of the seat.

Flip-up sections on boat seats make it easy to sit or stand in both positions, aided by a two-level footrest built into the console and a tilt-adjustable stainless steel steering wheel. An air-conditioning vent is tucked under the skipper's elbow.

It's a busy-looking dash, with the autopilot controls set low, Helm master EX joystick, digital shift and throttle control, Fusion audio system head unit, Bennett trim tabs and the switch for the Lewmar bow thruster all set low.

Above it is a flat dash featuring twin 19.0-inch Garmin GPSMap multifunction chartplotters and fishfinders, and the headless Garmin VHF radio.

Above that are traditional-look rocker switches for the Grady-White's day-to-day electrical needs, as well as a digital display for the Yamaha engines powering this boat, framing a deep-set compass.

Small-item storage for the skipper is good, and there is a flat bit of space in front of the co-pilot to stash a smartphone that's not in the helm's wireless recharging cradle.

The inboard side of the helm also has a locking glovebox, while overhead, the hardtop has in-built fishing rod holders, a large netted space for stowing life jackets in easy reach, and another drop-down glovebox.

On the other side, the bench seat again does not feature side bolsters to stop those seated from washing off it in rougher conditions. There is another head unit for the fusion audio system, as well as 12-volt and USB recharging ports, and good small item storage.

Pretty much all of the fishing action in the Grady-White Freedom 375 is focused on the cockpit.

Deep and wide, it's a good working space, padded all around the coaming tops and with good toe space so you can get up tight against the more than 70cm-deep wall to brace.

The transom is quite thick, featuring a large drained and refrigerated kill tank to starboard, with removable dividers to either keep fish separated or open up space to swallow a whole tuna, and a plumbed live bait tank to port. A transom door to port leads to an aft duckp=board extending past the engine pod, complete with a telescopic ladder.

There's no dedicated bait station, so you'll need to turn to the compact galley at the forward end of the cockpit to do double duties.

There are plenty of rod holders, with three stainless steel versions recessed into the coamings on either side, and two on each side of the metal frame used to support the trailing edge of the hardtop.

There is no rocket launcher due to the awning that extends from the trailing edge of the hardtop. However, there is a recess under the hardtop to store another four short rods.

A quick-release system mounted on the hardtop allows you to easily deploy the outriggers.

Big power means big performance, and behind us is 1350hp of heavy-lifting 5.6-litre V8 Yamaha XTO Offshore engines ready for whatever challenges we can throw at them.

However, our test starts with at-rest stability, a point of weakness for some deep-vee boats.

The Grady-White Freedom 375 is a heavy boat, weighing more than 7300kg even before the extra weight of almost 1300kg of engines is fitted to the transom. However, the 20-degree deadrise at the transom makes it a fairly shallow vee.

That translates to pretty good stability at rest, even with a couple of bodies wandering across the aft deck.

Heading out of Sydney's Middle Harbour towards Manly, conditions were fairly lumpy in the wake of strong north-easterly winds the previous day.

At gentle speeds, the Freedom 375 tracks wonderfully and smoothly, cutting confidently through the water.

Up the speed, and the SeaV2 hull exudes confidence. It's actually difficult to fault the Grady-White's performance, apart from maybe a bit of excessive bow lift when quickly rolling on the throttles – likely more a product of the strength of the Yamaha XTO Offshore engines propelling us.

Then you chuck it into a turn. This thing just carves through the water, hardly missing a beat as the electronic smarts of the Yamaha engines automatically adjusted revs to keep a constant speed through the arc.

All the while, you're really well protected. The windscreen rises to meet the hardtop, and deep side windows minimise the amount of buffeting. If you need to, a pane in the centre of the windscreen that provides access to the bow lounge can clip open, and a stowable windbreak below can swing back to improve airflow.

The Yamaha joystick control system is a good fit-for-purpose addition to this boat. Centre consoles were always handy as you could chase a fish around the boat, but with the Grady-White Freedom 375 you can use the joystick to keep the cockpit facing the fish.

We didn't get performance figures on test – a bout of sea sickness forced an early end to our efforts – but Grady-White has stumped official figures based on factory numbers that will do for this test.

Performance

*All engines
Maximum range based on 95% reserve for 1200L fuel tank: 239nm at 3000rpm

Grady-White's official figures show that fuel use at higher revs is fairly linear, meaning there is not much penalty for pushing down a bit harder on the throttle lever to shave some time off the run home.

The Yamaha F450s also use dedicated propellers, along with features such as a super-high compression ratio, a wider tilt range (to lift the legs fully out of the water), a high-output 90-amp alternator, electric power steering, a two-stage cooling water pump, and more.

We didn't take this boat offshore for our testing, but even inside the heads where conditions were not exactly brilliant for boating, but not exactly challenging the Grady-White Freedom 375 exudes a level of sure-footedness, performance and refinement that makes it stand out from the crowd.

Forward of the cockpit, it's an entertainer first and foremost, able to swallow a crowd of people for a spot of harbourside sightseeing on a warm and welcoming summer's night.

But then there's the potential to run offshore and mix it with the sportfishers – I was recently in awe of a Grady-White centre console punching out of Newcastle into pretty heavy seas at a pace that would have had our boat crashing and shuddering from one wave to the next.

It's an exclusive club and priced accordingly. But once you're a member, there's no time for regret.

Priced from: TBA including air-conditioned helm (16,000BTU) and cabin (8000BTU); electric-adjust shade cloth; 8-speaker Bluetooth audio system; wireless phone charging station; hot/cold cockpit, foredeck showers; aft raw water washdown system; cockpit side door with drop-in ladder; 2x bow tables; wet bar with electric grill, fridge, sink, drawers and integrated rubbish bin; vacuum flush head; twin windscreen wipers; anchor windlass with helm and forepeak controls; bow thruster; 8.0kW diesel genset; and Seakeeper 5 gyroscopic stabiliser

Price as tested: $1,900,000 including premium hull colour; outriggers 

Supplied by: Short Marine