Grady-White Sailfish 272

Crawling over a Grady-White is like playing Pick-A-Box with a prize behind every hatch. It might be a deck wash, a tackle drawer, a livewell, or just another handy storage hold. It seems that everywhere you look, there's some neat built-in feature.

Grady-Whites are a picture of seaworthiness. Their hulls are foam-filled, hand-laid, finely crafted and as capable of taming Australian waters as one of our home-grown best.

And their walkaround or centre console layouts deliver volumes of fishing space, while their mouldings are a reflection of great tooling and decades of expert toiling.

So, even while tied off to the dock or on a hardstand at a boat show, Grady- Whites turn heads. Their proportions are right, with enough deck space to fish a team, enough protected seating to run to the grounds in comfort, and enough room down below to camp aboard for a weekend.

But it's not until you actually get to drive one and experience that distinctive Carolina-flared bow rise above the water and 'woosh' back down, that you realise these are boats made for travelling to distant fishing grounds. They deliver something called driving pleasure.

BEATING THE GREENBACK
It's taken decades - since the 1950s, in fact - for America's most famous fishing boat marque to arrive in Australia. Making its mark at a time when the US dollar is so strong yells volumes about the brand's pull.

While we're not talking huge sales, the flagship sportsfisher from North Carolina has been the boat of choice for several Aussie fishermen. This reflects one thing - people value quality. And as always, quality is something you must pay for.

Importantly, Grady-White chose this year's Sydney Boat Show to launch its latest model, the Sailfish 272.

The new vessel is the company's first foray into diesel power, which may well have been inspired by markets such as ours. No longer content with being a household name in fishing boats on the east coast of the USA, Grady-White is obviously fishing around for new markets.

Importer Naish Hogan is a big boater from Sydney who decided to downsize but still wanted the quality of an upmarket vessel.

A longtime admirer of Grady-White he is, in fact, the motivation behind the recent arrival of the 272 Sailfish in Australia.

FAMILY FRIENDLY
John Barrow, the owner of the first Sailfish 272 to land Down Under, had also long been a fan of the brand. You see, he lived in America where every third boat was Grady-White.

He had previously owned a Wellcraft lake boat, but his wife was interested in getting a boat which was more family-orientated, so that the kids could fish from it as well.

The 272 Sailfish seemed a logical choice. It's a very safe boat for eager junior anglers, with plenty of seating and a layout which can switch from fishing to weekend runabout mode in the blink of an eye.

And in that sense, the 272 Sailfish is your archetypal Grady-White.

It's a walkaround, which the company pitches as the perfect compromise boat. With a central cabin and lots of built-in amenities - even a fully-enclosed head and a workable galley - the 272 is well suited to weekend trips.

There's room down below for mum, dad and two small fry. While at sea there's room and seats to fish at least four anglers. Such attributes are why a 28-footer is such a nice size for sports and gamefishing.

CLASS OF ITS OWN
Offshore is where the 272 really shines. Though the transom has a built-in bench seat, there's a walk-through transom door so you can actually stand outside and fish - just watch the bities.

Also at the transom of this model are twin outboards - fuel-injected Yamaha 225s - adding a degree of purpose to what is a pretty rig.

Priced from $129,000 as a base boat and around $180,000 as you see it here with some useful options, the 272 is a very sporty fishing boat, made for covering long distances in a hurry and in comfort.

Its foundation is a variable-deadrise hull made from hand-laid fibreglass, with a plywood stringer system encapsulated in resin. The boat is then foam-filled, making for a quiet ride and an unsinkable vessel in the event of swamping. It is also topped with a full fibreglass liner with all those built-ins.

Engineering touches include PVC conduits for carrying cables and wiring, fishboxes which drain overboard and not into the bilge, and 316 stainless steel, brass or bronze fittings. Behind the dash, the electronics and wiring looms are all perfectly accessible.

DESIGNER TOUCHES
To me the real attraction of the Grady-White is its keel-to-the-coamings design. Everywhere you look there's a smart feature and everywhere you turn there's bump-free fibreglass because these features are built in so smartly.

Around the big cockpit you can find a pull-out freshwater deckwash, tackle cabinet, two livewells, and lots of insulated iceboxes. There are toerails and padded coamings to make leaning outboard comfortable, side storage racks, recessed cleats and solid bowrails. There is also an anchor well which can hold a pile of rope.

The helm seats, adjustable fore and aft, are fixed on seatboxes. There's a well-planned dash with room for an array of fish-finding electronics and an overhead radio box. The dedicated switchpanel has buttons for everything including wipers, and the view out through the screen is good.

When in fishing mode, the through-bolted rodholders will come in handy, as will the Lees outrigger poles and the truly long-range tanks which let you troll all day and the next. If you're drift fishing, it's also worth noting that the walkarounds are wide enough so you can fight a big fish from any quarter.

From an engineering viewpoint, the computer-controlled battery charger, the seacocks and the access to the fuel taps are all very impressive.

But in a way it's what you don't see - the foam and the stiff grid system of stringers beneath the floor - that reflect its sense of quality.

ROOM TO MOVE
Down below you'll find full headroom, a V-berth and dinette, a galley with fridge, hot and cold water, microwave and standing-height bathroom with shower and toilet. You can't help but notice the finish that money buys here - easy-clean, smart and wonderfully moulded.

The mouldings are all radiused and bump-free and the planning really does make the most of cabin space. The V-berth and dinette convert to a double berth and the designers have even managed to squeeze in a transverse berth back aft.

The hardtop overhead is no less impressive and is mounted on lots of classy polished or anodised aluminium. It includes hand-holds for when you scamper to the bow and a rocket-launcher which can carry five trolling outfits.

RUNNING WIDE
Offshore, the 272 generates a smooth ride on its padded helm seats, imparting a sense of solidity even when you free-fall into the troughs.

And the Grady's distinctive Carolina flared bow does a fair job of pushing back the spray. (Why don't more local sportsfishing boats have bows with a seaworthy profile, not that ugly down-hooked reverse sheer?)

With twin 225hp Yamaha Saltwater Series outboards, top speed was 40kt-plus. But anyone less than an oil baron will run at 3800rpm and 24kt. This is fast enough to reach the edge of the Continental Shelf in under an hour off most east coast gamefishing ports.

There's a lot to talk about here and, well, I could go on about the finer points. But it's the overall impression of quality which sums up the Grady-White product best.

Surely, there are few more luxurious ways to go fishing than in this walkaround canyon-runner.

And now that the 272 is available with diesel power, it's something which you can fish all day for a fraction of the cost of running twin outboards.

Sure, money might stand in the way. But what price can you put on happiness?

Box Story: LEADER OF THE PACK...

Several things impressed me about Yamaha's big gun, the 225hp Saltwater Series. From a purely subjective view, they seemed remarkably smoke-free and quiet at idle. And they were easy to start thanks to CDI-microcomputer ignition.

But it was also while running around that these motors remained quiet and even at 5500rpm and 40kt-plus they weren't obtrusive.

This could also be said of their physical presence.

Being compact 76° V-sixes, they don't take up a world of room and, upon the Grady-White their powerheads were clear of the water at all times.

Designed especially for offshore work, Yamaha's Saltwater Series features more stainless components and some very handy digital gauges.

Yamaha's LCD multi-function gauges include a tacho for speed, rpm, trim, but the fuel-flow meter and trip log were, in combination, perhaps the most useful for long-range anglers.

There isn't much else to say here other than if big outboards are your thing, the Yamahas are the motors of choice of many of the biggest outboard-powered sportsfisher makers in the world.

And I guess it says something that Grady-Whites appear to carry them more than other brands...