My next boat was a 1997 Grady-White Sailfish. I spared no expense rigging the Sailfish (Furuno radar, Simrad autopilot, custom tower with Rupp tower release outriggers, etc). I kept the Sailfish in a slip at a marina at Port Canaveral. Unfortunately, it didn't take me long to realize that the Sailfish was a big mistake. I assumed (D'oooh! never assume) that because I was so happy with the Grady Strike 24, I would be equally happy with the Grady Sailfish. The walk-around format was very difficult to fish from when fishing alone (which I do on a regular basis). I was also very disappointed in the performance of the Sailfish when offshore conditions were steep 3-5 footers (i.e., Oct-March). The weight of the cabin caused the boat to pound horribly because it couldn't keep the bow up (or down). It was also a huge battle to keep the boat running just above planing speed in these conditions because it would bog down and surge (even though it had the max rated HP and was properly propped). I had to continuously play with the throttle to maintain the desired speed when running in lumpy conditions and it would still pound the crap out of you. Apparently Grady-White agreed that the Sailfish 272 hull had performance issues because starting with the 1998 model year, they extended the hull planing surface all the way back to the end of the drive bracket. My Grady dealer said that the hull was modified to resolve the slow speed planing performance issues.
Because of the gas swilling twin Yamaha 225 EFI engines, the Sailfish had significantly less range than the Grady-White Strike 24 (Barely enough to make the run to "the other side" of the Gulf Stream). It was also much more difficult to fish while alone than the Strike 24. The good news was that it sold to the first people who looked at it after I decided it was time to get a new boat. I must have priced it too low. Oh well.
I had a crow's nest added above the hard-top so that a person (volunteer of course) could stand up there and be a lookout for "stuff" and with the autopilot remote control it was possible to do some basic maneuvering while offshore. The other (and primary) reason for adding the crows nest was that it allowed the outriggers to be moved up and out of the way. I figured that eventually I would add an upper control station, but before doing so, I decided that the Sailfish was a big mistake and it was time to start looking for a new boat.
I also had the boat's name, "oneWolf", painted on the side of the boat.
This photo was taken while we were anchored on the leeward side of Whale Cay, Abacos.
After a fresh coat of bottom paint on the Grady. It's amazing how much menial labor you can get done when you take the summer off from "real" work....
