GW Marlin or BW Conquest?

GW or BW

  • Total voters
    28
P

Piccadilly

Member
Esteemed experts, I am looking at purchasing a boat for full season salmon fishing, trips to a gulf island rec property across the straight and occasional overnighting with wife and daughter. While not great for trailering or fishing solo, I have narrowed it down to the GW 30 Marlin or Whaler Conquest 31.5 as best all around fits. Pricing seems comparable. Can’t decide between the two. What would you do?

Cheers,
Pic
 
Grady for me and I like whalers a lot too but I've been on both and found the ride much smoothet in transit on the grady. Let your own back be the judge however. Nice choices to make.
 
What vintage Conquest? If 2012 and newer I’d go with the Conquest, if older I’d say it’s a toss up. I like the folding transom seat on the Whaler, and the walk around on the Marlin takes up interior space. Much easier to find a Marlin, and at a reasonable price.

Or go with a Pursuit and not look back!
 
CBsqrd said:
What vintage Conquest? If 2012 and newer I’d go with the Conquest, if older I’d say it’s a toss up. I like the folding transom seat on the Whaler, and the walk around on the Marlin takes up interior space. Much easier to find a Marlin, and at a reasonable price.

Or go with a Pursuit and not look back!
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Looking at newer, but depreciated options rather than new (2014+) Although that limits the options included ie. not sure if I need the generator or bow thruster...

I like the higher bridge on the GW but the whaler’s pop-up table and deck seating would be great for cruises with friends. Gotta sell the wife so the whaler seems to win on that front. Agree good options but ain’t cheap.

So far the poll is fairly even so hopefully I can’t go wrong.
 
I have owned two 315 Conquests (2016 and 2017) and a 306 Grady CC. Both hulls run very very well in our waters.

Having said that, the Grady 300 Marlin and the Whaler 315 Conquest are very different boats as far as layout and usable space inside and out goes.

The Grady 300 Marlin is the same hull as the 306 CC and the 305 Express. The Marlin is a walk-around so you lose a lot of inside cabin space to the walk around component. Also quite tight between Marlin captain and copilot seating due to this.

The Grady will have gravity drain fish holds everywhere, no pumps to ever worry about. That's a good feature. The ability to throw things up the side walkways (bumpers, nets, etc) is convenient.

The Whaler 315 has in floor fish boxes which flood nicely 1/3 of the way with ocean water - helps keep the fish cool and keep them perpetually rinsing with fresh sea water as the fishing day is ongoing. The dinette converts into a very large bed in the 315 Conquest. The Marlin bed in the dinette area is very small.

The 315 Conquest has full glass windshield - no eisenglass to age, cloud, drip, sweat or leak on you.

For all around use and more overnighting, it's hard to beat the 315. For day fishing with an occasional overnight the Marlin is good. There is just a lot of space wasted on that walk around so if you're not going to take advantage of the walk around or if you plan to overnight regularly the Marlin may be too much of a compromise.

Where are you finding the 315 for similar cost to the Grady 300? They are usually vastly different in pricing.
 
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CBsqrd said:
What vintage Conquest? If 2012 and newer I’d go with the Conquest, if older I’d say it’s a toss up. I like the folding transom seat on the Whaler, and the walk around on the Marlin takes up interior space. Much easier to find a Marlin, and at a reasonable price.

Or go with a Pursuit and not look back!
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Agree,in this price range Pursuit should be on your list.
 
I'm a big fan of the pursuits as well. In general I've preferred to ride/fish out of Grady's versus Whalers in my time. I've found the ride to be better in the Grady and the layout for fishing is also better, IMO. The super high gunwales on the Whaler's have always turned me off but I'm not sure about the exact models of GW and Whaler's you are looking at. I've also found some of the Whaler's I've fished out of a bit tippy while trolling. Splitting hairs here a bit as they are all sweet boats but I'm Grady > Whaler .... and look into Pursuits too!
 
I like all three brands - Pursuit, Grady, Whaler.

They all have pros and cons to them.

Owned a Pursuit 2870 (2004) and 345OS (2014) and a Tiara 4200 Open (2004). Owned a Grady 330 (2002), 282 (2006), and 306 (2005). Owned both a 2016 and 207 315 Conquest. 306 Grady Bimini is the same hull as the 300 Marlin and the 305 Express.

The Whaler has more headroom than either 315 and 345 Pursuit inside the cabin. Also the dinette bed is much larger in the Whaler than the Pursuit. The pursuit fish boxes do not drain very well and you need to physically hold the switch on at the helm to drain, which makes clean out much harder single-handed. You also need to get down on the deck and reach into the fish box on the aft end when you have the lid up. PITA. The Whaler is an entire hatch that you pop up and spray out then hit the Whale Gulper diaphragm pump to clean things out.

The Gradys are easy to clean out as they are all gravity drains.

The 306, 330, 315, 345 all ride very similarly in our waters. You will not notice a ride difference in our waters at our normal 'watch out for logs' speed.

The 345 was a bit of a dog when all tanks were full. Coming out of the hole was a challenge with only two props biting the water. The F350s would spin the props no problem but you were patiently waiting for the hull to catch up to the motors while trying to get on plane. Was ok in our local waters but was a problem in the big offshore swells in Ukee/Tofino waters when trying to maintain plane at 16-18mph up the faces of the swell on the way out to the grounds.
 
I had a 2008 GW 305 express with 300 G2 evinrudes. If I had to do it again I would grab a BW 315 with the new hull design and cabin config. I would do the canvas back with 350 verados. I have a family of 4 with a 10 and 7 year old. The sight lines and access to the cuddy is down the middle of the boat, so when yer in the cuddy you can see direct to the transom. The 300 marlin isn’t quite as airy feeling. The solid windscreen is waaay better on the 315. The Grady canvas above the windscreen is ok, but unless yer gonna actually take it off in the summer it just gets in your way of good visibility. I’m not a fan of ray marine electronics but whatever(ford chev dodge), the back deck feels bigger than the marlin. They’re likely the same size, but for whatever reason the 315 just felt like you had more space.
Get a diesel heater(D4 or equivalent).
The ride is pretty much identical as with the fuel economy. Resale will be about the same too.
I prefer the white of the BW vs the off white of the GW hull colours. Servicing the boat might be a touch easier in van with M&P there for the 315, but I hear great things about parksville boathouse for GW.

Best of luck, and you can’t go wrong with either brand!

Paul
33 CC Profish
 
Hourston 26 said:
I had a 2008 GW 305 express with 300 G2 evinrudes. If I had to do it again I would grab a BW 315 with the new hull design and cabin config. I would do the canvas back with 350 verados. I have a family of 4 with a 10 and 7 year old. The sight lines and access to the cuddy is down the middle of the boat, so when yer in the cuddy you can see direct to the transom. The 300 marlin isn’t quite as airy feeling. The solid windscreen is waaay better on the 315. The Grady canvas above the windscreen is ok, but unless yer gonna actually take it off in the summer it just gets in your way of good visibility. I’m not a fan of ray marine electronics but whatever(ford chev dodge), the back deck feels bigger than the marlin. They’re likely the same size, but for whatever reason the 315 just felt like you had more space.
Get a diesel heater(D4 or equivalent).
The ride is pretty much identical as with the fuel economy. Resale will be about the same too.
I prefer the white of the BW vs the off white of the GW hull colours. Servicing the boat might be a touch easier in van with M&P there for the 315, but I hear great things about parksville boathouse for GW.

Best of luck, and you can’t go wrong with either brand!

Paul
33 CC Profish
Click to expand...

I think it's time to change your member id Paul, that was three boats ago pal!
 
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