Anchorline - The Grady-White Owners' Newsletter

Boat Harbour Forum: How We Spend Our Great Grady Days

Over the course of any year, Grady-White factory representatives visit with several owner groups around the country and beyond to find out what activities people are enjoying aboard their boats and what features they would like to see, and to be inspired by the custom touches Grady owners incorporate. When the venue is Marsh Harbour, Grand Abaco, who could resist the voyage? This past summer, the Grady team held an Owners' Forum with the Grady Bunch.

EDDIE SMITH, LEFT, greets Jo and Rawleigh Tremain.

KRIS CARROLL, LEFT, relaxes with Glenda and Tom Matesic.

JIM AND BARBARA BRUMBAUGH met Grady-White's Joey Weller. right.

The Grady Bunch fleet of Vero Marine Center, FL, heads to the Bahamas annually for major fun and relaxation. This past July was the 20th year they've made the cruise as a club, and on their last day at Marsh Harbour's Abaco Beach Resort and Boat Harbour they were joined by members of the Grady-White management team, including CEO Eddie Smith and President Kris Carroll, for an owners' forum.

Participants Mike and Mary Smith are snowbirds with homes in Shelburne, VT, and Palm City, FL, and they made the trip aboard their Express 330. "Eddie and Kris and their whole team were interested not just in our boats but what's important to us in boating," Mike commented. "For instance, I don't fish but I like to dive, and use our outriggers for dive flags. And we like to cook aboard, and wanted more freezer capability than our 2004 model had, so we'd installed a refrigerator unit with more cooling capacity. David Neese from Engineering showed us the freezer coil system now used in the boxes of newer models."

John and Yvonne Nerness are new club members who made their first Bahamas crossing aboard their Express 330. "I'm a sailor, and enjoy gunkholing in isolated places along the Intracoastal where there are no plug-ins," explains John. "I have a solar panel on the hardtop so I don't have to run the generator as much, and the Grady folks were interested in that. And we've installed a custom extension for davits for our ten-foot Walker Bay, and keep the sail kit for that dinghy rolled up on the side of the hardtop, outside the eisenglass."

"Living aboard our boats for the two weeks, we all were grateful to be on such perfectly designed and engineered boats," reports Jim Stanley, who along with his wife, Liz, owns a Marlin 300. "This was a wonderful trip for a number of reasons. Our captains and cruisers ranged in age from 84 years to 17 months, with interests ranging from deep sea fishing to 'docktails.' The forum comments were about how well our boats performed in varied conditions. The pride of owning a Grady and being a part of the Vero Grady Bunch was evident throughout the fun evening."

Thanks go to the Grady Bunch for taking time on their vacation to "talk shop!"

GRADY STAFF AND GRADY BUNCH CREW visited the home of club member John Chianis at Man-O-War Cay.