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Grady White Express 330
Grady-White ups the ante with its latest design: a big, burly express with outboard power.
By John Brownlee
Updated: September 21, 2007

Grady-White’s new 33-foot express model makes a big and bold statement about what we can expect from an outboard boat. It’s obviously large, but it also has beautiful lines, Grady’s usual level of fit-and-finish, and a surprising level of performance at many varied tasks.

The 330 was styled after the company’s successful 265 Express, introduced a couple of years ago. Both boats feature classic express boat styling, very spacious cockpits and roomy cabins down below that can actually accommodate families on real overnight missions. The 330, however, takes this concept to a scale that’s unusual in the world of outboard boats.

Giant Cockpit
The cockpit, for example, boasts 80 square feet of usable fishing room, and it comes with standard features like a transom door, coaming pads and lots of storage. The transom bulkhead contains a cavernous 270-quart fishbox that drains overboard and has a handy cutting board on top of its lid. A drop-in storage box to port holds loose stuff and lifts out for access to the oil tanks, which reside below it. The transom gate is to starboard, and the bulkhead features Grady’s innovative fold-up passenger seat along its forward edge.

Molded boxes at the forward end of the cockpit hold a 45-gallon live well to starboard, with a tackle-storage center beneath it. To port there’s an insulated drink box with storage below, as well as a fresh water sink. These types of units are not usually found on outboard boats.

The raised bridgedeck features a centerline helm station with Grady’s electronically operated electronics box that raises and lowers on electric rams. The gauges are arrayed above the box, and are visible at all times, since you can adjust the electronics to whatever height suits you. There are passenger seats to port and starboard, with a drink cooler located beneath the port seat. The 330 sports a large, wraparound windshield with side vents for fresh air, and a center windshield wiper with fresh water washers to clear away salt spray.

The cabin companionway is located to port of the helm, and leads to the galley. The galley has a stainless sink and Corian countertops, plus a microwave oven, refrigerator, an electric stove and lots of storage. The head is to starboard, and features a VacuFlush head, a sink and a shower. The cabin has teak and holly flooring, and a teak dinette table, once again items normally found on larger, inboard boats.

The 330 sleeps four with ease, two in the spacious vee-berth forward and two more in the aft double berth located beneath the bridgedeck. This innovative use of space is showing up on more and more boats these days, and the aft berth also excels as a storage space when you’re traveling, or if you don’t need the room for guests.

We attempted to take the 330 to the Bahamas from Palm Beach, Florida, for our test, but relentless 25-knot winds and ten-foot seas convinced us to alter our plans. Instead, we headed south to Islamorada, in the Keys, traveling along the South Florida coast in nasty, six- to eight-foot quartering seas. These were great, real-world test conditions, and the 330 rode through the slop with remarkable ease. It never pounded, kept spray to a minimum, and handled predictably and smoothly. It was a surprisingly comfortable ride, given the conditions.

SPECIFICATIONS LOA: 35′ 10″ Beam: 11′ 7″ Draft: 21″ Fuel: 350 gals. Water: 50 gals. Hull weight: 9,500 lbs. Transom deadrise: 20′ Base price w/ twin 250-hp Yamaha outboards: $215,380
The only problem we encountered was some prop slippage when climbing up the faces of particularly large waves at low planing speeds. Outboard props don’t have much diameter and break loose easily when trying to push a heavy boat uphill. We were using three-blade props, and my bet is that four blades would solve the problem.

When the boat is up on top, it is faster than you would expect. In smooth water we got a 28.5 mph cruise speed at 4000 rpm. Wide-open, the 330 hit 41.6 mph with its twin 250-hp Yamaha outboards at 5600 rpm. That’s excellent performance, considering the test boat sported a hardtop.

The 330 comes with an incredible standard-equipment list. Here are just a few of the standard items: a 5 kW Kohler generator, air conditioning, an anchor windlass, a battery charger and the hardtop. The only options listed in the brochure are two different sizes of outriggers and a helm-station cover. The 330 comes ready to fish.

Grady-White has successfully shown the world that outboard power will work well on a boat of this size. The simplicity and reliability that today’s outboards provide reassures many people, and the Express 330 will enable them to venture farther offshore in more style and comfort than many folks ever thought possible.

Grady-White 330 Express Review
Each new boat Grady introduces is better than the last. And with help of C. Raymond Hunt, Naval Architects, each runs better, smoother and dryer than the last, too.
By Dean Travis Clarke
Updated: November 2, 2007

My opportunity to run Grady-White’s new 330 Express came during the most recent Barta Boys and Girls Club Billfish Tournament in Beaufort, North Carolina. Weather proved excellent for a boat test, less so for taking children out fishing. Winds blustered out of the southeast at 20 to 25 knots, making seas not the least bit comfortable. In fact, our common description for these kinds of seas is “all face and no ass”: steep vertical seas with a sudden drop-off on the back side. Unfortunately, our game plan for fishing included heading some 40 nautical miles offshore to a famous fishing spot called “The Big Rock.”

Performance
Heading out the pass, we dropped back to a prudent speed – about 25 mph – where we made good time but didn’t launch the boat or pound after the wave crests. There are two ways to negotiate seas like these: Power up between waves, and then chop the speed back at the crest so as to not come slamming down into the trough, or set the throttles at a constant speed that allows you to move ahead without pounding – ever. The latter usually produces slower speed (though more comfortable), while the faster, former method demands constant, rapid adjustment of the throttles. If you prefer this method, be advised that the angle of the shift/throttle binnacle on the Grady 330 will tire your wrist out quickly. I’d like to see the binnacle positioning change.

Running a brand-new pair of Yamaha 350-hp, V-8 outboards, I discovered that what I really like most about these new engines is their mid-range response. At cruising speed, the boat leaps forward when you push those throttles. The 350s also sound significantly different from the 250s, providing a much throatier rumble, just as you get from a hot muscle car compared to a measly 6-cylinder.

Running the Intracoastal, I managed a 50.4-mph top speed at 5,900 rpm using 67.7 gph. Optimum cruise was 3,900 rpm at 32 mph, providing a 1.22-mpg economy (26.5 gph total).

No matter the point of sea, the 330 proved no slouch. It performed well up-sea, down-sea, turning and drifting beam-to the seas. Perhaps the highest praise I can offer is that it was perfectly predictable.

Fishing
Every person involved in designing Grady-White boats actively fishes. Consequently, the company historically includes many useful and innovative fishing features. For example, the optional freezer coils wrapped around the outside of the fish box make for easier clean up and more volume in the box without stainless plates on the inside. This eliminates the need for stocking up on ice before each trip. Grady was also the first to mount downrigger ball receptacles under each gunwale. The 330 provides space under the gunwales for two rods or gaffs, as well as two rod holders in each gunwale. You’ll find more rod holders across the back of the top as well as belowdecks.

Though Grady doesn’t provide pop-up cleats, it mounts all its fixed cleats in indents so that in profile, they appear to be flush with the gunwale.

To save your gelcoat, Grady affixes a StarBoard cutting surface atop the transom fish box for preparing baits or cleaning your catch on the way back to the dock. And while your doing that, you can feel comforted by the cockpit coaming pads all around.

Other fishing features include a tackle center in the portside module with a sink and another cutting board, and a 45-gallon baitwell in the starboard cockpit module.

Grady does an excellent job of installing the outriggers with strong base plates in the hardtop. If you want such fishing features, it’s a good idea to let the factory do it in this instance.

At trolling speeds, the 330 Express exhibits a remarkably clean wake and the broad beam makes for a very stable platform in a beam-sea drift or troll.

Design and Construction
The 330 shows much more impeccable styling belowdecks than most comparable boats. Grady designers do have good taste. You also get great headroom below.

A V-berth forward boasts storage on the bulkheads, beneath the bed and coaming-style cushions on the perimeter. A small dinette seats two, and the sleeping accommodations also include a roomy midship berth under the bridge deck. Rounding out the interior appointments are a stand-up head with shower, Corian counters, a well-equipped portside galley with ceramic cooktop and polished stainless-steel sink, microwave, flat-screen TV that recesses into the galley cabinetry (beautiful teak cabinetry, by the way) and loads of storage.

Another feature rarely seen on this size boat: Air conditioning both at the dock (shore power) and at sea, thanks to a diesel generator.

Up on the bridge deck, a foldaway leg support on the port companion seat extends it into a settee. Starboard-side companion seats face each other (fore and aft) but also have a foldaway insert, making them into a settee as well.

I have one small nit to pick, though: I’d like to see the windshield washer (presently squirting out the middle of the wiper blade) move to the top of the windshield. As it stands now, it only covers the lower half of the windshield. (A small thing certainly, but it besmirches Grady-White’s otherwise common attainment of near-perfection.)

An opening hatch combined with side vent windows makes for excellent airflow to the helm area, but you also get air-conditioning ducts near the wheel. And finally, I particularly like the magnetic door latches that hold doors open without having to undo a latch to close them.

I’ve always admired Grady-White’s fanatical attention to detail. And just when I think the company can just rest on its laurels for a while, it disagrees and introduces another boat several steps better than the last.


LOA……35 ft. 10 in.
BEAM……11 ft. 7 in.
HULL DRAFT……2 ft. 1 in.
DEADRISE……20 deg.
WEIGHT……10,000 lb. (w/o engine)
FUEL……350 gal.
MAX HP…… (2) 350 hp OB