Barn Find!
 

The exciting news of the week for the refit of the Seafari is the find in a barn, no less, of an old Chris Craft cabin door that is the right size for my cabin! Seems to be solid mahogany, with hinges and hardware attached.

Scored for $80.00, including a door jamb to match, an aluminum hatch, a 4x8 sheet of fiberglass laminate that is perfect for my bulkheads, an aluminum step and stainless grab rail for my jump seat, and an 8 inch round deck access hatch. ALL for 4 double sawbucks! Whoo Hoo!

That's a major score! Vintage wood looks so cool when it's cleaned up.

Yep! Barn find, for sure! Nice score, Bro!

Your project is coming along nicely. I recently picked up a similar boat so the pictures are quite inspiring. The transom job looks very nice. It's hard to tell looking at the pictures of the transom from the inside. Will all four bracket bolts now be accessible from outside, is there still room for the bottom two underneath the well, or will you have to modify the splashwell?

I hadn’t yet come across that hull plate maker, so I had to bookmark that one. I find the whole manufacturer’s maximum HP rating a bit confusing. I understand the ratings varied quite a bit. My beat up 1970 tag shows 140HP but from what I’ve read other boats with the same dual outboard transom cut came with ratings up to 240 which I think was meant to cover two 115 Mercs. I think the later 70’s rating were up to 175 for a single on essentially the same hull (minus the stringer change in ’73 which essentially deleted two vertical sections of glass in its design).

I’d like to eventually repower with a newer 150 but I’m not sure what that means for insurance or CG compliance. Does anyone know if it would be a no-no to just have a new tag made with one of the higher HP ratings for this hull?

Actually, Sparehead - I am not sure about the bolt locations myself. They may or may not be accessible under the splashwell. I will not be mounting the motor, a local Evinrude dealer will be, and I really won't have that answer until later in the spring. I will try to take photos of whatever we do and post them at that time to give you an idea.
As to the sticker, I had a new sticker made up at https://www.garzonstudio.com/boat/capacity-decal.html

I cannot tell you what to do regarding the max HP but I believe Fr. Frank can help you with a formula for that.
Good Luck with your project, and post some photos!

False Spring in Jersey leads to painting!
 

The weather this weekend is wild - we had over 60 degrees today, and the same is forecast for tomorrow, so what to do? Some painting. Finally got the last of the primer on the hull covered up by 2 coats of Pettit Black.

With that we can now proceed to the bulkheads. Here is the transom finished (except for the rubrail).

She looks fantastic! Congrats on the good weather.

I took advantage of today's 65 degrees to rip out the indoor outdoor carpeting in the cockpit rod holder shelves. then I installed two new cup holders where there had been extra rod holders, and remoed the trim at the bulkheads to prep for installing bulkheads.

Then, since the weather was so nice my son and I laminated the fiberglass skin to the bulkheads in preparation for installation next week or so.

Great progress! Those bulkheads are going to look nice.
One question, though: Why is it warmer there than here? :-/

Can't figure that out either - we set a record yesterday, by 4 degrees!

Today the bulkheads were installed. Seems to be getting closer to splashing all the time.

Nice work ,who was the glass guy you used ,I am in nj too and need someone

Nice work! I like the white fiberglass finish. Very clean!

Sisu:

I used a company called Fiberdex in Sayreville. He did the transom (to prime coat) the gas tank coffin deck repair, and a repair to my keel in the forward half.

PM me and I will give you his number.

I did the bottom paint, and cut the bulkheads, epoxied the back and sides, laminated the white fiberglass sheet exterior onto the plywood, then installed them. My gelcoat skills are average to below average, so that is why I had Fiberdex do the transom and hull.

Next step - installing a hatch into the splashwell for better bilge access. Now I can service the bilge pump better (once installed there!) and install a fuel water separator into that space too.

Looks good! That's about the same size as the home-made hatch I had. There is also room under there for your oil tank and the pump for the trim tabs as shown in the pics below. I built a shelf for the oil tank above the bilge pump. After he closed in the transom, Don cut out most of the splashwell and I made a hinged lid out of starboard that covers the whole thing. There is now even room for a couple of fenders on top of the oil tank.

I am not sure if I will be able to open the hatch wide enough to fit the oil tank in there, after installing the hydraulic steering cyclinder and motor. We'll see. Definitely fuel separator, though. Do I see from your photo that you have a quick disconnect fitting on your fuel line for an auxiliary fuel tank?

John,

I'd install the oil tank before you mount the motor! And you might consider installing it further forward, just aft of the fuel tank; the fuel tank support extends back maybe 4-5" aft of the tank, so you could just extend that a bit. I've been using PVC board lately for that sort of stuff . . . it's not real strong but easy to work with, and unlike starboard, you can glue it with PVC cement, and no worries about rot! If you mount oil tank with the fill opening on the aft side, so it's under the hatch, you might be able to fill it w/o using a funnel & hose!

The barbed fitting is actually on the outlet side of filter; it's real handy if I want to drain fuel out of the tank! (The boat is my reserve fuel supply for vehicles during hurricane season! In the past, power has been out for a week after a storm, and gas stations weren't able to pump gas. They are now required to have generators, but it's also handy to be able to drain a nearly empty tank and then refill it from 5 gal. jugs to re-calibrate gas gauge & I-Command fuel management gauge.) I have a long hose that's open on one end with an OMC fuel line connector and primer bulb on the other end. If I want to drain fuel, I just run the hose out thru the hull drain hole into a gas can, plug in the connector and squeeze the primer bulb to start the siphon.

I also have a 3-way selector valve (with red handle, at front of splashwell) upstream of the filter with one of those barbed fittings attached, so I can shut off fuel or draw from main tank or auxiliary tanks. For Bahamas runs, I had three 6 gal. OMC tanks rigged up in series that I would plug in to that fitting. On 2 of the tanks, I drilled out the rivet in the gas cap and replaced it with a brass barbed elbow fitting to which I attached a short length of hose with a plastic fuel connector on the other end. Those tanks have 2 pins near the fuel fitting; one pin opens a fuel valve and the other opens an air vent. For the first two tanks I drilled a hole in the plastic female connector where the air vent pin is, but left the connector to the last tank in line unmodified. Since only the last tank in line was vented, the resulting vacuum in the other tanks would pull fuel from the last tank in line until it was empty, and then from the next tank in line, etc. The system worked well and allowed me to run over two hours before switching to the main tank! Not sure I would use this system with the E-TEC because it was set up for my old 1975 vintage motor with 5/16 instead of the currently required 3/8" fuel lines. All the new "clean tech" motors are set up to run fairly lean, so they're much more sensitive to air leaks and fuel restriction. They might not tolerate potential air leaks and restrictions from all those connectors that an old carb'd 2-stroke wouldn't even blink at!

Regarding your Fuel Filter, instead of buying the Racor filter with the steel filter head that rusts, I'd recommend using what I switched to: Get a Sierra filter with SS filter head. Keep the filter canister for a spare, and then get a Racor B3201 assembly with includes S3213 Merc style filter element and plastic bowl, and install it on the SS Sierra filter head. The pics I posted show my old setup; I'll try to take a pic of new setup where I switched to the SS filter head, eliminated a bunch of restrictive 90 degree elbows and installed a Racor RK11-1676E vacuum gage with a tell-tale needle to monitor highest vacuum it's seen, which tells me when filter element needs changing, in addition to monitoring the overall level of fuel restriction between tank and engine. (BRP limit is 5" Hg.)

Aha - Denny - that is a clever and convenient way to drain fuel from the tank! I like it.

As to your idea of the oil tank right aft of the fuel tank, my coffin deck ends within an inch or so of the fuel tank position - so no deck to extend at all. But I may be able to slip the oil tank into position from the starboard hatch area, so we'll see about that.

I have a Moeller separator assembly that is powder coated, so hopefully that inhibits corrosion over the plain steel model.

Check out my next post on my fuel tank measurements. - I included a photo of the mockup I did from the under splashwell area looking forward.

Fuel tank mock-up
 

So one of my challenges on this boat was that the fuel tank had been removed prior to my taking possession of the boat, and the dimensions were not available.

So, rather than ordering a tank based on measurements alone, I went ahead and made a mock-up of a tank out of 1x2's and old 1/4 inch plywood and scraps of panelling I had laying around.

Here is the shape of the tank, and the detail of the angles on the forward and aft ends.

Fuel tank mockup 2
 

Here is the tank mockup getting installed. Based on this, my width can be 1/4 inch wider comfortably, but needs to be 7 - 3/4 inches high instead of 8 inches to accommodate the height of the vent fitting.

Fuel tank under deck clearance
 

Here is a shot of the clearance of the tank fill under the deck. Looks good.

whoops - cannot figure why it came out upside down?

John,

I have the dimensions of my OEM tank somewhere, so I'll try to dig them up and post them on here. It's square on both ends, but the bottom slopes up at the front, and the top slopes down at the back. All that is done so you can get it in and out of the hatch opening. It holds about 35 gal. and has the vent fitting at the front, port side, with pick up and fill fittings at the back. Denny

Thanks, Denny.

72 Seafari OEM Fuel tank dimensions
 

Finally found measurements I had made when I pulled fuel tank to inspect it during repower in 2006.

The tank coffin is 25" wide, hatch opening is 22.5" wide x 37 3/8 long, tank is 22" wide and 60" long, as shown in sketch below. The fill fitting is angled back at about a 30 degree angle, so it's sort of pointed at the fuel fill on gunnel.With the tank all the way forward in the compartment, the aft surface of tank is about 3.75" forward of the bait well under port stern seat. The hatch overlaps the front edge of tank by 2.5", so I suppose you could make the tank about 1-1.25" longer if you reduced distance between tank and bait well and continued the sloped aft top surface at the same angle. If you really wanted to get maximum capacity in the existing volume, you could make 2 separate tanks, which would allow you to make the tanks a little taller, plus you could eliminate the sloped surfaces, since it would be easier to install a couple of 30" long tanks than a single 60" long tank! Of course you'd also have to run separate fill and vent lines, maybe out the port side.

John, I suggest you modify your mock-up to these dimensions and test fit it before you order a tank! Denny

Very interesting. My coffin has a 48 inch deck under it, not 60 inches. I wonder if having 12 inches of tank length unsupported would be a problem?

I have about 8 1/2 inch of depth to work with in the coffin, and a tank height of 7 3/4 is possible, because once the tank is under the lip of the lid, the under deck clearance rises to 9 1/4 inches.

Using the 48 inch length I made my mock-up, I calculated the total theoretical capacity at 33 gallons, but I would like to get a few more gallons in capacity if possible.

The calculated capacity of OEM tank is about 35 gallons. I was able to put 36 gallons in it when filling to brim, probably due to additional volume in the fill and vent lines, but I put 34 gallons into I-Command system for fuel/range remaining calculations. If you install the quick connect fuel fitting on one of the output ports on filter to permit siphoning gas out thru the filter, you can find out how much fuel is unusable by dumping in 5 gallons, draining it out, and measuring how much you drain out.

I would just extend coffin deck with some 1/4" PVC or starboard. To maximize fuel capacity with the available space, one way would be to install a bladder tank, if you can find one with the right dimensions, although that may be a long shot. The other way would be to install 2 tanks that would each fit thru the hatch without having to tilt them, which would allow you to use more of the vertical space. (The OEM tank just barely fits thru the hatch, so Moesly designed it very carefully! I'd recommend modifying your mockup to those dimensions to verify fit before ordering one like it.) Before going the 2 tank route, I'd do some calculations to see how much of an increase you could get to see if the extra cost/work is worth it. On my Bahama trips with the old carbed gas guzzling 2S motor. I typically carried at least 24 gallons on deck in 6 gallon tanks and jugs, which was enough if we refueled at West End or Walkers. However after we couldn't get gas at Walkers one year, (fuel barge had not shown up and they didn't know when he was coming!) I started carrying about 80 gallons, which was enough to run all the way to Green Turtle. The E-Tec has proven to use about 50% less gas however, so fuel situation would be much better with current motor.

Thanks to Bushwacker!
 

At Denny's suggestion I modified my tank mock-up to the OEM dimensions Denny provided, and lo and behold, the mock-up fit first try.

So now, my theoretical tank capacity is up by 10% over my initial design. Might just make the difference between getting home, and not one day.

Here are a couple of shots of the modified tank mock-up. It is amazing how much cutting and measuring went into a basic trapezoid shape! Now we will have to see how much the extra surfaces and welds adds to the price compared to a rectangular shape.

Yep, one good indicator of how well a boat was designed is how much thought was given to ease of maintenance! Moesly designed all those weird sloped surfaces on top and bottom of tank, so it would just barely slide through the hatch, and then he was smart enough to install it without using foam, which holds water against the tank, helping it to corrode faster!

Most boat builders don't even bother to install a hatch! They just drop the tank in, surround it with foam and cover it up with the deck. A gas tank inspection on them = checking bilge for gasoline!

Denny hit the nail on the head.
This is the first boat I've had where the fuel tank was
accessible, easily removable and not buried in foam.
That's just smart engineering!
I hope your new tank slides right in.

Monsoon Hits NJ - but I got the motor installed!
 

So far today we have had over 3 inches of rain, and rivers are rising, creeks, flooding, whitecaps forming on usually-placid bays. So what to do? Go pick up the boat after the dealer installed the new (to me) Johnson 115hp.

Here she is back home in the driveway. Now to get a fuel tank, harness, steering installed...and lights...and...and...

She looks great with her new motor!
Sorry about all the rain. Hope things dry out ASAP!

Some Painting weather
 

So the day dawned bright, cloudless, and 60 degrees for the high, so it is time for some painting and teak refinishing.

This is the teak after 2 hours of sanding, with the first coat of Cetol.

And here is the cockpit with the gunnels repainted, before and after.

Looks good! She's going to be better than new.

Making progress - some of the teak refinished and installed, and the wiring harness in place.

Diving for burried treasure (in a stern locker)
 

So, taking Denny's advice, I cut an access hatch into the port locker (cooler/livewell) of my Seafari - and found a 40 year collection of treasure:

A billy club
two screwdrivers so old that the shafts had corroded away
a fuel bulb
a pocketknife
assorted lead sinkers and screws
washers
8 count 'em, 8 scupper plugs
and two screws that fit perfectly into two holes in my locker cap.
two empty soda cans
a bottle of something (presumably petroleum based)

It is the gift that keeps on yielding surprises, this boat of mine!

crazy ,how the cans logos have changed over the years.what vintage do you think?