I have serious love and respect for your strick. I just don’t think your 25 had enough power. I was dead set on outboards until I realized the balance would be ruined and the amount of hp needed. I’d be mutilating Mosley’s intended performance for the hull.

From what I read on the catalogue and price lists here. You could get a 25 from the factory with twin 255mercs. Those are Ford 351 Windsor’s making 255hp ea or 510hp (ok maybe 400-450). Your 5.7 Volvo made 320 max from factory…realistically 260hp. Stroking that 5.7 from a 350cc to a 383cc would have given you a big bump. You had half the max hp. To get the right Hp to balance I had to go I/O. I’m afraid I won’t have enough HP myself but I’m dancing the hp/tq curve vs reversion. I’ll report when I get her done. If I don’t like it, I’ll cam swap it, upgrade the intake, supercharge, or go even bigger…a stroked 6.0 or ls9. I really hope not.

Yes you were right it was under powered. There are some images that I have saved of 25s with twins that basically take up the whole back end of the boat with the cover on the motors. I knew that going into it but I always went the cheap route after my first restore where I put a new motor on that....all the other ones I restored I bought used engines. It’s a good boat you just need to have a big trim tabs....did not mean to belittle it... the diagrams posted that Big Fluke made tell the story. No lateral stability...it rolls on the outward chines... I spoke with him once on the phone. Very good conversation...he took a great hull for his area and tweaked it...a lot to make it more stable.

Strick

Not upset at all. I consider you to be far more knowledgeable about that boat at this point than me. I just wanted to point out the speed comment. As to handling, as you pointed out, everyone is entitled to his/her own viewpoint. If you didn’t like it that should not bother anyone else. It’s something I intend to keep my eye on when I launch this thing.

I just wanted to point out the hp considerations as to why you had that speed issue. I totally understand not wanting 2 engines, outdrives etc to install and maintain. I went through mental gymnastics getting as far as I have to avoid that very issue.

GFS-I completely agree. I love my 23 Sceptre, but the 21 hull design is the original magic carpet ride.

Fr. Frank-I hope my 27 is everything you’ve experienced! I concur about the 18SF. It is a great ride. Bushwhacker took a ride with me through the Palm Beach inlet when we were there for the CSC Peanut Island gathering, he was very impressed with the 18 SF. I will say that the pre-tracker mid 80’s 18SF does not get airborne nearly as much because of the sheer weight difference. It is a tank.

My 18' SF has a rigged weight with full tanks of 2808 lbs. It was a towed weight of 3374 on the scales, and my trailer weighs 566 lbs.
With a 357 lb motor, 336 lbs of fuel and roughly 260 lbs of batteries and trolling motor, that puts the remaining hull weight at 1905 lbs including rigging, fishing tackle and gear. That's a heavy 18' boat.

I have an 18 that is titled as an '87, but when I pulled the fuel tank out to replace it, the gel-coat under the tank had "CSY 05-20-86" written on it in what looked to be magic marker. The HIN on the back of my boat has been re-gelcoated, and the newer gel coat is flaking off, with the remains of what was a previous HIN underneath. I had a friend of mine who is a Sheriff's detective look at it, but not enough remains of the old HIN to determine what is was. We can tell, however, that the first two letters were "TX" and the last character was the number "6".

We both think that the old HIN may mean that it was a left-over incomplete hull when Tracker bought out SeaCraft. I know the boat was originally sold with Tracker decals on the hull sides, and a "Tracker" Mariner 140 hp inline 6 motor. The current HIN begins with SIC.

One more oddity, the capacity plate says the max hp is 200 and the manufacturer was SeaCraft Industries. I figure the PO must have changed that out, because when I calculated the formula for figuring USCG max HP rating, I came up with a max legal hp of 187. So when I re-powered I stuck a 90 Etec on it.

According to those USCG calculations what would be the max HP for a 23' SeaCraft?

Spec sheet says 500 for sceptre 23’, If I have the right model on here:
http://www.classicseacraft.com/Sceptre23.htm

In absence of a manufacturer spec this is to be used:
(Length x transom width x 2)-90= uscg hp rounded up to nearest multiple of 5
Even if I gave it the full 8’ beam which I’m sure it’s not. You have
(23’x8’x2)=368-90=278 rounded to 280

https://newboatbuilders.com/pages/hp.html

As others have stated the deep v takes lots of hp. This calculation doesn’t seem to work on Seacrafts. I back into it through our spec sheets, catalogues, and engine price lists.

Fr. Frank-

You have the heavy 18SF! You also have the best weight and power on there for the right CG. Great boat and cool story on yours....

Dirtwheels and I would like to hear more on your feedback on the 27. :D Offshore experiences, ect.. Thanks in advance.

My `89 Slacker 20 has an original CG plate.
Max HP- 235

The 27 was Carl`s favorite design.
Heck, he even bought a SeaMaster with a bracket and twin Yammi`s
at the tender age of 90. That is love my friends.

I remember seeing Frank Brown, my dealer and Carl’s former race mechanic, anchored near Peanut Island in a 27’ Seamaster as well

I had the pleasure of helping Skippper and Carl many years ago with my truck launching the the 27'er with the Yamaha's at Harris Park ramp in Key Largo!! You could just see it, Carl was in his 90's but you could tell he was quite happy being back on the Seamaster. I couldn't believe he could climb up to the helm area at that age!! Really fun watching him telling Skipper what to to and what to expect with the boat! Sorry Skipper, but you needed his expert instructions.

It was a rewarding experience!!! :)

Things you don't forget....

Awesome !

Indeed!

There is no USCG legal max HP rating for any over boat 20'. It only applies to boats 20' and under.

Please note, however, that the USCG has changed how the LOA, or averall length of a boat is calculated. It is now the overall length of the hull from the transom BELOW the cap to the farthest forward portion of the hull (again, NOT the cap). It DOES include motor brackets that are molded into and part of the hull.

It used to be the length of the hull PLUS any permanently attached additions like the cap itself (which normally adds an inch or so), anchor pulpits molded into the cap or liner or through-bolted to the same, and plus any propulsion machinery that extended beyond the hull, including outdrives, surface-piercing drives and transom mounted rudders, but NOT outboard motors.

"Permanently attached" did NOT include attachments bolted to the hull which were removable, such as swim platforms, motor brackets, or bowsprits.

Under the old measuring rules, a stern-drive powered 20' Seafari, even though the hull length was actually 19'6", had no legal maximum HP rating, because the LOA including propulsion machinery was over 21'. Similarly, an outboard 20' SeaCraft with and anchor pulpit that was through-bolted was also over 20' and thus not subject to the legal max HP ratings.

It's all changed now. I promise you, my old 1987 18' Checkmate Eluder was WAY over the legal HP limit with it's 225 Mercury. WOT of 73 mph.
Same with my 1969 Cacci Craft "El Tiburon" 15' with it's XS1500 Mercury. WOT of 82 mph. In a 14'10" boat.

But Oh, What fun!

Original Sceptre max rating was 400 or 500 HP ?
Water must have gushed up the scuppers if twin 1,000 + lbs of motors on the back .

But with 300 and 350 outboards now on these boats might eventually find someone rigging a 450

The heaviest outboards before 1980 weighed under 400lbs.
A 1981 merc 225 weighed 363lbs. The OMC two thirsty fives were 396lbs.
By comparison a single 250/275/300 Verado weighs 700lbs.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pr...H5UdJYg_V2sqnQ

Both the twin outboard 23' SeaVette and the twin outboard 23' Savage were made at least one year with a factory 600 HP max rating.

I never rigged one with more than 470 hp, though.

So 800 lbs of twins “ faggetaboutit” water must have shot up scuppers with a couple people in back . Seems scupper / floor original design wasn’t quite right .

Actually, there is/was a deflector in front of the scuppers that prevented that underway.

AND it creates a "vacuum" to drain even faster! - Genius!

Underway fine but that’s not when the boat sinks !

The down scuppers accept a standard 1” drain plug that keeps water from flooding the decks when the boat is heavily loaded or if equipped with over weight power

So what happens if …..
1. it’s raining hard,
2. or take on a wave
Without draining scuppers the boat sinks unless manually bailed fast enough - or specially rigged top side bilge pump ……

It’s just a boat - some designs are good, some not so good .
I believe several have raised floors and re positioned scuppers even when rigged with single outboards.

In the twenty years I've owned and operated two different SeaCraft models the scupper design hasn't presented much of a problem to me. It may seem counter intuitive to have a couple of holes on the floor, but my boats have always "self-bailed" (drained) fine at rest or underway, even in heavy rain. True, if several people congregate in the stern (like when landing a big fish), indeed water can flow up into the boat through the scuppers - but it's real easy to throw a couple plugs in the holes when several people are aboard. I also have two bilge pumps, and am pretty careful about keeping the batteries charged up. So, for me at least, it's been a non-issue.

Repowering with bigger, heavier four stroke outboards resulted in deeper submersion of the stern at rest, and drainage problems became a more frequent complaint. When replacing floors or doing a total rehab many guys have opted to raise their decks and redesign the scuppers, to accommodate the heavier motors.

Interesting -appreciate the info