That is the same product I used on my 23, I also happen to be a distributor for it ;)

I have used it on 4 boats now, and love it.

At this point, all the heavy lifting is done and the cables are run. Its a matter of hooking them up, cutting in a key switch, and making a starbord conversion piece for the binnacle.

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Got it in the water last night, and I couldn't be happier. We got the first 3-4hrs of run time (break-in) on it, caught the first bluefish and got the skunk off her! [:D]

It has a 14.25x17 prop on there, and it could use a little more. After the break in I eased up to WOT, and it went a little over 6K with more throttle to spare. Ill swap for a 19 and I bet it will be perfect. Its great being able to talk at the dock with the guy holding the line, while NOT smoking the whole ramp out! [8D]

I have some more tidying up in the bilge to do, and in the wiring, but its all very minor stuff. I do get a little water in the bilge (a gallon in 3-4hr) but I am thinking its drain plugs right now. I am letting it dry out today and ill seal them up with a little RTV and test again. The bracket is BONE dry.

NO baby yet, shes about 5 days overdue, went for the the checkup yesterday AM (before picking up the boat) and everything is happy and healthy. We have another apt on Tue AM if nothing changes I can almost lay money on us coming home with a kid. I guess I won the baby VS boat race. [8D]

Awesome! Post fuel #'s when you can.

Congrats on the project !!! good luck with the kid no more fishing for you !!! DADDY Duties
I'm not one to talk at least your boats in the water before kid arrived I'm hoping this boat will be done before number two shows up in January

Well, here they are. Actual picture of this thing floating.
[8D]


I am very happy overall with the final product. It still needs some tweaking (takes about 5-10gal of water in the bilge on a 8hr trip) and some tidying up. Put the first 2-4hrs on it Friday evening, then a beach day with the (5 days overdue) wife. Sunday my father and I fished comm stripers, and sold 32lb (enough to cover fuel). I am very satisfied, definitely not making money, or setting the world on fire catching fish, but its been my goal all along. Total its got about 12-15 hrs on it after the weekend.

As for fuel burn, from the ramp to sandbar and back my buddys 17ft aquasport w/a freshly rebuilt 115 carb evinrude on it,running 50:1 premix uses 7 gal. My SC (27ft total) with the Honda 250 does the same amount of fuel. [8D]

The boat planes at EXACTLY 4000RPM, and between 16-19pmh. The Vtech kicks in at the same time so I think that has something to do with the SNAP over 4K. Right now top speed is just under 40MPH, at 6000rpm, and it could easily twist 6200RPM. I am going to go with a 14.25X19 3 blade and see what happens, it should put me in the 'happy spot' of 5800-6000RPM. I may end up going to a 4 blade in the long run as it will use the motors Torque more efficiently.
I can say one thing.
ITS GOT A TON OF TORQUE.

Running the boat in the upper end is a little boring over 4000rpm just because its humming along and your talking to the first mate standing next to you. [:p]

Coming down off plane the first time everybody looks back to see if its still running, because the water around the boat makes more noise than the motor. At the dock, its almost silent, you can hear the tattletail over the motor.

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Hamburger? did you say Hamburger?
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Dog is still not thrilled with riding in the boat.

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Get me the hell outa here!!

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Outstanding!!!! That Honda is a really, really sweet engine!! You are right about the 3900 to 4000 rpm VTEC kicking in, ya gotta get used to it. Oh yeah, you do find yourself looking at the tach making sure it's running at idle. Congrats on a job well done!!

So what's that come to in MPG?? Or did I miss it

Not exactly sure yet, I dont have a floscan to start with. Also it is still breaking in, so I think it may change over time. But getting the same MPG than a boat that is 10ft shorter with half the HP isnt a bad start in my book. The run that we checked it against is about 45 min and its about 75% on plane and about 25% no wake zone.

Wildman....looks awesome! With that big motor your waterline remains wicked impressive!

I agree! That max floating bracket does a great job. Is it a Hermco? How much does that Honda 250 weigh? What material did you use in your transom? Composite I'll bet...

Nice looking ride i like your hull color too

Yep its a Hermco, penske board 3/4in and lots of glass! The 250 weighs 675 I think. When 2 guys (450lb) stand on the platform the scuppers are still outa the water. When my father and I (close to 600lb) stand in the back corner I get a little puddle in the scupper area. With a full tank of fuel (120gal) and 2 people the outter chine is about 1in in the water.

The bad news is that I have a leak somewhere. Iam getting a little less than a gal per hour in the bilge. I hate relying on pumps to float the boat. I suspected the drain plugs, so I put 25gal of water in it and plugged it up and ill watch it. It may be hull vents, but it wasn't that rough out where it was coming up that high on the hull sides.

Congrats on the project and launch... And I'm assuming you're a proud father at this point as well!
Did you raise the deck height when you did the rebuild? Boat floats very well with that Hermco double wide. All the best, Steve

Not yet on the kid, we go back on thurs (10days overdue at that point) and we will have a kid by the end of week! I did not rasie the deck at all, just a half inch on top of each stringer box to get some camber across the deck. The bracket and a relitlvly 'light' 4stroke help to keep the scuppers up. Any time you wanna take a ride gimme a call!

Check the front box overboard drain

Good luck these last few days! My first was 6 days past due... Well worth the wait :) I'll look you up when things settle. If I keep the Sceptre I'd like to put twin 150-175 on her with a Hermco bracket. I think raising the floor 2" would work well. Get some sleep, Steve

Its been glassed over already. I piped it back to the bilge with a ball valve.

Well, the mystery leak continues.... Taped over the thru hulls with Ductape for a few hrs this AM, and still had water in the bilge.

On a better note, changing the prop to a 15.75x15 and filling the front tank with fuel made it into a different boat! After wallowing around below plane before, it JUMPS up on plane and makes 30ish mph at 4000rpm now. It was really sloppy today and the boat handled it just fine. Tucked in close to shore in a short 2ft chop, twisted the throttles and let her air out a little bit and FLY, soooo smooth.

I gota get a nice flat day to check top end, wind jacked up to 20+ today by the afternoon. The spray rails work as it was a quarter head sea all the way home. The guy on the windward side got wet, but not NEARLY as wet as without the rails.

Hows the baby? Gotta love leaks especially when you can't find them. Did you check Bracket bolts or trim tabs screws

Merrick is good, sleeping and eating a bunch!
I dont have trim tabs, there is only a slight possibility its bracket bolts. I dont see any staining on the transom, and I used 2-3 tubes of 5200 to put it on there circling each bolt hole. Its really baffling me. I filled the bilge up the the stringer boxes (covering the pumps and transuducer, and thru hull) over night again, still no drips.

Hull vents while running? Just a thought

Leaking wash down pump fittings?

patrick - check the scupper drains and the front fish box through hull.
This was the scupper drain on my seafari before I replaced the through hulls. Notice the nice chunk of missing potty putty. After I replaced the through hulls with PVC . . . no more 4 gallon per hour leak. The front fish box drain on the 23 can leak badly too.

http://www.wellcraftv20.com/gallery/...7/DSCN6251.jpg

When I had the deck and bulkhead (The one that is directly below the casting platform) out of the boat I did away with all of that mess becuase I have heard of too many horror stories. I knocked out the old brass fitting, filled the hole with thickened putty, and then glassed inside the box and outside the hull. I do need to neaten up the patch on the outside of the hull, but I am pretty sure it holds water OK.

I am 99% sure that it is my spray rails leaking. I looked them over the other day, and the 4200 I used to seal them up is being pushed UP from water forcing its way between the rail and hull. It was hard to tell until we had pounded through a few big waves last weekend. Now you can grab the rails and move them up and down a little bit. My theory is a PO picked the boat up with a sling and broke the sealant, loosening the screws. Now I need to pull them off completely and reseal.

Quick cell phone pic, the 'flap' I am pushing on is actually supposed to be between the rail and the hull. Its been pushed up, and there is almost NO sealant under the rail.

http://i612.photobucket.com/albums/t...0808-00289.jpg

OH boy its been quite a while... Put ALMOST 100 hours on it (in less than 3 months) before the weather got really crappy. Still haven't 'winterized' it yet and its almost Jan, but I was hoping to get some COD or Tataug fishing in this winter.

Winter list:
Leaks:
Pull teak rails and figure out what to do with them, replace w/plastic or reattach with new screws/sealant that will fix my leaks

Welding:
Center rigger new mount & reinforcements
Fab up an aluminum hatch for Fish well (under leaning post), I need to make something as the glass one is NOT doing the job, well fills up with rain water.

Fishing etc:
Starboard Tackle center (fits plano boxes) in side of console, my old one broke.
Console needs some triangles glassed in the corners underneath, the top is so big it makes the console 'twist' on a drift in the wind. I may incorporate a 10in sub box into them.
Tuna tubes on stern, need to get a set of em, and bolt & plumb em up!
Bolt my rear cleats on, just been procrastination on that one.
Figure out why my VHF is a POS and only broadcasts 1/2mile with an 8ft antenna.

Grab rail progress!

Dark, 20 deg before the wind chill, looks like it could snow any minute, shop is full of $hit, seamed like the best time to build a getto bender and bend up a grab rail!

Bender mock up.
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Added paper to keep the rusty table top from scratching tube.

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Got one side done before I couldn't feel my fingers and I was hungry. The hard part is going to be matching the other side. Ill bend the 90s on it next week w the real bender.

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looking good wildman. you wanna fab one up for me to?

Ill let ya use my fancy jig!

Question for you ....... why did you change over to a 15" prop? It seemed like you were over-propped at 17" and were planning on going to 19" and suddenly you were in a 15p. What happened?

I just completed a complete restoration of a 23 Seacraft with a full bracket. Power is a Honda 225. Right now I have a Honda 17p wheel but only making 4750 to 4800 rpm. I'm working with Ken at PropGods to get the correct sized wheel and we are probably going to first try a Mercury Enertia in 14 or 15p but wanted to hear why you ultimately chose a 15p? What make and model prop did you get? Mercury? PowerTech?

Over the winter/spring I did a bunch of work in and out of the shop.
Finished bending the grab rail and got it all bolted down.

Installed the tuna tubes and water flows to them good. I am Planning to get out on a few giant trips to drown a few baits this fall, still need to see how the flow goes with baits in them. They are completely removable since I used the Banjo cam style fitting. The only thing that pokes out is the male side of the fitting.

The spray rails are ON! After prying the old ones off and destroying them in the process. I discovered some of the screw holes were 3X the size they should have been. I glassed up the old holes the boat held water for the first time since I have owned it! I still get a little water in, but I think that is hull vents and bilge pump hoses. The float switch doesn't come on at all on an 8+hr trip!

Wrestling the plastic rails on was a 4 man job. (36) 3.5in 316stainless screws per side, with about 3 tubes of 4000VU were used. All the screws needed to be measured, predrilled and countersunk before install. I wanted them to ALL go into new glass and not my patches. I can say they are ROCK SOLID now, the old ones would flex up and down with one hand, these dont move with me (260+ lb) standing on them!

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