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- - 25 footers (http://www.classicseacraft.com/community/showthread.php?t=19661)

hey folks, i'm slowly restoring(while enjoying) my grandfathers 1976 25ft seafari and was excited to find this site however i don't see any other 25's. where are all the 25's?

Send out an APB for Strick; I think we have a live one!!!!!

(Maybe he'll even let us know if TOP Secret Operation- "BigBrother" has commenced.)

Hey Safari25,

I forgot to welcome you aboard; Welcome aboard Captain! Most of us are better about such things, my apologies.

thanks BigLew but whats the deal? there should be tons of people sittin on a 25

Comparatively speaking, there was a very few number of 25's ever made. The production # page shows only 80 built up to 1980.

There was one for sale around Sandwich, MA this summer. It was converted to a center console. Craigslist I believe. Anyone know if it sold?

Welcome seafari25 !!

Check out the Moesly SeaCraft web site..
Good luck with your 25..

PS: Where are you located ?
Fill us in with details and pics.. :)

See ya, Ken

thats interesting Rich, where do i find info like that

thanks Ken, i wish i could figure out how to load my pics.i have lots. the boat was purchased in jan 76 by my grandfather at the toronto boat show(display model).he fished the shores of lake ontario(port credit ont.)into the early 80's then retired her to the family cottage on georgian bay where she remains under my care today. she still has the original 327 chev and mercruiser 290, working fine. she sat for quite a few years as my grandfathers health declined but i recently gave her a facelift(paint, upholstry,teak,top etc.) and i cruise her every chance i get. she's been in the family since i was 1. she's like my little sister.

if the 327 ever dies, i was thinking of putting a bracket and twins but i was hoping to get some feedback on how she'd ride. i love the single screw but i like the idea of twin outboards. hopefully someone can enlighten me

k guys, i found the prod.num. page and finally figured out the pic thing...this site is awesome

Quote:

There was one for sale around Sandwich, MA this summer. It was converted to a center console. Craigslist I believe. Anyone know if it sold?

I'm pretty sure that one on the cape and the one in CA ended up out in Hawaii with bigfluke.

Hey Seafari25, Welcome aboard. I used your link to see your photobucket album and all I can say is, Wow! If these pics are current I think maybe you have Smithsonian caliber Seafari. Your grandfather left you an unreal specimen. Congratulations. It looks brand new!

My company shipped a red one to HI about a year ago. It came to CA via NY.

Quote:

the boat was purchased in jan 76 by my grandfather at the toronto boat show(display model).he fished the shores of lake ontario(port credit ont.)into the early 80's then retired her to the family cottage on georgian bay where she remains under my care today. she still has the original 327 chev and mercruiser 290, working fine. she sat for quite a few years as my grandfathers health declined but i recently gave her a facelift(paint, upholstry,teak,top etc.) and i cruise her every chance i get. she's been in the family since i was 1. she's like my little sister.

Welcome to CSC Seafari25. You are right, as there are not many 25 footers around. You definately have the Sugar Daddy here!! I'm sure this SeaCraft will be in your family for many more years.
I would like to see the hull ID stamp on the transom please.

BTW: Get some more pictures and I'll get the Admin to get them and your story on the main page.... :cool:

Wow,what a sweet looking boat,Welcome to the site.Nice to see another SeaCraft on the Great Lakes.
What kind of paint did you use? It looks beautiful.Keep the pictures coming.

John which Great Lake are you on?

thanks guys, Capt Chuck,i'll try to get more pics but she's in storage now for the winter. i don't really know how to add more pics to my page but these pics were taken a few years ago right after i cleaned her up. i think the id said 75 in it so i assume she was built in 75 but shipped to the boat show in jan 76 so i really dont know if that makes her a 75 or 76 technically.

John the paint is nothing fancy. i would really like to strip and spray her properly like most of you have done however with my budget and the desire to cruise her immediately, i picked up a gallon of marine paint (don't remember the brand)at the local marine supplier, light sanded the hull and rolled it on. all other fibreglass just needed a good cleaning. i sent the boat to the local canvas guy for a new top and upholstry but did pretty much everything else myself.

a few weeks later i sailed her around georgian bay for a week.she cruises at 17 mph at 3000 rpm and although i baby her,at times she goes 32mph at 4200rpm.

i'm sure glad my grandfather chose a seacraft

Island Trader,
I keep my boat at Olcott New York,on Lake Ontario's western end.It's about 18 miles from the mouth of the Niagara river,and about 35-40 miles from the Toronto Canada harbor straight across the lake.
I used to keep it on the Eastern end of the lake,but it seemed that everytime we'd make a trip,we'd get blown off.So we move to the west end where the lake is narrower and "supposedly" there are prevailing westerlies,so it should be nicer,right?
Of course not,when we get there the winds come out of the east,and we get to look at the lake,and watch eight footers crash over the pierheads.
*********I HATE WIND***************

Hey John,

I haven't been on Lake Ontario since I was a kid but it was pretty breezy on our side as I remember. Sounds like you're in the right spot though.

I just wanted to thank everyone again for their nice comments. I gotta tell you the truth. Boating has always been a part of my life growing up and especially made me close with my grandfather. Call me sentimental but if he had purchased a surfboard back in the mid 70's, I'd still be looking after it just the same but he bought a SeaCraft. The boat was always like gold to me but it was only after finding this site, your comments and now having gone through some of the info here that I really realize what SeaCrafts are all about. I'll say it again, I'm sure glad my gramps chose a SeaCraft.

I always thought gramps' boat was a 76 but with the help of Capt Chuck, we figured she was built in march or may 75. So it's making me rethink a few things. I know gramp took a trip out west in the summer of 75 trailering his 23' Starcraft Islander. He sold the Islander to buy the Seacraft so that's why I (and my whole family) thought he purchased her in 76. Also, in 87 my dad bought a display model Bayliner out of the boat show and I remember having a conversation with my gramps about that a few years later and he mentioned that the Seacraft was also a boat show model. Now, having seen the production numbers for the seafari25 in 75, I find it hard to believe that when there were only 3 made and his in may, that SeaCraft held on to that boat for 6 months and sold it as a 76. It is possible that gramp ordered the boat at the 75 boat show and it was delivered to him late summer of 75. I'm hoping someone that may have been representing Seacraft at the Toronto boat show or worked for the company in 75 76 might know the truth and enlighten me. My grandfathers name is Keith Leonard.(Chuck just a thought but maybe the K at the end is for Keith???)

I also want to clarify that this boat still belongs to my grandfather and I am only the caretaker. My grandfather is in his late eightys on his nineth life. He was born with a hole in his heart and struggled with 20 pills a day, operations and brushes with death his whole life. Although his memory fails him now, he has outlasted all the rest of my "healthy" grandparents and I believe it's because of that boat. What else would it be? I wish I had've sat down with him a few years ago and picked his brain. Anyway, I will always refer to that boat as my grandfathers 25 seafari and be the caretaker for life.

Thanks again all,
Brandon

Welcome to the site & congrats on having such a fine classic!
Seems as though your boat was manufactured in 1975, then first titled in 1976 ... ie, you have what would be considered a 1976 boat.

I wish your gramps well.

Thanks 65Bowrider I appreciate that.

The only thing that boggles me about this is that nobody bought the boat for 6 months.

Just a question for everybody with galley seats in their Sceptres and Seafaris. My sink pumps from the lake through a hole in the bottom of the hull. There is no freshwater tank in the boat. Do any of you have this option? I assume that would be an option for freshwater boats only and boats made for salt would have tanks. Just curious

I saw a sceptre with the same Galley set up as your boat and it did have a plastic fresh water tank installed under galley however I don't know if that was an owner modification or factory installation.

Nice boat bye the way...I've been eyeballing it for over a week now. I have a 25 Seafari awaiting restoration and the more I see how nice your boat looks sitting in the water the more it makes me want to start working on it.

You mentioned twins earlier. I posted some pictures a while back of an old 25 that was in the Bahamas and it had twins on a gill brackets. The 25 was originally designed for a IO and is best probably left an IO but you can probably make twins work if you were to move the fuel tank as far forward as possible.

Forum member "BigFluke" in Honolulu has three 25 Seafaris...one of which he is using as a test boat for his research on deep V designs. According to him the 25 has better "sea keeping" ability then the 23 ;) The 25 was discussed on this forum a while back and it was how should I say......a hot topic :D

Moesley designed and Potter built as far as I see it you cant go wrong with a 25 Seafari.

strick

Thanks Strick I will be searching for those posts that you mentioned. I guess there are some 25s out there, I'd like to see what they look like so I can do some dreaming too.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want to change the appearance of gramps boat as I think it looks alot cleaner without actually seeing the motor back there and it's more practical for fishing. Also, I think there is a good reason Mr. Potter put an IO in her and if the old 327 ever gave up the ghost, I would most probably replace it with the same setup (maybe a few more horsepower)but still, I like the idea of twins for the safety factor when you're miles from the mainland. I usually tow my 10' zodiac w\15 merc when I go on long trips but that's a pain when you just want to go fishing for the day. Gramp used to have a 20 merc kicker on a bracket before he installed the swim platform but I don't really like the look of that either. The fact is, I pray that the motor doesn't crap out as I can't afford 30 to 40 large for the mods and twins but a guy can dream right?