25' Potter CC?
 

Anyone ever take an older 25 SC and turn it into a CC. I've been thinking about trying to get a hold of one to make a semi-custom bracketed cc.

Re: 25' Potter CC?
 

I was wondering/thinking the same this, as I bet you were, when I saw this from Strick's 25 restore:

http://www.casdvm.com/photos/25%232internet/17.JPG

Re: 25' Potter CC?
 

My idea for it came about because the staggeringly low prices on 32's got my other half and I casually looking. I have been on 2 and they just weren't as convincing as the size makes you think. Feels to wide and heavy, wet. Aestheticly it's definitely pretty but proportionately a little long for me. That got me thinking how pretty the 25 hull is. I'd hate to cut up a decent one but if I could find a rough one.....MAN. I have it kinda in my mind as to the perfect boat for me. Merritt style helm console all white no varnish, refrigerated bait box under port rear seat, head, bonded teak/sikaflex deck and everything else whited out in awlgrip, 30" bracket for twins, 48" two step casting platform each 24" step stripped in teak to match the floor and throw the cast net from. Recessed 23 style handrail, 2 livewell leaning post, fresh and saltwater washdown in leaning post, transom fish box, 200 gal. fuel

Re: 25' Potter CC?
 

Stop! I'm drooling all over myself!

Re: 25' Potter CC?
 

Yeah Buddy.....do it up like a lot of guys do to the old Bertrams

Re: 25' Potter CC?
 

Bruce - Strick has another project 25 if you are looking to do the conversion. We were talking on the phone the other day about this topic. He was telling me how easy it would be to convert one to a CC. About a year or 2 ago . . . there was a 25 seafari (converted to CC) that bigfluke bought and had shipped to Hawaii. It was a Tuna boat from chatham with a HUGE slush box that could hold a Giant Tuna. Bigfluke mentioned somewhere that there was Huge fishbox when full balanced that boat out perfectly.

Re: 25' Potter CC?
 

Tim-

You are rather well versed at:

1: Shipping SeaCrafts x-country
2: Collecting all sizes (I note a 25 is missing)18,20(x2),23
3: Buying a garage, errr home with enough room to work on 25
4: Collecting enough outboards to power it with quads


that I think Strick's other 25 has you name all over it......

Re: 25' Potter CC?
 

Tim-We all know your a boat rebuilder disguised as a computer tech........C'mon, Jason is right............2 25's ( here we go again part II ) being totally rehabed with 2 different configs.......we would all be drooling!

Re: 25' Potter CC?
 

At first, when I read this I was thinking...WHAT? There are only 10 or so that we know of out there, it would be the same as when that guy cut the cap off of the seavette. However, when I thought about it for a moment...it's Strick and Tim we're talking about here. If they saved the cap and didn't like the CC, they could change it back tout de suite(toot sweet) :D

Bruce, it's one thing if you were to find one previously chopped up but maybe you and the wife might like it with the cap...

Re: 25' Potter CC?
 

I wouln't do it to a boat that was all there. I would do up a 23 cc before keeping an original 25, just my preference is a cc. I could always lengthen a 23, that would be easy...lol. Doable just build a jig around the section of boat you want to split, cut in half run new stringers then get happy with a tape measurer, makeshift mold, some wood, glass and epoxy and cabosil. Seriously though it is doable but an undertaking. Plus I would only ever cut up a far gone 23. Plastic boats are pretty straight forward for that stuff but I'd basically be making a new boat with the time involved. I dunno I don't have time for all that anymore.

Re: 25' Potter CC?
 

If I didn't just buy that 23 . . . then I'd have it in my yard already. I think it may be time to start a Non-Profit SeaCraft Shelter . . . Maybe begin taking donations for a Seacraft 25 restoration fund.

Re: 25' Potter CC?
 

The following are shots of Bigfluke's CSC 25 CC conversion. Hopefully, he won't mind me posting them. He said the Big Block I/O and the fish box (located below decks, I believe) kept the CG low and moved it slightly forward, making this the best handling of the three 25 Seafaris he owns.


http://i655.photobucket.com/albums/u...9/IMG_1359.jpg


http://i655.photobucket.com/albums/u...9/IMG_1361.jpg

Re: 25' Potter CC?
 

Cool pics.... I would have to find a hacked 25 because I would wan't the cap flush like a 20sf or 23sf

Re: 25' Potter CC?
 

Maybe not. If you cut it down tight to the hull/deck joint like a SF, the coaming on the inside will be about knee high, kinda short. You would probably want to do a cap like a MA.

Re: 25' Potter CC?
 

Here's my dilemma , keep in mind it's all strictly my opinion based on expierence on the water and in the yard and plain old what I like. I want something that has similar cockpit space to my old 27 worldcat without doing all the funny knifing in a tall following following/quartering sea. It's especially interesting running in from 80 to 100+ miles in the dark on the radar/ plotter when the weather comes up on you and you can't read the sea. All that said it was easily the best running smaller boat along with my square ugly old SeaCat(which IMO responded a little better than the Worldcat in some conditions). When you really start to understand how to run a cat they are the ultimate "showoff boat". But I want something a little more predictable to anyone that will ever be on the boat. A vdh is almost always predictable. My 20sf hits me right at the knee in the rear 1/4 of the boat and that's fine for me(I'm 5'11") so if I can get it so it hits me 3" above the knee that would be perfect because I like being close to the water. But if I had to do a MA style cap to get the gunwale height I need I would skip the whole project. It's my opinion the 20sf is easily the prettiest sharpest cleanest lines of a SeaCraft with the 23sf being a close second. A 25 nose seems to have a prettier look than a 23 more like a 20 unless it's an optical illusion. If I couldn't do a flush cap safely then I would skip the whole project. How much prettier would an old mako or dusky...etc. of been with a flush cap. Anyone have a height measurement from floor to rubrail on a 25 and 23sf?

Re: 25' Potter CC?
 

You may want to keep an eye out for an older 27. I have a 1969 27' converted to a CC/Pilot House, Jackshated to a VP D6. My boat did not have a cap and with my floor placement I have about 25" to the gunnel in the back, less up front with my casting deck, but I may remove part of the casting deck this year to have more gunnel up front for the kids and to make my Tuna coffin a little shorter in height. I will leave a little step up front for casting my nets as you have mentioned. Mine has the 9' 6" beam and with the heavy diesel in the center (CG) it is amazing in any sea.

Dan

Re: 25' Potter CC?
 

Thanks for the input kerneltugboat that hull seems to wide for what I want. If I could cut the stringers down on a 25 and drop the floor 1" to 1 1/2" maybe curve the edge of the cap where it meets the rubrail to a 3/4 rise in towards the cockpit, add a toerail and make it self bailing with a bracket and a 1000lb. of motors. I need to do some real research and sit down with a couple old salt friends/mentors.

Re: 25' Potter CC?
 

Bruce - The 25 is only 8ft wide. Also . . . IMO there is no need to cut down stringers on that boat at all. It's a super deep cockpit. The cap and a section of floor would be the only places that you would need to modify to turn that beast into a CC. It's fiberglass . . . so there is no reason that you couldn't make the gunnel cap look exactly like the a 23cc cap.

Re: 25' Potter CC?
 

Thanks, I know it's only 8' wide that's what I want long and skinny. I was saying I wouldn't want a 9'6" wide hull. I am really curious what the height to the cap/hull joint from the floor would be in last five feet of cockpit.

Re: 25' Potter CC?
 

At the starboard stern corner(where the scupper is), 19 inches from the deck to the screw holes in the rub rail

Re: 25' Potter CC?
 

There is one in my neighborhood thats been for sale on and off.....a SeaVilla :D
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y27...illaPhoto1.jpg

Re: 25' Potter CC?
 

The 25 is a sharp looking hull and it would convert to a cc easily however it is kinda short back near the stern with the cap off. For safety (due to the deep V) you would want to raise it some like the one Big Fluke now owns....not to say that a Master angler cap style would take away from the lines very much...you would have to do some drawings first and see I guess. Personally I think it would be easier to just take a 23cc and make it a little longer if that is what you are after raher then taking a 25 and cutting down stringers, making a new cap, modifying the inside of the boat etc..etc...There were a couple of fellas on ClassicMako that added length to their 23 makos and they turned out very nice. I would also hate to see a 25 seafari get chopped up like that. :D

strick

Re: 25' Potter CC?
 

Wish there were some plug boats around.

Re: 25' Potter CC?
 

With the boat business as slow as it is, it would be pretty inexpensive right now to make a plug off an existing hull. I know Monterey boats in Williston just 25 miles up the road from me is doing a lot of overhauling and customizing of older boats just to keep the doors open.

Likewise, Pro-Line here in town has laid off more than half their workforce, and is also doing extra stuff to bring in cash flow. I know one of the Vice Pres. there (He is a former SeaCraft owner). I'll call him and get a ballpark figure for popping a rigid hull mold off a 25' or 27' SeaCraft would cost there at Pro-Line, assuming the hull was prepped first. I'll try to post the $$$ later today.

Re: 25' Potter CC?
 

Thats a good pont, another option would be a hull from an Albin 26 CC (Cape Cod Marine Inboard Diesel) Rumor was the boat was made from a 23 Seacraft stretched to 26' and the tunnel was from a Proline. They also raised the gunnels about 3" They were making a Duoprop version with no pocket, so the mold does exist. Sounds like exactly what he needs.

Re: 25' Potter CC?
 

No need for all that Fr.Frank...thanks though.. This is something that might take me a while for me to digest. Lengthening a 23 hull seems like it might accomplish what I want. I can do all the work myself. I heard through the grapevine, supposedly someone I used to fish with has some idea where there is a plug for a Silverhawk. But the guy is in Mexico and I haven't talked to him in forever. Blah Blah Blah. I know how that BS goes. I don't want a whole hull layed up I would really just want the hull they made the mold off of. I dunno.

Re: 25' Potter CC?
 

I don't know if he's still around, but "Noankbill" had lengthened a 23 to 26 in his shop. In 2004 he told me that the mold was still around behind a buddies shop.

Re: 25' Potter CC?
 

the albin 26 is a stretched 23 seacraft...used to be capecodmarine think they sold the mold? not a fully glassed boat at least the older ones, cored partial bottoms and sides. they used glass in areas of thru hulls.were built well by CC Marine and hear same on Albins but 3rd hand. Personally id rather have no coring of the hull, but there have been zero issues with these boats, and that is not an uncommon way to build boats and saves on weight. They are in tough price point, and the look of final product is a bit on commercial side at that price of the older ones. Perosnally I like them a lot, but not enough to pay 2.5X3X my current 23 OB on a bracket 4S. I'd be sitting in a down east duffy 26 or 31 at that price :). But then you would be leaving me in your wake eating spray with one of these rigs. Deadrise is listed at 24 degrees which is not a 23 deadrise though at transom.

At least 2-3 for sale on Lower Cape Cod I think still but not looked at them recently.

Be glad to go take pics of an albin26 or cape cod marine 26 if you like if still sitting there...These were designed as single screw diesels to go offshore giant tuna fishing in, fast, drift and handle well in seas with variable dead rise, and be able to pull the fish thru a door no winch. Pure fishing :).