1973 23 Seacraft restoration
 

It was a 5 month start to finish project a ton of nights and weekends to complete but worth everty second along the way. Huge thanks to my father for lending a hand on the rewiring and disassembly assistance. Will be posting photos of the entire process as time allows.

"Will be posting photos of the entire process as time allows".


Yes Sir!!! That is a CSC requirement! Looking forward to it. :)

This is how she started
 

She started off as a resonably nice boat with great economy for relatively new power.

Teardown started
 

The teardown started with eveything coming off. The console was mounted to a skid and put on a moveable platform to assist with filling all of the holes and fairing out the dips and divots.

Transom teardown and rebuild
 

As always this was the least fun. Since we needed to remove 2.5" of vertical height from the bracket it was easier to tear down from the outside not the inside. We rebuilt the transom with Koosa Bluewater 26 and vinylester resin. Tearing the old plywood out would have been miserable without air chisels and a bunch of people switching off when their arms nearly fell off.

Rebuild of the console
 

Rebuilding the console turned out to be a bigger project than thought (Imagine that... a Seacraft that takes more work than thought.) One of the old owners thought it was a good idea to cut out the entire face of the console. That had to change but was a nightmare to fair into the remainder of the console. The holes for the hardtop went away as a new one is in the works. Re-wiring was a necessity and thanks to my father for pitching in and completing all of the rewire.

Finished product.
 

Instead of boring eveyone with the details of how the rebuild process went along, here are a bunch of photos of the finished product. She's nice but still needs a few tweaks to make her just right. A new hardtop is being made as light as we can get it and some serious tweaks to the transom area to allow either seating or a kill box for whatever activity the day would entail.

I doubt anyone here would be bored with the process.... Great lookin' boat, love the color.

sexy lookin boat right there

Well done beautiful boat

Dito...nice colors!

Very nice!! Post performance #'s please.

Who is the manufacturer of the "mini-bracket" and do you have any pics before the redo of the folding splashwell? Thanks

Awesome rehab....

Nice job, was that the one listed in Pasadena, MD on Craigslist for the last couple years?

Answers
 

Will try and answer the questions all at once.

Paint type and color: Alexseal Carolina blue for the hull and Cloud white for the decks and boot stripe.

Performance:
4000 RPM 21 knots about 5 gallons an hour. 4 miles per gallon.. with only one on board.
4500 RPM 26 knots about 8 gallons an hour.
WOT 6000 RPM 37 knots.... haven't run that long to calculate fuel burn.
This is with non counter rotating props... Should get a bit more efficiency when we change the lower and switch to stainless instead of aluminum props.

Yes it was listed in Pasadena on craigslist for a while. She was a good starting point and I looked at everything within 300 miles... Settled on the boat that was only 10 miles from home.

Bracket: the old owner molded the bracket off of something else. We had to modify the bracket because it extended the running surface at an angle and created suction when getting onto plane. I remove 2.5" vertical height and glassed it back together then made integral with the transom upon rebuild. so far the bow drops nicely and the are no signs of any isses. Love that the through bolts cannot get wet.

Will be happy to answer any and all questions.

Thanks for all of the compliments!

I like your business card holder.

I do like the color combo very crisp...good job!

Really pretty job, Im doing mine now and seeing yours just gets me that much more jazzed to get mine done.

x2.... looks awesome!!

I know you plan to put a top on her, but there's just something about the clean lines of a Classic SeaCraft without a T-top that I love! Awesome job!