25 Seafari
 

well I ve started working on the 25 Seafari I picked up a few weeks back, since Ive had her Ive been so busy I havet had a whole lot of time to get started on the repairs, the first things ive done were to go through the boat and both engines to see what was needed, the starboard engine needs a trip pump replaced so I removed the old pump while the motor was still hanging on the boat,, no easy task Im telling You. the top bolt on the engine mount had a locking nut thingy on it and I had to cut the head off the bolt to get the bracket loose and all thge bolts were salt seized, I got the torch and hammer out and I got it off! Ive found a replacement pump and will be picking it up tomorrow and purring it back on this weekend, I have both engines turning over and they both have fire, and good compresion, Im going to clean the carbs and replace the fuel lines before I try to run them,. but they look to be in very good shape, I also want to pull the fuel tank and clean it out and replace the fill and vent hoses. I went through the electrical system on the boat and other than a few switches that are bad every thing works except the bilge pump and mast light!, heres a few photos of the trim pump removed

Phil,
Be sure to check the steering arms on those Mercs. They are known for rust through problems if they've been in the salt. The carbs are a piece of cake to clean if you have the Merc factory service manual. If you don't already have one, you can find them used on ebay for around $25. Don't bother with the after market manuals.
Dave

She is a Beauty.

arms are rusty but solid and no probs with the carbs, Ive been working on mercs for 30+ years

Good deal. You'll have 'em going in no time, then. They're good motors and easy to work on once you know them.

Dave

spent a few days working on the 25 over the weekend,
first off on friday i worked on the port engine a little , I cleaned the carbs and hooked up a 6 gal. fuel tank to it and it fired right up!! couldnt believe how good it ran!!
I hope the starboard side cranks and runs as good, Ive found blown engine on CL Im going to get this week so I can get the trim system off it and put on the starboard eng, then Ill see if she will run.
I then dove into the fuel system, I removed all the old fuel hoses and got the rear 50gal tank loose and ready to come out, its gor about 15 gals of old stinking gas in it so ill have to pump it out before I can lift it out,
Then on to the original dual tanks in the floor, after bout 2 hours of digging out foam and cutting old hoses, the old tanks were oin the ground. The rear bulk head wall behind the tanks is rotton and will have to be replaced but the floor and all the stringers are solid as a rock! Im going to clean out the single 50 gal tank and mount it under the floor where the old tanks were and run all new hoses.
i also checked out the hydralic steering and found a leak in a hose going from the transom fitting to the engine , Going to order new ones in the morn.

Those pics bring back some memories. You've probably got a bunch of wet foam under the tank deck in the original tank compartment.
Dave

yep, its all coming out and Im going to replace the floor under the tank when I redo the bulkhead wall

Phil,

Just incase you didn't see this, I'll share it with you and the others as well. It makes some good points about tank installation.

http://www.yachtsurvey.com/fueltank.htm

Good Luck and I look forward to following along. - lance aka: BigLew

thanks for the link.

Wooohooooo! got both motors up and running and they both run great!
also did some more work in the fuel tank compartment, I cut out and removed the aft and foward bulkhead walls and got all the old fuel hoses removed, now the fun of cutting out new plywood and re-glassing the walls and tank floor back in,
BTW,. anybody got any templates for the walls?

Memories, memories, the delight of installing bulkheads under the deck of a 25. Just how much epoxy can you get in your hair?

My sympathy.

Something weird to look for. My stb stringer broke clean off at the forward tank bulkhead. Look good at yours in that area and see if there is any sign of strain. I'm just curious.

You might want to consider installing an additional bulkhead between the forward tank bulkhead and the forward most bulkhead, its is a long stretch. Strick, Blue Heron and I all did similar (but different) things in that area.

Connor

thanks, I thought about a 3rd bulkhead , how far foward ? Im not gonna fit too much futher than the stepdown !!

The 25 was designed to have a water ballast tank under the forward step down. That had to have involved considerable stiffeners. Potter removed all that and did not replace the stiffeners with anything, leaving a very wide and long space between the main stringers from the fwd tank bulkhead to the forward end of the bunks. Also the main stringers don't go all the way up to the cabin liner. The net result is an inherently weak structure prone to deflection in and up. Blue Heron is the expert on this, I'm the one who got bit the worst.

I put in three new bulkheads, one at the point where the cabin storage area ends and the bunks begin, another directly over the place where I had the worst problem (end of the stringer), and a third partial bulkhead halfway from the cabin storage area to the forward tank bulkhead. The first two went all the way up to the inner liner and out to the chine. All are mounted on three layers of 1708 and a wide pad of thickened epoxy. This is almost certainly overkill. Blue Heron put in one addditional bulkhead, look at his thread for bulkhead position and an explanation of what we think caused this mess. Strick took a different course, but his boat had no signs of any problem. See his thread for detail.

I cut out the floor of the step down to get to all this. Worked pretty well, also helped me find and fix some rot in the balsa under the deck. There was so much glass, it felt solid, but rot was there.

Connor

Man Im itchy!!!!! got under the deck today and ground down all the excess glass and loose tabbing , I then worked on cutting out the wood for the replacment bulkhead walls and the gastank floor. I am going to add another bulkhead about mid way under the cabin floor, and add some more tabbing to the stringers while Im under there. Looks like My holiday weekend is gonna be spent under a deck with epoxy in my hair in 90+ heat!
More pics coming soon.

I know the feeling. At least I did that job when the weather was cool. have fun.

Very curious, where was the loose tabbing, aft by the rotten bulkhead or forward under the cabin?? Loose on the bulkhead surface or the hull surface??

Connor

the tabbing on the stringers looks fine, the front bulkhead wall had come loose where it attached to the floor under the gas tank, I got it all ground down and ready for the new wall to go in. The wood in the center stringer is still wet so I have heat lamps on it drying it out so i can get the resin to stick to it.

I'm getting itchy just thinking about all that grinding.:eek:

Phil, you might want to consider cutting a hole in your cabin deck so you have access to glass that new bulkhead in on both sides. If you plan it out, you can have an extra storage compartment under the cabin.
Dave

Yea, Im going to cut a access hole , I was thinking of getting one of those 11x15 plastic hatch doors to install , might be a a small hole to work through but less glass work when Im done with the walls

well it took all weekend and alot of sweat but I got the bulkhead walls and gas tank compartment floor in and glassed with exoxy, and I didbt get any epoxy in My hair{i wore a shower cap!!} I added the 3rd wall under the cabin floor just foward of where the cabin door is, I cut a 8" hole in the floor to access the froward side of the wall and Im going to install a round deck plate to cover the hole, there is already one in the step down area so I think it will look just fine. Now on to the gas tanks, I found a local guy who had some .125 5025 4x10 alum sheets that I picked up for a hundred dollars each . My metal fabrication freind is going to build me some new tanks the exact size that came out .

Made a little more progress this weekend. saturday I almost finished up with the reconstruction of the bulk head walls and the gas tank compartment floor, ive got 1 more layer of glass and resin to put on the tank compartment floor and ill be ready for new tanks, well new tanks as soon as we get them built that is,
I then cleaned and prepped the bilge for paint and built and pre fit a shelf for the battries to mount on. Today I wacthed most of the Nascar race then decided to start wet sanding the sides of the hull to see how thwy would come out, I wet sanded with 800 then 1000 grit and then buffed with 3M heavy duty and I was amazed how well it came out. I got 3/4 of the port side done before My arms wore out. It looks great!!, I cant wait to get her all buffed out and shiney!!
Heres a few pics...

Well I finished up the bilge in the past two weeks, I cleaned and prepped it and applied a good coat of grey gelcoat , I installed a 4000gph main bilge pump and a 1500gph back-up on float switches, I then finished and installed the shelf to mount the batteries on and got them installed and hooked up.
I havent had time to build My new gas tanks so I got to thinking, I had this plastic 17gal tank in My collection of junk boat stuff and it fit in the space in front of the batteries perfectly! I installed new fill and vent hoses leaving enough length to reach My new tanks when I get them built. I hope My 150s will both run off of one tank and 3/8 fuel line
Im getting close to a Seatrial!!
Hes a pic I snapped.

finally got My fuel tanks finished up and installed!
My buddy who is a awesome frabricator and welder copied the old tanks exactly and the fit great! , I put down some rubber strips and used some old rub rail insert i had under the tanks to keep them off the floor and mades some starboard braces to secure them in place. I also replaced the fuel fill, vent and fuel lines and installed 2 water seperator bracket and filters on the inner transom wall. now I just have to raise some gas money to fill them up!!

Those tanks look great!!!

Each motah needs a dedicated 3/8 pickup. Neoprene or rubber under the tanks?

I hate to mention this now that you've already put the tanks in, but some rubber has carbon in it, and carbon is at the very bottom of the list on the galvanic scale, even lower than zinc (platinum, gold and nickle are near the top). Depending what's in that rubber, you may have set up a galvanic couple between the rubber and the tank that will cause galvanic corrosion! My yacht builder neighbor built some experimental boats for the U. S. Navy out of carbon fiber, and he said they had terrible problems with galvanic corrosion and electrolysis! Putting strips of something under the tank to keep water away from it is a great idea, but I think strips of starboard glued to the bottom of the tank with 5200 would be safer than rubber. For more info on corrosion, check out yacht surveryor Dave Pasco's article at http://www.yachtsurvey.com/corrosion.htm. He also has a good article on how to install fuel tanks at http://www.yachtsurvey.com/fueltank.htm
Denny

I agree with the starboard solution. The Shamrock guys have been doing that and I did the same when I replaced my tanks in my 92 shamrock as the foam held the water in and cause corrosion.

Great build!

the rubberI I used came out of a chapperall cruiser that we scrapped, when we pulled the fuel tank out of it it had these 2" wide x 1/4" thick long strips of rubber under the tank, It was 25+ years old and the tank was in suprisingly good shape so i used it under My tank, I also put down some old rub rail plastic insert that I had laying around, I put strips of it on the front and back bulkhead walls and a few strips under the tanks

It is probably neoprene then. Neoprene good, rubber bad according to everything I've read. There were strips of neoprene stuck to the bottom of my 1974 20' SF tank when I took it out last year also, original tank built in 1973 stamped on it. The place that built my tank gave me 1/4" x 2" neoprene to put under the tank and also welded doubled up aluminum strips to keep it even further off the bottom of the tank coffin.

Sounds like you're good to go on the old rubber, probably neoprene, that came out of the other boat. Might consider doing a test with a piece the rub rail insert, where you lay it on top of some aluminum in water and let it set for a couple months to see if it causes any corrosion.

Well , I just split $200 worth of non ethanol gas tween them and they are only a little over a quarter full.... Damnit, at 4.39 a gal it will be a while before I can add more. Im gonna prime the lines and water seperators tonight and fire her up, I hope the old fuel pumps will draw fuel through 15ft of line and a filter!

OUCH!!!! I know how you feel, that's why I have not been dolphin fishing too much, normal day of trolling is 50 gal @ $4.19 per gal = way too much moola!!! Shoot a short trip to the reef for yellow tail is $60 in chum & bait + 10 gal of gas @ $4.19 per gal + the necessities (beer, beer, some ice, some more refreshments, and more beer) = a lot of money. Price of YT at the fish house, $10/pound. I'm getting to be a cheap bastard! :) I'm done bitching.

Non ethanol is pricy stuff, until you figure what ethanol is likely to cost you. As long as I can find it, there won't be any alcohol getting in my fuel system.

Looking forward to some performance numbers.


Connor

X2!

Yes Sir Conner, especially if I'm going to let it sit for a long period of time I'm happy to pay the extra for Rec 90!!! Still hurts though. :)