79' Overnighter
 

Here's a few pics of my recently purchased 20' Overnighter. I have a ton of questions, but would like to say hi and thank everyone for sharing pictures and ideas. It's a cool site.

Anyhow, after reading a lot here I decided to try my hand at restoring a Seacraft to fill time in retirement, and to have one of these legendary boats of my own.

I'm trying to figure the best way to rebuild the transom, add a bracket, reconfigure the scuppers so I don't have to worry about it in wet slip, and generally bring her back to life.

Retirement begins end of March so this will be my new job.

S/n

A little dirty!

welcome to the site! your gonna have your hands full and this is the place to get all the right info. some of these guys should have left their jobs years ago and been building boats for a living.

Welcome aboard!!

John,
That's a very interesting layout and I look forward to seeing more of it. I've never seen any brochures of it, but it looks like Potter sort of combined the Seafari inner liner with a modified Sceptre top cap, to sort of captured the best features of both in the process! The bulkhead in the Seafari is about 10' from the transom, and I think it's about 10'6" in the Sceptre. I wonder where it is in the Overnighter? The bunks should be 6'6" long if he used the Seafari inner liner, but 6" shorter with the Sceptre liner.

A good friend of mine went down to the Miami Boat Show in 1976 with the intent of buying a 20' Sceptre, but he said they had a Sceptre and Seafari lined up side by side with the transoms up against an elevated walkway, and he noticed that the cockpits were almost the same size. He ended up buying a Seafari because of the extra room and dry storage in the cabin. Maybe the Overnighter was an attempt to combine the larger cockpit and walk-thru windshield of the Sceptre with the dry storage of the Seafari? Denny

Denny,

I pulled out the cushions and they measured about 76", so it sounds like the Seafarer layout. I can measure next time I'm out there. The forward hatches and the walkthru windshield have me scratching my head. If you slide the hatches all the way forward you still have to get up onto the bow to deploy, tie off and retrieve the anchor. I've never seen a Seafarer, so I don't know if that feature is the same.

I'll take some more pics of the cabin, it may be the same without the height of the Seafarer ceiling, and window. It does have some small compartments under the cushions.

I thought this 79 was a sceptre, but if you look at the 79 price list it has an 20 Overnighter but not a 20 sceptre. I'm thinking 78 was the last year for the 20 sceptre. But I'm still learning!

welcome
 

Welcome to the SeaCraft family,,,,from another South Jersey SeaCraft fan.....please keep us informed.....where is workinprogress... I think he knows this boat....

Joe R.
20ft Classic SeaCraft
Susie II

Seafari`s are haunting me now. Cracker Air? Something to be said about deck space.

Cheers,
GFS

Good to see another SC being brought back to life, especially one I've only seen a couple of. I know of the boat but didn't dig through it. The guy who had it, had it for a long time right out front. He's into the little go fast boats, I think he mess' with speed skiffs and tunnels etc. I always figured it was an 80's boat like the WA but one time when it was bugging me and I looked at the hin before to see if it was a Potter and was surprised.

Congrats on your purchase, have it ready for the Summer SeaCraft Gathering Atlantic City 2013, lol.

Thank for the warm welcome guys!

Workinprogress, When I got the courage to knock on the door to ask wether the Seacraft was for sale, he said what Seacraft. He then got the title read it and said how did you know. I said look at the hull, it's a unique design if you look closely. Don't think he understood what was sitting there all this time. He has probably a dozen boats scattered in that yard, most are hydrofoils. Think he's one of the go to mechanics for that type engine in the area.

Do you allow Parker's at your gatherings? Got an 18 cc so I'm still on the water....:D

We allow Slackers, and you do have a SC.

I knew it could had fairly easily if someone wanted it and it wasn't really his thing. I was always surprised it sat there that long on the corner of such a well traveled road. Then again when people acquire a lot of "stuff" in their yard it all kinda blends together, lol.

I will put you on the contact list for the summer SeaCraft get together ,just in case you miss the post on here....

Joe R.
20ft Classic SeaCraft
Susie II

Great! Thanks Joe looking forward to.

Making progress on my 20. Removed fuel tank (using the prescribed power washer method on the foam). Access to the peat moss transom. Looks like I'll need to recore the at least some of the cap.

Oh, one more thing, the search function on this site is like a Seacraft encyclopedia. Gotta question, the answer is here somewhere....

transom complete
 

Haven't updated this thread for a while and thought I'd show progress and some close ups of the layout.

Looking good..its going to look like Bill Potter's personal Overnighter...
are you planning on going with a hermco bracket too?
Fred

Fred, Yes I will be ordering a Hermco bracket,very soon I think. Currently trying to figure out how to reconstruct the stern end of the cockpit. Including the bracket and reroute of the scuppers out the transom. I've learned that ya have to plan three steps out so that ya don't screwup the next step. Makes for slow going. Wish I could get a few more pictures of Bill Potters boat.
John

looking good and happy you let us know how the project is coming along.....is the Parker in the water....our SeaCraft get together is Aug 4th in Atlantic city....hope you can make it..If you want a ride over by boat let us know...Check the thread in the Seacraft gathering forms

Joe R.
20ft Classic SeaCraft
Susie II

Thanks Joe,

Yes the Parker is in, we'll make a point to get to the gathering this year. Although, it will be in the Parker, be nice to meet other SC owners in the area.

John

Welcome to CSC
Based on the hull id your probably titled 1980?
If so, I have a 1980 Potter Built sticker left for ya:)

Btw: check with Don Herman, he might have some additional pictures of Bill's Overnighter.

I know you are about out of stickers, but by chance do you have any 71's,73's,74's Left?

my 75 was tittle as a 76 but hull nimbered in 75 so when i registed it here in alabama i had the clerk correct the registration as we don't have titles and i wasn't worried about any devalueing of the boat as it was already 37 years old... lol. And if you have 75 and 79 stickers i would be interested as well.

Thanks Captain Chuck, you're right it was titled with 80. Had me scratching my head. And yes I would appreciate a sticker, please let me know how to pay.

Sent a note to Don Herman awhile back, he provided Bill's email, never got a response. If I could get mine to look half as nice as the one pictured, I'd be Happy, Happy, Happy.

John

Bracket installation
 

Here's a pic of my hermco bracket on the boat. Lining up to drill transom holes. Measure 20 times drill once.. Still scary.

Starting to look like a boat
 

You Guys weren't kidding about the effort and time involved in a rebuild!
A few shots of my progress. Front deck rebuilt with a pulpit for the windlass and anchor roller. Hermco bracket installed, fits like a glove. And high build primer.

Focus next is inside, fuel tank and more glass work.

Nice work! Should be a VERY unique boat!

Love to see some sequence pics of how you did your bow pulpit. Looking good.:cool:

Bow pulpit build
 

Gillie,

Here are a couple of pics of the bow pulpit in progress.

I had to recore the front deck and wanted to install a specific anchor roller and windlass.

First couple of shots are the recore, which, I followed Island Trader's thread to do.
Then I struggled with size, shape and placement of the pulpit. A lot of variables to contend with. Anchor line fall, roller position, hatch opening and especially looks. I've seen hundreds of pics of pulpits that looked like a bad afterthought. I didn't want to disrupt the lines of the bow.