Comprehensive assessment for restoration of 20SF
 

Hi everybody, I'm pretty new here, but have read a lot of restoration threads. Can anyone point me to a thread that goes through the assessment of an old 73 Seacraft 20 SF to determine what is the best path for a restoration? I know the main things to change are battery and fuel tank location for better weight distribution, possibly raise the floor to be completely self bailing, raise the transom for safety, and so on. Thanks

New here also
 

I don't have any help but welcome to CSC. I have found the members here to be a wealth of information.
Ed

Thanks, I spent a few hours later that night reading posts. I think that hoping for someone to write a book detailing the restoration of a Seacraft 20 might be asking a bit much. I plan on compiling a file on each of the projects involved, try to knock off one a night for a while. I've been up in the air about just running it as is and sort of treating it like a work boat(which it actually will be, I have a boat rental business and marina. It will be a chase/rescue boat), or going through a full restoration. Such a pretty boat and I love the construction of them.

Tommy54, I've been thinking about you post for a while. Some say I process data only slight faster than sloth, but I'm very methodical! You see it is very difficult for us to know about the present condition of your boat and therefore how to prioritize a repair schedule on your particular Seacraft. Please understand that there are 2003 Seacrafts that need lots of attention and 1974 ones that can effortlessly make the run to Bermuda.

I think you need to preform a survey first.
If the keel isn't ground off on the cross member of a trailer, than usually the hull is good and the stringer system is typically indestructible. Soft spots appear in the floors where screw holes were not properly sealed and water has gotten to the floor core, be it plywood or foam. Transoms, can be the biggest issue but there are some around the are 50 years old and still dry and solid and much newer ones that have turned into mulch. Coring in caps sometime deteriorates where water gets to the core where rod holders, deck penetrations or screw holes have let it in over the years. As you know any of the new fuel injected engines cannot tolerate contaminated fuel. Some here have re-powered from an old two stroke which ran poorly to a new modern fuel injected four stroke just to find that the problem with their old motor was really a leaking fuel tank that was allowing deck water to get into the fuel. $11,500 later they find out what they really needed was a new $750.00 fuel tank. And now they are standing in water at the back because the decks are awash with the new engine weight.

If you would share a little more about the condition of the boat with us and think about phasing or prioritizing the repairs, I think you would get more helpful responses. Survey the situation and circle back around with some pictures - lots of help here if there is a little more to go on. There are a couple of Seacraft workboats and a freighter or two on this site and we agree, they are the prettiest little Work Boats and Freighters on the water.

Thanks for that response. I suppose I'm used to people starting a build thread with a plan in mind, and at this point I don't really have one. I have a mostly original boat that needs some attention. I'll start with that. I'm in the boat rental business, and we have a few weeks of craziness left before I can settle in to repair work. I will try to get some pictures of the boat posted so I can get some educated opinions on how to proceed. Thank you very much.

Tommy,

Unless you have a different use right now or a reason that it needs a bunch of work right now I would use it for a while. I have used both my 18 and now my 23 without any unnecessary work as a work boat. ( Same industry as you... much bigger tide swing.)

Running it like that made me think about what I wanted to do and how to go about it so I could knock off things here and there and have a plan. Plus I just feel better knowing I am in my Sea Craft at 3:00 AM towing the rental boat back that ran aground seven minutes after high tide earlier that day so I can have the rental boat back at the dock for the next days rentals.

I agree with Terry and since you said about moving the fuel tank look at my thread on my 18SF fuel tank pull... It was fast and easy.

Good luck with the end of the season.

Tommy's Tug
 

Tommy, go ahead and "Make hay while the sun is shinning", Bro'. We'll show you how to spend money building the coolest Tug Boat on the waterfront when the November winds start blowing!

Strick's sticky "Here we go again," on the repairs and mods is a good place to start. I'm not sure if the pics will show up in archives or not.

Billythekid did a '73 - here's that link:
http://www.classicseacraft.com/commu...ighlight=billy

IslandTrader's 21 is an awesome project to learn from. Link is at the tagline end of his posts.

Pirate Terry of the Union Jack has a bit of experience with a sawsall, too.

Trayder's original resto is here and the beginning of this "movement," and a host of others.

Reading Shine's stuff is very helpful and he he has a ton of craft knowledge.

Definitely more than a few books of content here. Keep using that search engine. And always feel free to ask questions. Pretty friendly bunch here. Good luck with your resto. We'll be watching...:cool:

Ahhh, Tommy me boy, The Marshtackie carried a bit too much ballast to suit this 'ol salt when I captured her. A might trimmin' wit me 'ol cutlass cleaned her up a bit to outrun the Spaniards! They'll hang the likes of me iffin they catch me. Us ol' Pirates subscribe to the mindset dat "Form follows Function" and to outrun dem wit de noose you got to stay "light and nimble".
You got to have enough room to hold a dance the night of the Wenches Ball in case a troop of em' want to do the Bootie Scootin' Boogie on board!!!

Er Iff'in yur in the Gun runnin business -

Er Iff'in you need to sort out the Booty, ya' need some deck space -
(Dat be 'ol Two Tooth Deckhand Doug sort'in - he's big as a walrus, but he put da' fish in de boat!!)

AArrrrrrrr!

Thanks for the encouragement, being in the boat rental business in Wisconsin is tough. Such a short season and so much work, haven't had a day off since the first of April. It's also great fuel for daydreaming about running around in the gulf this winter. I took a 16' flat bottom skiff to Bokeelia two years ago, got hooked on the Pine Island sound/Cayo Costa boating, and promptly bought the first Seacraft that popped up for sale in Wisconsin. I trailered it 1400 miles to Port Charlotte(had an offer of a cheap place to stay for a couple weeks) last winter and blew up the engine within an hour. I had it rebuilt even though its only a 20" shaft and I would really like to raise the transom 5". I have a pregnant wife and a 6 year old, so the word safety is now in my vocabulary. I need to break in the motor, so I'll try to get some pictures of the boat up. Thanks for the warm welcome, education, and entertainment.

Arrrrr, Tommy me boy, thairs a lot of Vikings up yur way, but the're a "tight bunch" - you got to pry 'em up off of their wallets - and you need a big crowbar!!

Speakin' of La Costa Island. Me an Jose Gaspar used to lay low there for a spell when the Spanards or the Federallies were lookin' for us. Back in 2014 we had a Seacraft Pirates Gathering there at Cabbage Key and Cayo Costa. If you go to this SeaCraft Site Log Book and look under the Gathering Tab you can find it about #14 or #15 down from the top. Lot's of pictures there.

The main reason I had to "open the hatches up" on the Marshtackie is I need a good boat to take all the provisions I need to build the Pirates Lair out on Cayo Caosta. Me carpenters and blacksmiths need compressors, generators, nail guns, various kinds of saws, cords, hoses, drills, screw guns, plus 20,000# of building materials - all pressure treated plywood, pilings and lumber!!!!. So she's an excellent hull for hauling freight with minimum power and the old Bowrider refuses to plow no matter how much hundredweight you stack on the foredeck. I think 'Ol Carl put a little bigger forefoot on the Bowriders and she runs high and proud regardless of the load.
This is a picture near the end of the work with 5 or 6 sheets of Masonite, tools and a healthy ration of Grog for the crew! (I had me painter air brush some rust streaks so no Scallawags would steal her from the moorings at night, - they'er very authentic!!!!)

Thought I'd revive this thread. The rebuilt Johnson Oceanrunner has a lean sneeze that can't seem to be cured. I had hoped that the old motor would give me a year or two of service, I've had pretty good luck with 2 strokes on our chase boats. I think I'm going to take the leap and buy a new motor for it. We don't need to run fast, our lake is only 7 miles long. I'll be taking it down to Pine Island at some point this winter, but I won't be in a hurry then either. I like the 369lb weight of the Mercury 115 4 stroke. Some say you need a lot more horspower, but I'm happy with the power right now, and I want to keep the boat light. I'd want to go with a 25" shaft, so she may go under the knife to raise the transom. I had hoped to wait for the off season to do that, but this engine is stumping every mechanic around.

I decided to sell the 115 Johnson and mount a Yamaha 90 fourstroke EFI that I pulled off one of my rental pontoons. I know it will be bit underpowered, but I'll prop it so it works. Problem is, the wood around the engine mounting bolts is wet and a bit soft. I could trim the old motor up, stand on the cavitation plate and jump up and down without any flex in the transom. Can I mount the Yamaha and run it for the rest of the year? I'd prefer to tear it down and do it right, but I don't have the time right now and I really should have a chase boat. Any opinions are welcomed...

it will be fine, if you can bounce on it and its not flexing you are fine, at this point its safe to say any of the seacrafts from the 70s have or had a rotten transom, the fiberglass front and back is alot stronger than you think.

x 2

X3
If it bugs you then put some 1/4" aluminum plate on the inside and outside of the transom and use the motor mount bolts to sandwich it. You can run it for a really long time like that.

You'll be fine. 90 ponies is fine, even in gray. You'll want a stern lifting prop, something described as "easy to turn," meaning little cup, mild rake progression and fairly large blade area with a fairly straight front edge and nicely curved rear. that sounds kinda, well... anyway a semi-cleaver, probably 13-3/4 x 14 or 15 pitch. Make sure you are able to dial it up to max recommended rpm full of gas and peeps and ginger ale. I always suggest the quicksilver black diamond as the starting point. cheap, kick ass prop perfect for a 33 mph 20' seacraft with 90-115 hp. Yamaha's own semi cleaver is also a decent starting choice. a 4 blade with maybe a little less diameter will also fit the call. You'll want the anti-cav plate about 1-1/2" above the keel with the plate parallel to keel.

Transom "Angle Iron"
 

Another Moesly approach suggested to me by Skippertee was I added aluminum angle iron to the engne bottom holes on the inside of the transom. This was .25 thick x 2" x 2" and about two foot long (fits between the stringers). The "L" shape provides a lot more moment of inertia (stiffness) than a single flat plate. A double flat plate would be quite stiff as well, but requires removing the engine. My top holes were in better shape.

A belated welcome to CSC!

Charlotte Harbor is my favorite Florida cruising ground. If you get back down here, let me know. I can put you and your kids on some fun stuff.

Connnor

Thanks for the input. That got me thinking about what material I may have laying around. I had a transom reinforcement plate from a pontoon(1/2" aluminum) that I cut in half, put the top half in the splashwell, and the bottom half down in the bilge for the lower two bolts. It may not be a permanent fix, but it's a lot stronger than before. I took the opportunity with the old engine off to pressure wash the bilge, then got sidetracked with removing old wiring in the bilge. I am moving the battery up to the console as long as I'm cleaning things up for better weight distribution. I do get concerned with the 20" transom. Someone added a layer of plywood to the floor, and there are no more scuppers, so this is not a self bailing boat.
Thanks for the info on propping. I believe I have a 15 pitch Yamaha prop on there, so it may just work. I'm anxious to see how the 90 horsepower motor performs on the boat. I've always rigged engines with the cavitation plate level with the bottom of the hull, is it a Seacraft specific thing to put it 1.5" above the bottom of the keel?

Pretty standard on the 20 hull. more bang for your prop. not sure if your yammie is 400 lbs or newer light one, but I think up an 1+" will help.

Regarding the scuppers - did they glass over the scupper holes in the bottom of the hull?

I rigged the engine and am running into issues with steering cable routing. The obvious solution would be to cut out some fiberglass to enlarge the rigging hole on the starboard side of the splashwell. To get it at the right level it looks like I'll have to cut right up to seat level. I don't see any way around it, so I think its time to pull out the sawzall and grinder.
@Mcgillicuddy: I think the weight of the engine is 369. It looks like they screwed and glued over the scuppers in the bottom of the hull(at least there is some sort of plate down there).

Good deal on your motor weight. Light is right. If the plates are thin wedges that was standard practice just fore of scupper holes. Scupper holes would have been immediately aft, so my guess someone filled them.

As far as the steering cable goes a lot of these have been butchered to some degree. max flex cable might help. some models have a little lump on the edge of the of the stern locker and splashwell designed to make that easier but some were not conducive the driver's preference of throttle shifter placement.

Now that I look at it closer I see that I can't even enlarge the hole enough to get clearance. I need to cut a second hole where the starboard seat bottom meets the transom about a foot away from the steering tube on the engine. I'll arrange some sort of clamshell to cover it for now. I imagine this cable routing would be an even bigger problem on a raised transom.
The scupper holes appear to have been filled before the last coat of bottom paint went on.

Hi, Tommy - I ran into the steering cable issue on my 1972 Seafari - and found that converting to hydraulic was better than hacking up the starboard seat base and having a hard bend on a mechanical cable. here are before and after shots:

I cut the smallest hole possible in the seat, and will put a clamshell over it. I was able to get it so there are no tight bends in the cable. Your hydraulic steering looks great. I don't know how long this motor will stay on the boat, so I'm not going to go overboard right now, this is a bare bones setup. I want to raise the transom, which will mean a different motor. I'll post a picture once I figure out how to use my Dropbox.

Hydraulic Bulkhead fittings are also available for the hydraulic lines which will further "tidy" and clean up the transom area. Rigging tubes make a big difference

This is completely off topic, but is there any reason to save the original seats from this boat? I pulled the two pedestals off and installed a flip flop cooler seat that I had sitting in the shop. I like it a lot better, so I don't think I'll ever out those seats back on. Just wanted to see if there is any reason to hang on to them.

I just realized that I hadn't given an update on the new motor. The 90hp Yamaha 4 stroke with the Yamaha 15" pitch prop does really well. Engine height was perfect(thanks McGillicuddy). It has the same top speed as the 115 Johnson and gets right up on plane. I did remove the second battery and relocated the battery up to the console for a little better weight distribution. I've only had 3 people in the boat and I suppose I'd see a bigger performance difference when loaded down, but so far I'm really impressed with the little 90.