1977 20 ft Seafari to CC Restore
 

A few weeks back I purchased a 20ft Seafari to rebuild. It was in rough shape and someone went at it with a saw before I got it. Transom was ripped out, cabin cut out of the cap, rear cap cut out and trashed. So I gutted the rest and will be turning it into a CC with a flotation bracket and closed transom. I do have a few questions. First, I need to know the deck height for a self bailing setup. Do I need to raise it? As it is right now it doesn't seem that I need to raise it much if at all. I was thinking 1 inch. I will be building back all composite, coosa transom and nidacore deck so it will be lighten up significantly. Let me know what yall think.

A little more progress.

Judging from your screen name, converting to a flats/bay boat (Hewes Bonefisher layout) would not fit your style, but it would be really cool and easy to do on one stripped down this far. Good luck with the project - you might want to check Bushwacker's posts about maintaining a box structure as you rebuild it. Deck height is a function of how heavy you rebuild it and where you locate the motor and CG. I think the original deck was about 1" above the stringer tops. If you keep it very light and put a light motor on the transom you don't need to raise it much (if any). Build it heavy and put a heavy motor on bracket - you would need at least 2" - likely more but it probably wouldn't handle as well and you start loosing freeboard aft. Have fun with the project!

I will be building it back light using composites but adding a flotation bracket and a 175 Suzuki. Transom is going in tomorrow. And I have already built a flats boat, I rebuilt a Mako 151 Flats 2 years ago. Not doing another one of those.

LOT'S of torsional stiffness was lost by cutting away the cap, bulkheads and inner liner. (Try twisting a shoe box with and without the lid taped to it!) If you don't want the boat to be as flexible as a wet noodle, I'd strongly advise laminating some 1/2" balsa core to the hull sides! A good stiff cap glassed to the hull will also help. Since you want to use a lot of composites, I'd suggest you check out Dave Pasco's article on core materials.

And it would be a good idea to keep that anchor locker, which will allow you to use a big oval hawse pipe and mount anchor on deck. There are situations where being able to quickly deploy an anchor can be a big safety factor, or at least very handy if you're trying to anchor over a hot lobster spot!

I agree with Bushwacker, most of the hulls done this way have had core added to the sides or extra glass added for strength. The master angler hulls were 3 piece like this one will end up after you cut the liner out of it and the sides on the ma were twice as thick as the 2 piece super fish hull sides. They were built that way since there was no liner and the ma hull with out liner was by far the thickest hull sides than any other seacraft hull I have owned. I had a 20 foot seafari, super fish, secptre and master angler hulls all side by side at the same time and was surprised just how much thicker the ma was. Also you may want some support on the sides, cut some 2x4s and notch them to hold the sides together or support them some how. I had a 71 superfish hull with out the top cap on bare just like yours and it sat on the trailer for 5 years with out support and it grew almost 6 inch wider than my 74 model sitting beside it. It was hard to pull them back in once they sat that way a long time too. There was another member up here that had the same issue after glassing the side core in and he ended up cutting the cap to make it wider so it would fit back on. Nice project by the way, good luck on you build!

Tramsom is in and glassed. I plan on reinstalling the cap after the transom and stringers are finished up. We are going to flip the hull and finish the bottom then back over and install the deck and cap bracing. Pull the cap back off after all the structural reinforcement is done. Rebuild the cap and put it together. I plan on leaving the anchor locker liner in. I have the measurements before we removed the liner and I have checked them a few times making sure it isn't being tweeked. This is my 5th boat rebuild but my first Seacraft. Last year I rebuilt a 1972 Chris Craft 25 Tournament.

This was the Chris Craft. I know some of you guys like the older stuff. 25 Tournament Fisher refitted with Twin Cummins 4BT 150hp. Pulled it out of a boatyard where it sat for 10 years being ignored.

Nice! How do you like those Cummins engines?

That was a really cool boat. I sold it this past summer though. The 4BT is a great motor, just a little shakey. They vibrate alot at idle.

Yea, an I-4 motor is not naturally balanced like an I-6 or a V-8, so they all do that if they don't have balance shafts, especially if over 2.0L displacement. The 140 MerCruiser was also rough at idle.

Questions on motors... I was pricing out some motors today, I can get a brand new Suzuki 150SS for $8900 or a new DF140 for $8700 and a new DF175 for $9800. So my question is which would you go with and why? The weight on the 140 is 396 pounds, 150 and 175 is 474 pounds. The 150SS is an underrated 150 and is probably pushing 175hp. Will the DF140 push the 20fter decently? What say ye?

No Suzuki expert by any means, however I have a friend who has twin 175 hp and they have been very good engines for him. Plus he gets very good fuel economy.

Knew nothing about these, so I just went and Googled the 150SS for grins, I like the flat black paint with red trim. Sweet. For $200 I'd go with the V6.

Wait, edit time, I see the 150SS is actually a 4 cylinder, 4 cylinders with the same displacement all the way up to 200 hp. You need to get a Suzuki expert to answer this one, I still like the 150SS.

The df140 pushes my buddy's 20 Seafari very well with no issue on power. I think it is a better choice weight wise and $$$$. When I rode in his it was way fast and super economical... I believe somewhere near 4 nautical at cruise.

Ken got me to looking, like I said not too versed in Suzuki outboards except I'd love to have a 300 hp on my 23'er. I see the 140hp is 2.044 L at 396 pounds, then you go to the 150hp, you move up to 2.867 L and 475 pounds, which is the bottom HP with this displacement. I would think the 150 would be just loafing around at that displacement. However you do have to consider the extra 80 pounds.

I agree with Ken, I'd pick the 140. It's plenty of power for a 20 unless you plan to carry very heavy loads or cruise at 30-35 kts! Motor weight is a big deal on the 20 if you want the best ride and min planing speeds of around 12 mph like they were designed to do! You must be looking at 20" shaft motors, because I think the 25" 140 was something like 415-420 lbs. When you consider WET weight (add ~2 gal/15 lbs for lube & gear oil), the bigger motors are close to 500 lbs, or about 200 lbs more than the boat was designed for! On the bigger motors, I'd pick the 175 over the 150 because it's the same weight but has variable valve timing, which allows you to run more cam duration for high speed power but still have decent low end power and a smooth idle. NAEBM standards require actual hp to be within + 10%, so the "150" could be about 165 hp at the prop.

Another option in the 400 lb weight range, if you don't mind a throw-away sleeveless engine block, is the 115 Merc 4S. An even better option IMHO is the 2.6L 150/175/200hp small block G1 E-TEC (actual hp of ~165/185/195) which weighs about the same as the 140, but has much more displacement and low end torque, a simple rugged block that's been around for 25 years, and surprisingly good fuel economy. (Once I got my motor height correct and the right prop, I'm seeing about 4 mpg at a 27-28 mph cruise, and 10 mpg at 5 mph; in 2010, with the wrong engine height and less efficient prop (~3.75 mpg cruise), I made a 700 mile run circumnavigating S. Fla. carrying a very heavy cruising load, and averaged 4.4 mpg for the entire trip.) Prices are probably higher than the Zukes, but the G-1 models may be cheaper now that they've come out with the G-2 version, which has integral hydraulic steering, digital throttle and shift, and the oil tank on motor. They also typically run special deals this time of year. Although the G-2 E-TECs are supposed to be at least 15% better in fuel economy, I don't recommend them for the 20, as they're even heavier than comparable 4-strokes!

I have a buday who is a Suzuki Dealer and another buddy that is a Suzuki Dealer Rep. They both say the 150SS is pushing out 175hp. It is underrated for the bass boat guys. The extra 80 pounds is what has me hesitant. Anybody with a bracketed 20 wanna hang some weight on the bracket and report back to me on ride and rest?

Oh and as far a's the Etec goes Bushwacker.... Not no, but HECK NO! Never ever ever will I own another etec. Some people have amazing luck with em, they break in my presence.

My Baseline: I ran a 300 lb motor on the transom for 31 years, including 6 trips and 2500-3000 miles to and from the Abacos in the 1-2' square waves common to the Little Bahama Bank. (Lots of water runs on and off the hundreds of square miles of the Bank every 6 hrs, creating a current-against-the-wind and short steep chop conditions in the 10-20' deep water.)

I then changed to a 429 lb motor on a 30" Hermco bracket, so I've learned first hand about the effects of engine weight and brackets, which is why I posted the thread on the pros & cons of brackets. Very few folks on this forum have run a 20 as long as I did with a light motor on the transom, so I've probably noticed the effects of brackets and heavy motors more than most. Trust me, the 20' hull rides incredibly well when balanced as designed!

At the dock, my Seafari sits about 1" lower in the water at the transom with the bracket and heavier motor and is just barely self bailing with the lower deck of the pre-'73 models, thanks to the big flotation tank on the Hermco bracket. Remember that the Seafari is about 200 lbs heavier than a CC model, and the extra weight is all up front, so I'd expect a CC model to sit a bit lower with the same changes.

Because of the significant aft shift in CG with a new configuration, I immediately noticed a SIGNIFICANT DETERIORATION in low speed planing performance and in ride! Min planing speed went from 12 mph with the light motor to 22-23 mph with the new motor and bracket! By adding some band-aids (a stern lifting 4B prop and fin on the AV plate), I was able to get min planing speed back down to 12 mph, but the fin causes extra drag, and 4B props are typically worse than 3B props in both cruise mpg and WOT speed. However I moved the motor back another 3" when I installed a jack plate to get motor height correct, and even that small change, which shifts CG just like a heavier motor would, made the boat more prone to porpoising and more sensitive to engine trim and weight distribution.

In summary, I believe the safety benefits of the solid transom, the convenience of the swim platform and extra room gained by eliminating the splashwell are worth the compromises caused by the required band-aids. However if you plan to add a bracket, recognize up front that you're making a significant change to the boats CG, so I recommend trying to minimize the CG change by using the lightest possible motor!