'72 Super Fish 20' Rebuild
 

Thought I should start my rebuild thread. Bought the boat from a guy who had it for the last 20 years out of Chico, CA. He said the owner of a local dive shop owned it before him. As you can see from the photos the boat had blue carpet throughout, lots of spider cracks, two soft spots on the deck, and a transom with an unknown degree of rot.

I ripped out the carpet the first day, and have now started to remove the carpet glue. I found some carpet glue remover at Home Depot that does an OK job softening, but it's still a pain. Lightly wire brushing the glue in several directions seem to work. I sold the motor today and am hoping to cut into the transom on Sunday.

My game plan for the project is to Coosa the transom from the exterior, patch and repair the big problems with the deck and cleanup the console this winter. Then next winter pull the liner and do the floors.

Oops, already messed up. It's a SF not a Master. Any chance a mod could change the title?

Title looks right to me. Good luck on the rebuild!

Duhh, now I see what ur talking about.

Congratulates! Should be a great project.
Good to see another California SeaCraft!

Done

I've been getting everything in order to begin tearing into the transom. Last week I sold the engine, picked up a used smaller trailer so the boat will fit in my garage and cut into the transom... First unexpected problem, it appears that someone has attempted to repair part of the transom in the past. Some sections have what looks to be a pored in foam(Seacast maybe?) while other areas are rotten plywood. The problem is that the glass is really bonded to the areas with the foam. I'm afraid the glass is going to break rather than separate. Does anyone have any recommendations for a method to remove the glass?

7"grinder with 36 grit sand paper on a backing wheel...

oh yea a few dust mask, your going to need them

Update- I was able to remove the transom fiberglass in one piece by wedging long shims between the two sheets of plywood then taking a oscillating saw and cutting the outer sheet of plywood. The area I thought was poured in foam turned out to be shoddy thickened epoxy work. Is this typical? The fiberglass thins and is replaced with epoxy as it goes to the outer edges of the hull (see photos). There are many large voids in the epoxy filler I'm assuming I need to remove as much of this epoxy as possible and replace it with fiberglass? I'm having trouble figuring out how to remove the transom u-bolts? it's too tight to get a socket or wrench inside to remove the nut. Any recommendations? I may just cut them out and relocate new ones lower on the transom?

I've been slowly chuggin along. I got the transom all cleaned up and ready for the coosa. My Dad will be in town this week so hopefully we'll get the transom glued up. The last time the fuel tank was replace they simply cut the top off the old tank and placed the new tank inside. I was able to remove both tanks today. It appears I'll be able to reuse the tank. Just so everyone know what level of noobie they're dealing with, the fiberglass patches on the counsel are the first time I've ever fiberglass...

Just in case someone else has to remove carpet glue. I sprayed Bean-e-doo let it sit for 24hr, then scraped with a puddy knife. Most of the big chunks came off easily. Then I sprayed Bean-e-doo again let it sit for 24hr and then scrubbed the deck with a stiff brush(non metal). Then pressure wash. It was a lot of work (and i'm not quite done), but I think it was easier than sanding and re-gel coating/awlgrip.

I have a couple of questions regarding transoms.

1. I had read on another thread that people were recommending building the transom at 26" instead of 25", is this typical?

2. If I install two bilge pumps, one at hull level and one elevated, do I need a drain plug? The only thing that will be draining into the bilge will be the anchor locker. It seems like if I get a little water in the bilge I can just pump it out. Not having a drain hole would be one less thing to forget/maintain.

3. I've read several post where people use side scuppers rather than transom or the original thru deck. What is the advantage to this?

I'm trying to finalize my transom design any thoughts or recommendation are always welcome.

The transom is dry fit and ready to be epoxied. The wildfires slowed progress but hoping to get a bunch of work done in January and have a motor on by end of February. You can see the amount of ash that was falling on Santa Barbara during the fires. The boat was outside for ~24 hours.

I've also posted and been reply to in this regard. Some saying 26 some saying even 30. I'd like more clarification on the 30. I like what you are doing, I have a lot of the same work to do to a 74 I have. Currently it's completely usable without the fear of catastrophic failure, but they're soft spots in the deck and one side of the transom has an eerie Hollow sound to it when knocked on. Although in my case, this isn't something I need to address immediately, but the check is in the mail.

Progress has been slowed more. They are saying that we won't be let back into the flood areas until the end of the month. Here are some shots from the morning of the mud slides. Been a crazy couple of months around Santa Barbara. The Whaler in the Airstream is my buddies boat he'd been looking for it for a while.

Wait! In the boat pictures below. You have to tell me what you did to the transom here.. are those pieces of composite inserted in there in sort of a jig-saw puzzle fashion? Is it two layers of those? Can you do that?

The Blind Squirrel floats! We did the maiden voyage today. Engine ran great and the boat is sooo smooth. I still have lots of work to do but at least I can start diving and fishing. The boat sure sits flat with the 90hp. With the aluminum prop I topped out at 35mph.

The Rebuild Continues
 

My long term plan for the boat has always been to gut, replace floors and possibly build a west coast style cuddy to accommodate overnight island trips. I ran the boat lots the last couple years and really love the hull. As you all know everyone that rides in the boat comments how smooth the ride is. Here are a couple highlight from along the way.

one more

These are some of the boats I've been using for ideas/inspiration on the build. They are all inspired around the west coast commercial Urchin/Abalone fishing boats(i.e. Radon Boats, Anderson Boats, and Greenough Boats).

Early last summer I started modeling schemes both on the computer and with a 3d printer.

Next I started building plywood iterations. This was super fun and a quick way to see and feel the computer designs. One of my major design constraints is my garage door. Space is precious and EXPENSIVE in Santa Barbara so my only storage option is in my garage which has a clear opening of 7'. So the final design is going to have a detachable or fold down windshield, like a VW Thing.

Moving through the cuddy build.

More cuddy & control panel pics

and the demo begins

Cool stuff!

Very neat! I like the design. Cool to see something done other than the standard cc. With the weight forward you shouldn't have any problems with the heaver outboards of today either.








One day I plan on doing a pilot house modification to my 25 safari if I ever get it going.

The cuddy design reminds me of the stealth fighter/bomber designs - like radar evading. Very cool look. I wonder if it becomes invisible to sea-based radar too????

Got a little further yesterday. Foam is out of one stringer. The foam was dry however there was a small amount of water between the foam and hull. It probably would have been fine left alone, but I would have worried about blistering from the inside. I'm also planning to fill the transom notch as much as possible, the cardboard is roughly where it will end.

I'm planing to use Divinycell H80 GS for the coring on the hull sides. What thickness are people using? How many layers of glass?

Most I have seen use 1/2". Waiting to find a good deal on some myself for same application. Wish Great Lakes Skipper would have it on close out again. I know a few people that capitalized.

3/8 is fine, or 1/2, wouldnt go any thicker...

Unless youre swinging hammers on the sides, 1x1708 will work. 2x1700 if thts what youve got...(i think youve got a roll of it right?)

I poured foam last weekend and got the stringer tops roughly level. Before I finalize the height I wanted to make sure I'm doing it correctly. What are people measuring off to determine deck level? Both front to back and side to side?

I left the lip of the old liner / deck. built a grid of string for multiple measure points. I may adjust a little higher at the bow to clear the chine, as I am flat decking it. I don't think an inch or 1.5 drop from bow to stern will be noticeable. Plus it will aid in draining a bit. That is what WGSCOTT did and seemed to work out. I believe by stringers will be roughly 18 ft long x 15 inches high at the transom.

My deck now has a 1-1/2" slope. Works great and hardly noticeable.

I love the look of the Channel Island cuddys. They seem perfect for free diving and seem like they would make a converted center console a lot more sea worthy. I’m looking forward to seeing it finished.

Also nice to see another Southern California Seacraft being used for spearfishing. I only know of four Seacrafts here San Diego ( three 18s and one 23) and they are all used by spearfisherman.

A few updates. Did a bunch of grinding/sanding and now one stringer is prepped for glass. The pvc center drain in epoxied in. I finalized some major layout decision regarding driving position.

Those white sea bass are huge...Nice work on the boat very interesting what you are trying to accomplish...I could not help thinking that you are basically building a 20 seafari....kinda... :)

strick

Wow!!!!!!!