1976 spectre 23 considering purchase
 

I have been looking at a 23 with twin 3.0 mercruiser alpha 1gen 2 out drives , motors have 700 hours and out drives look good with no noticeable corrosion and all zincs in place and in good repair . Risers have been replaced and impeller s have been changed with , gimbal greased , solid maintenance records and excellent documentation on every part of boat . It is outfitted with epirb , Ray Marine A 60 GPS, fish finder, depth finder , , anchor windlass , good lighting, outriggers etc. , it comes with good trailer that has just been inspected . I have limited experience with stern drives , I owned a 1969 Grady that had the 4 cylinder with an old O M C pre cobra out drive , any input from a seacraft owner would be appreciated, I know something about the boats but would like to learn more , price is 16,000.00 Also 120 gallon fuel capacity , I am interested in running up to 40 miles offshore in N C. , current owner fished out Oregon around the first Tower and trolled all day us I g 32 gal. Any input on range ?

Considering purchase
 

Anyone out there

What I know about stern drives is quite limited, I'm an outboard guy. I can't really talk about them except the housing/cover sure takes up a lot of room. But at that price with trailer it seems like a nice deal since $16k won't even buy you a new outboard.

Feel free to call me. I just bought one. IO. Yanmar. 2514636662

My 23 Sceptre with a 260HP(5.7) and pre-Alpha drive cruised at about 2.5 mpg.
I'm hoping to get far better than that after the rebuild/repower.

I bought one in September of 2017 with a yanmar diesel 260hp. Bravo 3 Drive. They are far from maintenance free. I’m amazed at how much more of a pain in the ass they are than an outboard. Hoses, leaky seals, water pumps, etc etc etc. granted I love the sound and feel of this boat more than anything I’ve ever owned but be prepared to open up your billfold with those twins you got

Thanks for the reply s , I have a friend and he loves his , it is an 23 ft c.c. 1985 . Those that have a 23 are you comfortable running 40 miles off shore , comfortable meaning confident in the boats ability to get you back , because of course getting there is not imperative , getting back is . Do the through hull scupper s effectively drain the decks , can you take water over the gunnels or transom with out flooding motors , the boat has a nice tight engine cover and 3 bilge pumps , of course I understand the amount of water is relative to how much a pump or scupper can remove . That has been y major concern , with the full transom and decent sides it seems that it should be fine as ,omg the operator doesn't go out when has no business being there , but I have been caught in storms that were not suppose to be in the forecast .

40 miles is nothing for that boat, at least in our gulf here in Alabama. The boat can handle a lot for its class but I wouldn’t want to be in 4-5’s in it like people on this site seem to mention. It’s all about the engines when getting you home as you mentioned. My drain holes are out the side, 1 1/4 and drain fast. floor drains aren’t super fast but usually suck in water when the weight is back there. I don’t trust them unless they are less than 5 years old. I would redo them immediately if you buy the boat. I just redid my two out of the sides and now know why I had water in my bilge. Water was coming in one one side at a fast rate between the liner and the hullside.

You can do a lot in that boat, much more than your body will want to endure. I grew up on one and remember waves breaking over the bow and never felt scared although I think my dad was. Ha.

We used to regularly run from Miami to Bimini in our 23 Sceptre and the boat could take far more than I could - I didn't like going out in more than 3-5 because it was often way worse by the time I came home - I vividly remember looking up to the tops of waves while puckering but the boat did fine.

Waves over bow are no big deal if the windshield is closed - you get wet otherwise but not all that much gets in.

I'm in a rebuild now and found the scupper block on port side to be leaking - check/fix those - I am leaving them in original location but am going to 1-1/4". Mine would drain just fine even with a couple of big guys and a livewell aft. Never had motor or bilge flood but had a beam sea break into cockpit a couple of times when I should not have been out trolling - drained just fine. Other than the scupper blocks, my biggest concern would be where the exhaust pipe connects to the transom housing; often gets corrosion badly there - The flanges around the bottom 2 bolts on mine were completely gone. It is def worth pulling the engines and checking those once (or at least look at em with a remote video) - you are screwed if that breaks/leaks while you are out.

I would be VERY surprised if the transom on a '76 did not have at least some rot - noticing just a few drops of water weeping when I pulled my tabs started my rebuild and my transom was toast.

Transom will probably need R/R. The tanks, if OEM install, will probably have galvanic corrosion where rubber straps are, especially on bottom of tanks. Hatches usually have bounce and will need to be recored. Those motors are going to start to need 'love' even if they've been properly cared for - the engines usually will be OK, but all the marination parts start to act up. Check the 'wiggle' on the gimbal ring - if drive moves and steering wheel doesn't - that's an expensive fix.

Great hull ! I had twin 140's and changed it to (1) 5.7 350 - love it. 6-8 GPH at 3200 RPM's.. Trim tabs a must !

Outdrives? My preferred power package, but they are much more maintainence, get used to it. The beauty of that old car engine is that it will warn you long before it quits, if you are listening. Get a vacumn guage and a raw water pressure guage on both engines. Fuel pressure if you can find someone to install it correctly. Watch those guages and listen to the engines. They will talk to you. The vac guage will save you many thousands of dollars.

Find a good mechanic and have him go through the drives every year. You will have to look hard to find one. Stay on top of manitainance and outdrives are a great system.Get lazy or cheap and they rapidly become both really expensive and unreliable.

I'm regularly 150-200 miles deep into the Bahamas, every year, with a single I/O plus kicker. No way I would do that with anything else, except maybe a diesal inboard.

Good luck with the boat. Sounds like you found a good one.

23 ft potter hull
 

Thanks to all who have replied to date , I spoke with my electronics guy and he confirmed he can switch my c80 set up off the 72 Grady make it my main , tie in the radar and relocate A60 as back up . The raw water intake gauge shows me the volume of water based on the pressure at the intake I assume ? Is vac gauge in place to monitor compression on the engine ?
After my discussion with electronics tech it appears I can set up both navigation systems , compass in lighted binnacle , radar , two radios , CD player and marine radio , I know all of this will be on a new 3rd battery set up , I am not sure how much rewiring I will do as it is currently immaculate , but every thing functions off 2 batteries in the motor box . Tech really wants the batteries on the motors only with little else , is a 3rd battery enough , I intend to keep a well charged jump box in the cuddly.
Looked at a valise style life raft , 4 man for around 1200.00 coastal rated . Pray I don't need it .
Epirb, well stocked first aid kit , one in boat , one in ditch bag , hand held in ditch bag , emergency food ditch bag and boat , water, flares in both , hand help GPS , I won a Etrex 10 at the CCA banquet , will that unit pick up off shore ? Rope , knife , sunscreen , pistol , mirror,
Nylon rain gear , frog togs, any suggestions in light weight functional rain gear , don't want to try and muscle a bag with my grundens in it .
What have I left out ? All responses are greatly appreciated and considered .

A vacumn guage monitors engine performance. You can see all sorts of things, poor compression, bad ignition parts, etc. Don't run it under 7 lbs vacumn and save your valves. This is surprisingly tricky without a vac guage and is the cause of a lot of ruined engines. Look up Bushwackers posts on vacumn guages. He is the expert, ex Pratt and Whitney aircraft enginer.

Raw water pressure guage allows you to immediately see crap on the intake, leaks in the water hoses and especially aging impellors, long before they become a serious problem and long before increasing engine water temp will suggest the same isssue. By that time the impellor can be coming apart. Saves getting impellor pieces stuck in the engine and creating hot spots and other nasty issues.

One gadgit I find very useful is a Satelite tracker, Spot or Inreach, They both allow tracking of your boat offshore in almost real time and have an emergency SOS function that runs through a satelite, just like an EPIRB, good backup. Also, the Inreach allows sending and recieving text messages. My wife loves it for keeping track of me in the Bahamas and I don't have to waste diving time looking for a phone after every long passage.

I carry a huge inventory of spare parts and the tools and manuals to use them. If you are doing day trips, thats not necessary, but car engines have lots of small parts that can fail. Consider going through the engine and carrying all the little stuff, ignition parts, water pumps, other pumps, belts, various fluids, etc. Eventually you will need some of that stuff and it feels a lot better to do it yourself rather than come in on one engine or wait for a tow.

One other suggestion, something I considered a requirement. Set up your fuel system with two Racor or similar filters so you can select one or the other with the flip of two valves. A couple of spare filters in the boat and you are proof against almost any dirty fuel problem, with no down time. One day, zero down time might be important.