[JohnB]

Boats come down to design, materials and workmanship. The only other variable is what happens to it after it's sold, and how well it's maintained/abused.

The design and materials are pretty consistent from year to year/boat to boat. As you get newer, from CSY forward, the rigging got cheaper and cheaper, and the workmanship varied more from boat to boat. Some good, some not so good. I have seen some older boats that had some sloppy workmanship, but not as many. Maybe the sloppy ones didn't survive, I don't know.

Back to design, most Sceptres have water coming in through the scuppers. IMHO, many of these older boats have wet coring/wood in them, and people have put much larger/heavier engines on them, than what they originally were designed for. This combination makes them sit low in the back. The raybud scuppers fix this problem.

All the SeaCrafts have the same design hull, but there were tweaks in the caps/liners over the years. Personally, I like the later Sceptre caps/layouts better. As for the “hull hook”, I will have to check that one out. I thought the Sceptres and CC hulls came out of the hull’s same mold, but I could be wrong. Capt Chuck, is this unique to Sceptres? Or all late 80’s boats?

There are 3 things I don't like about all the Scepters.

1. Open transom. With the boat sitting low/heavy in the back, if 3 people all run to a corner to look at a fish coming up, water comes in. Also, we do alot of power drifting with the back of the boat into the waves/current, and this can be wet and sloppy. From a safety perspective, if you lose power, the back of the boat is going to swing into the current/waves, and this could get dangerous, in seas over 3'. I am putting a bracket on mine, and closing in the transom, for safety, as much as anything else.
2. No insulated fish box. The CC's have nice fish boxes, although uninsualted in the front. You give that up with a Sceptre. The early ones don’t have boxes under the seats, the newer ones do. That area under the seats is pretty much dead space on the older boats. I have been using insulated fish bags, and they work great. I am replacing my in floor live well with an insulated fish box. It won't be huge, but it should do.
3. In floor live well. These tend to over flow onto the deck, and are a safety issue when the well is open. When I do charters, I am very careful that guest don't fall into the livewell with the lid open. It is also not much fun crawling around on your hands and knees trying to get a bait out of the well in any kind of seas. I am relocating mine to the transom area.

As far as the classic vs the late 80’s. The transoms seem to be a problem in most old boats of this design. The condition of the wood is dependent on how old it is, how wet it is, and how many improperly sealed holes have been drilled in it. There are not many boats over 10 years old, with wood transoms, that aren’t wet, and there are very few over 20, that don’t need a transom overhaul. Once you get back into the 70’s or earlier, your looking at one that needs to be overhauled, or trusting that the guy that did it knew what he was doing (and did it). If I was buying an pre-85 SeaCraft, I would look for one with a replaced transom, preferably filled in transom with bracket, or I would budget one in. The budget would probably be 4-7k, depending on whether you do it yourself, or pay someone. Wiring in a boat over 20 years old needs to be replaced, in most cases. If it hasn’t been rewired, it probably will. Steering controls, seacocks, gastanks, and a whole bunch of other stuff usually starts to go at 15-20 years old, so be prepared. If your looking at buying something that is safe/serviceable to use, and repair as you go along, you might want to look at a late 80’s. If you looking at an unrestored pre-80’s plan on spending a lot of time and money.