[Windrider]

Good to see you back,Windrider. I've been looking forward to your re-power results.
Seems me CSU-LB could sell me the old motor - no? let me know if they auction it off...

Well, we already traded the old motor to the Shipyard towards labor and new parts. Sorry! We do a lot of trading, since our funding leaves a bit to be desired. When we first got the Seacraft, that Yamaha had been sitting for five years all frozen up - steering was frozen too. We traded a couple tiny beat up donated outboards that we couldn't use for the labor and parts to get this one working. We do the same thing at our local sail loft with donated sails we can't use. Let's hear it for the barter economy!

I took a look at the sites you gave for rubrails. Nope, that is the stuff I've already seen. Everyone sells "flexible" vinyl rails, but that stuff is still pretty hard. What this boat has is just plain old rubber, I think. Like they put on many of the sailboats of that era. Except this is two parts and has an insert, also rubber. Seems to us this rail would be far more kindly towards our sailboats when side-tied for towing (yes, we use fenders, too). I would hate to put this old one back on, though, when everything else will be all new and shiny.

While you're at it you'll probably want to re-adhere the gunwale cap to the hull and re-rivet. Your be amazed how it will stiffen the boat and keep water out...

Already done! Yeah, we were having problems with water coming in the seam when the seas got bumpy.

Might check the brass scuppers out too as they are often the source of water ingress and a quick and very inexpensive fix...

I hear you! When we first got this boat, we launched her and she promptly began to fill with water from brass through-hull leaks (do you powerboaters call them through-hulls?). So she was immediately put back on the trailer and those were replaced. What we've done this time around is probably sacrilege here; we've glassed over all the through-hulls for bait tanks and such. We will never use those anyway. We only kept the two aft scuppers. I don't know about powerboaters, but we sailors try to keep through-hulls to a minimum.

Thanks for the pointers, though. All of us in our program are pure sailors, so this powerboat stuff is a learning process. Note that this boat's name under the Marine Bio Dept was "Naturalist," but our sailors have been jokingly calling her "Necessary Evil."