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Originally Posted by Bushwacker

Can't comprehend why a "professional glass guy" would go to all the trouble to replace a transom and not raise it to 25", but maybe he already had a 20" motor for it!

If you're removing the original Potter vertical through-the-bottom scuppers (which drain VERY well underway IF you have the original suction-creating wedge in front of them on the bottom), I think they'd drain better out the transom instead of out the side, plus that would give you the option of using the ping-pong ball check valves. You might even consider crossing the drain lines under the deck as Moesly did on some of his boats, so that stbd scupper drains out port side of transom and vice versa. That way water won't run in when you walk to one side at the stern.

I didn't know they even made a 20" shaft Zuke 140! It's about the same weight as the 150/175/200 E-Tec, and the only 4-stroke I would consider for the 20' hull. If you're putting that much weight on a 20" transom, I would definitely add the full height splashwell tub that Pianewman and Don Herman are working on. More outboard boats are sunk underway by a wave over the transom than any other single cause, so you're tempting fate with that heavy motor/low transom combination; if you go offshore much, that simple piece of fiberglass could save your boat one day!

As for the deck, why not use 1/2" balsa core like the original. Much cheaper and even lighter than coosa, and nothing wrong with it provided you don't drill holes in it and leave them unsealed. (If you have to put screws into it for leaning posts, etc., just drill them oversize and fill with epoxy cabosil, then redrill and tap for machine screws, which hold much better than sheet metal screws anyway. You'd have to do the same thing with coosa, which doesn't hold screws well either.) The original 39 year old balsa core deck and plywood transom in my boat are still in good shape, so nothing wrong wood provided you take care of it. The only plywood in my Seafari's deck is the area where the pedestal and galley seats mount, which appears to be 3/4". Don't know where they used plywood on the CC models. Denny

Also the leaning post. They never bolted things down so they used plywood and screws. I know because I have repaired a few. I also just last winter repaired a 2001 or 2 23 ft regulator with water in the balsa cored floor.




Sorry Bushwacker but I am a strong advocate of no wood or wood products in boats. Especially balsa wood. Thats just my opinion tho.