V-20 Wellcraft vs. 20' Seacraft Thesis
Whistler, that was a really nice boat up on Island Estates in Clearwater. I'm 4 miles south and watched it for a while, but just finished one project Bertram Moppie and am still digging cabosil out from under my fingernails.
You will hear or read a story on this or the Moesly Seacraft site about when the CIA was putting together what would become the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion they were looking for some Fiberglass boats for the Cuban Counter-Revolutionaries to use. The specifiaction was that the boat needed to be approximately 20', carry 6 men, arms and ammunition and be able to run in the open ocean with standard available outboard power (75-100 hp). Carl Mosley showed up with one of his 20' Seacrafts and competed against "another" boat. When the "other" boat would not plane off with the load, Carl took two men from them (for a total of 8) and still out ran the "other" boat with his Seacraft. The Moesly Seacraft would hold plane slower and still out run the "other" boat so he won the contract to furnish the boats to the CIA. What very few people know is that the "other" boat was a V-20 Alim which along with the V-16, was later bought by Wellcraft and they produced that boat until about 2001. The Alim V-16, I believe still holds the record for the Miami to New York run for a boat that size. There are still a lot of V-20's around and you are correct, they are pretty good boats. They run pretty well in the chop as long as you keep them vertical. I had a very rare Wellcraft V-16 open fisherman. I the 1X12 pine stringers that were glassed half way up the sides didn't hold up to my aquatic adventures, so I pulled the cap, console, liner and encapsultaed 2 x 12's set in cabosil and glassed in. My "cool" friends were running Seacrafts and said "Bud, will you get rid of the Well-crack junk and get into a real boat!". We went for a dive trip in his 18 and I was sold on 'em. Bought a Seafari the next year and then Conner went with me and he got messed up with 'em. Your 23 in 30 knot winds will be much dryer than the V-20 on 15 knot winds.
|