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Originally Posted by Scott1115
. . . Clearly the Potter built boats are coveted. Please explain what is so bad about the Tracker boats. Is it the fit and finish? Is it the quality of the components? Did they change the weight or dimensions of the hull?
I've seen a few '98 and 99 hulls that the owners claim to be built by Sea King and they claim them to be well built - best built SC 23's ever - any truth to this?
Scott
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I've never heard of Sea King, so don't know anything about them. As Island Trader said, any boat that's fairly old can have issues related to wear and tear, abuse, and poor maintenance. On boats that are now 30-40 years old, how well the boat was cared for and how many owners it's had is probably more important than anything else! Some restored boats on here have sold for much less than the cost of the restoration, and are terrific bargains compared to what they're asking for equivalent new boats!
Just because a boat is old does not mean it's in bad shape however. My 1972 was only 3 years old when I bought it, and except for the bracket addition, the transom, decks and fuel tank are all original and still in great shape. When Don Herman filled in the transom cutout to install the bracket in 2006 he said that was the driest transom he had seen in a boat that old. The dealer I bought it from (Brown & Hauptner Marine) said the "Potter putty" between the cap and top of transom was brittle and tended to crack, so on new outboard models, they removed the aluminum trim from around the transom cutout, routed out the joint and resealed it with a flexible caulk like Life Caulk, before installing the motor. (I suspect most dealers did NOT do this!) Since I bought the boat with no motor I did the same thing, and I also removed the leaking water inlet/outlet opening in the live well under the stbd seat and resealed it with epoxy, as this was also an obvious transom killer.
Fuel tank corrosion can be an issue, especially if the tank was foamed in. (Moesly never foamed in the tanks and neither did Potter, at least on the early models, although I have seen them foamed in on later Potter models, although I'm not sure if that was original tank.) Don't know if SeaCraft Industries, Tracker and other later builders foamed in the tanks, but I suspect they did.
As to which were the "best years" for a SeaCraft, I would say that any of the Moesly-built boats (the 21, 19, 20, 27 models, plus the 25-30' race boats, built in 1969 and earlier.) probably had the best glass quality. Moesly was racing the boats and demanded top quality, had well trained and paid workers, plus he routinely drilled out plugs from hulls to check glass/resin ratios to insure maximum strength! Potter learned everything he knew about boat building from Moesly, and appears to have built good boats. Although I have seen 2 examples of fiberglass stringers coming loose (one 23 and one 25' Seafari), these are very rare incidents that may have been due to rotted bulkheads causing loss of lateral support to the stringers. As you can see in the many major restorations documented on the site, the basic hull and stringer construction all of these boats is extremely robust, requiring no work at all, except to possibly remove some wet foam.
The Moesly and Potter boats used balsa core in the decks except in areas where seating and hardware is mounted. I believe SeaCraft Industries, Tracker and later builders may have changed to plywood, which is cheaper, heavier, and much less resistant to water intrusion and rot. Some of the later Sceptre's seem to be a bit bow heavy due to the plywood under the cabin bunks and pig iron ballast has been found under the decks in the back of some of these boats. There was also one defective mold for the 23 which Potter had supposedly warned SeaCraft Industries about when they bought out his bankrupt company in 1980, but it was apparently used anyway, as I have personally seen one 1980's vintage 23 Sceptre with a slight hook in a couple of the panels back near the transom. You can search my posts for some pictures I posted of it a few years ago. The owner was unaware of it and it apparently had no adverse effect on the handling or performance of the boat, but that's something I would check for if I was looking at a 23.
There are some advantages to the 20' Tracker models, such as the 25" transom, plus they are a bit longer. (19'8" for the Moesly/Potter models vs something over 20' for the Tracker models.) The Sceptres built by SeaCraft Industries in the 80's also have different inner liner with some nice extended boxes under the seats for storage. I believe Tracker only built CC models. Other than some changes in core materials mentioned above, all of the post-Potter era boats seem to be fairly solid, so if I found one in good shape, the fact that it was not a Potter hull would not deter me from a purchase. If you're really concerned about spending big $ for a turn key late model, spending a few hundred $ for a good survey would probably be a wise investment!