Quote:
Originally Posted by Sparehead
. . . I do still occasionally waffle on whether to use a bracket or keep it simple and just build a well around a motor hung on the transom.
It’s funny you mention that little bulkhead between the stringers in the cabin. As I recall from when I looked over the boat that was repaired once, poorly. If my memory is right it's currently a piece of plywood tabbed in with a single layer of woven roving. My plan is to remove the cap and deck and rebuild from the bottom up so in the grand scheme that will get sorted out. The stringers themselves looked undamaged throughout.
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You've done an impressive amount of homework! Nice bunch of pictures! You've saved yourself a lot of work by chemically stripping the bottom paint. I had mine soda blasted and it did so much damage to the gel coat that I ended up having to fill and fair the entire bottom! At least you have a nice cabin door and steering wheel hub which are missing on many Seafaris that are this old! Do you have the windshield for it? That opening windshield is a great feature that you can't find on modern boats! If you're missing the windshield, try using the search function, as I think some poor misguided soul on here recently posted about planning to butcher his Seafari to make a CC model the hard way, so he might have a windshield he doesn't want! That thru hull on the port side indicates that it had the galley seat at one time; so do you still have it or is it MIA? That seems to be a pretty rare option, but one that I've found to be very useful.
Regarding the bracket decision . . . I think that depends on how you plan to use the boat. If you plan to run offshore a lot in big seas, it is nice to have that solid transom, and that big swim platform is nice if you're a diver. However if you can find one of the full height splash well tubs Potter started making about '76 or so, it provides equivalent safety, and the boat is balanced much better and will ride better without the bracket. Modern motors are so much heavier than the 300 lbs the 20 was designed for, and a bracket + heavy motor seriously screws up the balance on the 20! Don Herman popped a mold off of one of those brackets, but was going to scrap it so forum member Rickg rescued it and took it over to our gathering at Terry England's place last September. I think Terry, brother-in-law Doug, or Vezo II now have it. A good shop could make a nice part using that mold!
Do you have soft spots in the cockpit sole or front deck? That whole inner liner is bonded to the top of the stringers with Potter putty, so it's not easy to remove! You have a 4-stringer hull, which I personally think is stiffer and stronger than the later 2-stringer design; those stringers are hollow fiberglass and never seem to have any problems, so there is no reason to remove the whole deck unless you think you have a bunch of wet foam under it. It would be MUCH easier to just cut off the top skin and replace the core than to pull out the whole inner liner or even the top cap for that matter. And I think you can get to that forward bulkhead through the front hatch under the bunks. I think it's pretty well bonded to the inner liner, but Potter made a mistake trying to tab it to the stringers with such heavy roving, which is so stiff it doesn't like to make sharp bends. . . a couple layers of 1708 laid down with epoxy would bond much better!