Crawling around my yellow ‘78 Seafari and now the Restless Lady which is a ‘72, they are almost identical to my eye from a material perspective. When cost cutting has been discussed for Potter-era boats I think it had little if any effect on build quality. Simple things like switching from a molded non-skid deck to textured/gelcoat are where I think Potter looks at being more efficient as a manufacturer. I did have some print through on the yellow Seafari but it had a few rounds of wet sanding so I can’t say it was inferior material. There will be more ply instead of balsa in later boats (all above the waterline) so moisture will migrate more quickly. Most get wet eventually though.
I don’t have a ton of time in either but they both sure feel the same from the helm in terms of quality when skipping over chop. I say raised deck is good, raised transom is good. Other than that the playing field is wide open.
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