Bow Heavy Sea Craft

[lost2a6]

I have a 82 23ft Sea Craft Sceptre with a single 200 Yamaha. The boat sits bow heavy, the tank has been moved back as much as possible, this has helped but it still sits bow heavy. I just wanted to make sure that this was normal for my year and model boat with the single engine. I saw a late 80s 23 walk around cuddy tracker Sea Craft and it sat good in the water. It appears that the engineers designed the cuddy models to be equipped with the I/O. [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img] Boat Boat[/LIST]
[ December 16, 2003, 10:20 PM: Message edited by: lost2a6 ]

[ocuyler]

Seems like a good candidate for TWIN 200 Yamahas...

[John R]

Got a pic of your's being bow heavy?

[lost2a6]

Yea, I would love to put twins on it, it just isn't in the budget right now. With the boat being bow heavy it does make for a very good ride. I just hate it when I wash down the deck and the water runs to the bow.I have thought about putting a bracket on it, then one day buying a 250, as it is also slighty under powered with the 200.
John, If you'll click on my first post where it says Boat, it should come up, although you can't really tell in those pictures.
Thanks Steve

[ScottM]

I have an '82 also and it sits bow down, although we easily fixed most of the problem this past season by moving some things out of the cabin and into the bilge area (removed the in-deck livewell and created a storage area). My boat was originally rigged with twin 200's and carries 144 gallons of fuel. Now that it's got a single 225 Yamaha, it sits lower in the bow.

By the looks of the pictures, at rest it doesn't sit too low in front.

[SEAFARI]

I know a dealer who had SeaCraft from mid 70's
into early 80's and this was a real problem on
the early CSY hulls. Water would collect in the
bow area and had to install bilge pumps there. [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

[abl1111]

Glass in 150-200 lbs of lead weight in the stern. It's very small for it's weight. I have 200 lbs in (1) plastic milk carton. I bought 250 lbs of lead from a metal scrap place years ago for $75 ( to weigh the trunk of a BMW down in the snow ).

Car's gone. Now I have a life long supply of lead for sinkers for the melting pot ( make that 10 life times worth ! )

If I were in your predicament, and it bothered me, I would figure out a way to properly glass in lead. It won't rust. And if thought-out well and done properly - you could remove it any time...

[Dave Hirshberg]

Lost2,
Mine sat heavy fwd too with a single. Remember that the boat is rated for 400hp in twins origionally and in the 70's and early 80's twins were common even on smaller boats. It sits a little better with the twins. I think its just one of those things you gotta live with. It never seemed to hinder my performance and I even put my batteries up front too.

[lost2a6]

Thanks guys for all of the replies.

Madmax: That is interesting that your boat sits even more bow heavy with the bracket, Your bracket must be buent. If I was going to do this then I guess that I would need to pick a bracket that has absolutely no buency. My e-mail is lost2a6@cableone.net

abl1111:I have thought of adding weight. I tried doing this when I re did the transom. I went with less wood and more glass. I ended up using almost 15 gal. of resin. This helped some with the addition of the jack plate. It wouldn't take much weight, I can sit on the engine and the water will run out good. I weigh 170 lbs. I just hate to add weight to an already heavy ass under powered boat. In a way I hate the idea of twins because of double the maintance and the fear of burning more fuel. I get 2.3 MPG right now at 30 MPH. (4200-4300 RPM) I think what the problem is the front deck is soo heavy with it's ¾” plywood and 3/8” glass on top and bottom of the wood.
Again thanks for all of the replys, I really wanted to make sure that I didn't have water trapped some where.

[madmax]

I have a 82 also with a bracket and full transom. Since a put the bracket on it sits even more bow down. It rides great. I have a 2001 225 fitch with a armstrong bracket. I have always put my motor as high as possible to lessen drag and get max rpms. Send me e mail address and i will send photo.

mad max