1977 20' CC Project "Real World"

[ledfoot]

So here's the story:
This 1977 20' Sea Craft was a one owner boat when I bought it from my father's neighbor last year. It has hung on davits on the harsh open bay for 31 years. Neighbor Mike split his time between Sarasota FL & Connecticut so this boat was used for maybe 6 months per year, serviced twice yearly every year, and generally well maintained. A brand new 150 Yamaha was installed in 1990 and probably has under 300 hours. It literally runs like brand new.

My wife, my two young children (2 & 5) and myself just moved back to FL after many years in southern California & a few in Detroit. The boat has been patiently awaiting our arrival for the last year or so. We are back & settled in and the weather is great so it's time for a few upgrades to the 'ol girl.

You may have seen the other thread I opened recently about a through-hull drain cracking the bottom of the hull:
http://www.classicseacraft.com/forum...b=5&o=&fpart=1
This will fill you in on the structural issues with the boat. I am currently concentrating on updating the rest of the boat in a very "real world" manner. By that I mean I am not tearing the boat apart and doing a concours restoration. It's lucky to have have known the boat for 25 of my 36 years, and that I know for a fact has never sat in the water overnight. The floor is rock solid, though I will be checking into the condition of the transom, as there are some holes where the old motor was that weren't filled properly. The fuel tank was replaced a while back and there are no suspicious odors so I will let that sleeping dog lie for now.

The main focus is to make the boat safe for my family, and have a few modern amenities like GPS, stereo, working VHF and whatnot. Conveniences like cupholders and some dry storage are high on the list as well. I am not big into fishing, so that will not be a huge focus of the refresh.

I have watched these forums as well as ClassicMako & the HullTruth for many years and as I am starting on this project I have to say I feel like I've done this stuff before after reading about it for so long. I want to post the progress so that others like me might be inspired or just learn from my mistakes.

Here's where we started:


some ancient hardware:

after a little cleanup (with the ORIGINAL garage kept bimini top up):


You can see the boat in more detail at my website:
http://homepage.mac.com/ledfoot/boat...oAlbum120.html