Long Time Lurker, First Time Poster -1970 20 Seacraft

[Scooter]

Hi All,
Been lurking through the forums here for quite some time. Great forum, very informative. Two years ago, I bought my first Seacraft, a 1970 20 CC. The boat had been "redone" previously by former owner and was sporting a newer (2008)Evinrude Etec 150 with only 400ish hours. It was sitting on a trailer behind his house and was covered in well water sprinkler stains and was in overall rough shape. After negotiations, with both the owner and the wife, we settled on what I thought was a fair price and we brought her home.
In order to get the go-ahead from my wife, I had to have it working and on the water in a couple of weeks. Quick rewire and compounding turned into rebuilding the entire fuel system of the etec, lower end service, complete "temporary" rewire, ripping off the "home depot" t top and replacing with a Fishmaster T Top amongst many other small chores much to the chagrin of my wife. I missed the first deadline but was able to complete in about 6 weeks time and use most of last summer and this summer. This usage has brought to light some issues and wants/needs. "Our"(read mine) plan was always to redo the former owners restoration. He did replace the tank with an aluminum 60Gal located approximately two feet from transom going forward under the console. I have scoped the tank and it seems structurally sound. The deck and transom were replaced, however, they will need to be done again. The Etec was mounted directly to the transom and seems to be mounted too low. Almost every screw I've removed from the transom has leaked water. Due to what I can only assume is the added weight of the newer outboard, we have fiberglass cracks in the splashwell and the boat squats very low in the water rendering the scuppers entirely useless at rest. All of this weight rear seems to have affected the legendary seacraft ride. She pounds in anything over 2ft. Now, saying that, we don't have 2ft swells here in South Florida, it is often referred to as washing machine chop. Not very uniform in size and/or direction. This could be helped with trim tabs as well I'm sure.
Future Plans:
Close In Transom - Mount Bracket - Raise Motor - Reconfigure Splash Well
Raise and Replace Deck - Hopefully get the scuppers draining as intended
Buy New Console - Current is too space consuming in my opinion.
Possibly New T Top(again)
Rewire Permanently this time.
While I do enjoy this type work, I may get someone else to do fairing and paint. As things go, I have wants and the wife has needs. I'm sure we'll meet somewhere in the middle. I have attached some pictures of current state. Look forward to contributing and continuing to read everyone's tales/info.
Scott

[NoBones]

Welcome to the clan Scott !!

I also have a 1970 SF...

By the looks of your surroundings either SW or SE Florida.

Enjoy the ride ..

[Scooter]

Thanks Ken. Fort Lauderdale, FL to be exact.

[wattaway2]

welcome to the neighborhood! used a guy west of 95 of 84 for my t top very happy with his work . Fair but not cheap and got it done on time and the way I wanted it with his insight . Cheep go to Miami. Nice looking boat you found

[Scooter]

Would you mind passing along his details?

[wattaway2]

Message sent

[Bushwacker]

Welcome aboard Scott! It's good that you used the boat for a while before doing a restore, as now you'll have a better idea of what you want. You may have a fair amount of extra weight in that wet transom. You might want to replace the wood with Coosa to take even more weight out of it. If you're planning on adding a bracket check out my post on the pro's & cons of them on a 20. You may want to plan on moving the fuel tank and console forward a bit to move CG forward. You can use Capt. Terry's calculation to get your CG about where it was originally designed to be with a 300 lb motor! I like the Hermco bracket because of the big flotation tank and all glass construction, but it's design won't let you mount a 25" motor high enough to get AV plate out of water at cruise, so you'll need a jack plate or aluminum bracket to get the AV plate about 6" above keel if you go with a 30" setback. If you're not a diver, you might want to go with a 24" setback version, as motor will still clear the transom when fully tilted but you won't have to mount motor quite as high. And plan on adding trim tabs, a 4B prop and a fin to the AV plate for extra stern lift. That should get min planing speed down to ~12 mph and allow you to run comfortably thru a 2-3' chop while sitting down!

If dealer hasn't already done so, I'd have them run the BRP fuel system test where they install some clear fuel hose with a vacuum gage T'd into the fuel line between boat and engine. Intent is to check for air leaks and insure fuel system restriction is no higher than 4"Hg and avoid overheated/scuffed pistons due to motor running too lean. Test is conducted w/o running motor - they just run a hose from HP fuel pump outlet into fuel fill port and then use the laptop to run HP pump at max flow while checking for air bubbles and vacuum reading.

[Scooter]

Hi Bushwacker, thanks for the recommendations. I'll be sure to check out your post on pros and cons. I fully intend on not putting any wood back in the project. I do like the though of a 30" setback to have more space for boarding and unboarding. The jack plate may actually play in my favor as my canal gets very skinny on low low tides.

[Eric B]

Hey Scooter welcome aboard and nice boat!!I would agree with Bushwacker. I went with coosa and could not be happier. I little pricey but you never have to worry about it again.

[TomParis]

welcome aboard, and you have a great boat, just like No Bones!

Keep us posted, excited to see your future mods and restoration.