Floatation Bracket...Build or Buy?

[FELLOW-SHIP]

Looks like a great plan to me, I really like it. As for making your own Bracket Strick made his and it came out looking really good my guess you could make your own bracket for approx $500 + Beer compared to buying one for $3,500 ready to go. After you do your project my guess is that your boat will be the Best Off Shore SeaCraft design out there especially for those long trips you go on. I have always thought that the 25 should have been a 27, 28’ with that 8 ½’ beam you got. A two motor long range boat that is truly TRAILER ABLE. Ya the 32 is a long range boat all right but I sure would not want to Trailer it every weekend. I have thought on occasion about putting a bracket on my 23’ just to put 2 motors on her to get a boat that has a little more range on it, but then I keep coming back to no It’s Still Just 23’. If I want a long range boat I really need to go to a longer boat like 27-31” to get what I need for that type of range.
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[Bigshrimpin]

If you really want a 28ft. Sell your boat and buy a contender 25.

That modification will cost 3-5 grand in materials and at least 6 months . . . if you want to recoup any of the floor and make the cockpit larger.

[FELLOW-SHIP]

HA BIGSHRIMPIN
Why would you want to do something the easy way when you can do it the hard way?? Just kidding Capt C has spent so much time on this boat wanting to get it right doing what he is suggesting I just another drop in the bucket.
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[Bigshrimpin]

I hear yah . . . don't forget the rigging another 2k including mounting and remounting the outboards.

Those material costs I posted are just for the mods to the boat . . . not including the materials for the bracket.

You're commiting to a 7k project and doing hard time grinding glass for 6months (if you do it yourself). Is it really worth the extra 2 feet???

I like the design, but you've gotta do a cost benefit analysis and be realistic.

[Captn C]

Ok...how can I sell it? It's not in full usable condition right now...I keep an eye on it all the time....worrying the back end is going to fall off...well not really, but I do feel I have to keep an eye on it all the time.

Who would buy a fairly new boat that needs to have the transom replaced?

How much would you get for that boat?

I would be basicly selling the engines and trailer!?!?!?

That won't take you very far towards buying a new Contender and to be honest....I think I'd have more fishing room in the SeaCraft......

[JW-Tex]

A few ideas:

Have the transom repaired by a professional and sell it.

Put it on ebay and set your reserve price to what you must have for the whole pakcage...make sure you disclose the transom issue completely. Somone who likes to do glass work and wants a big boat will buy it and fix it. Put lots of pictures and details. If the package deal does not work then break it down into parts and relist on ebay sell the motors sell the console sell the t-top sell the trailer and sell the hull.

There is a company in Dickinson, TX, American Yacht Sales that sells bank repos and other boats (I looked at a damaged Contender there several years ago when I lived in Houston) you could haul the boat down there and let them sell it for you as well (they have a website etc).
http://www2.yachtworld.com/americanyachtsales/

You could also look for a theft recovery hull that has been stripped and then move all of your equipment to the new boat and sell your damaged hull.

[FELLOW-SHIP]

I guess we are now looking at this potential project in giving advice from two distinct points of view. The first is Could it be done and the Second point of view is Should it be done from the economic point of view. For me redoing a 1976 boat had nothing to do with a logical economic point of view it came from One Man’s Dream Boat point of view. If I re look at it today I still conclude that we all are one big group of Sick people to spend what we have fixing up old boats that took to much time, cost to much money, and are depreciating in their value. But never the less I Love my boat and it’s not for sale even if I could get more for it that what I spent fixing her up. Capt C your proposed project CAN be done and done right, the question is are you willing to do it or not because of the logical objections that you will have to deal with. If you sell and buy another boat you will spend lots of $$$$ if you fix her up you will spend less $$ but spend more time doing the project. “I hate making hard decisions”.
Ha Capt C you can always think of it this way, do your project put a Patten on your idea and when SeaCraft the Co. does the same thing on their new line of boats you can sue the snot out of them and recover the money they failed to pay to take care of your boat problems in the first place.
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[Bigshrimpin]

Captc - You could always get a slip for Sept in Florida. Seriously how bad is the transom damage? Do you have any recent pics?

[Captn C]

I am going to take some. The boat is at the shop right now....I lost power in the starboard engine Sunday.

I can't figure out why I can't get it to stop cracking. As most of you know I had to do some major repairs to my bay boat because of an accident with a 65' barge....those repairs are still in prefect condition and it is a very flexible boat....nothing has re-cracked.....

Any way I know how to lay glass and I am using epoxy resin. Where I have bonded the new knees to the transom won't hold....where I bonded the knee to the stringer is holding fine. And where I have tried to repair the cracks in the corner of the splash well keeps cracking....which I know will happen it the knees come loose.

I feel there is too much flex in the transom material...transom possibly too thin?!?! I have been informed the material is called "AirLite". I know the stuff is soft. I wish I could have got the knees to extend higher, but there isn't room to do it.

I have a new plan to get me though till winter and keep it from possibly tearing the skin of the transom....

I want to remove the splash well and put a aluminum plate on the inward side of the transom...it will act as a huge washer for all 4 engine mounting bolts.

BTW-When I do the major work on the boat this winter I plan to get with Tran about it. I hope to have him do some of the work as well.

[edloh]

Tran comes highly recommed in fixing things like this. someone once told me that he fixed a redesign a boat for a manufacturer as the were having "cracking" problems.