Mercury Vintage Racing DVD

[Fr. Frank]

"My" 1st SeaCraft was my grandfather's 1970 20' Seafari, which he bought used from my great-uncle in '71, rigged at the time with a Chrysler 105 hp outboard that had a bad cylinder. It had the seat with the sink, stove and icebox built in it. My grandfather took the Chrysler off, and put twin Mercury 650's on the back. As I was crazy about boats, and my grandfather wouldn't let me take his Rybo out, he often let me use the Seacraft. From '74-76 I went fishing as often as I could, especially as my grandfather paid the gas & oil.

My older cousin got the boat in '77, and put a single Merc XS1500 on the back. He also used it seemingly every day. In 1983, even though I already had a 23' SeaCraft CC, I bought that boat from my cousin, while I was working as the Tow Boat captain for Waterway Marina in Palm Beach Gardens.

At that time the Merc inline 6 150 was tired and had over 1400 hours on it, so I put a rebuilt 1981 Mercury 200 hp V6 on it, and then I never got it running right. In mid '84 I sold the boat to a marina customer as part of a package with a new 140hp Johnson, and never saw that boat again.

I really regret selling that boat.

All told, I have owned several SeaCrafts, but even today, there are two models that embody the mystique that is SeaCraft: the 1969-73 Seafari 20', and the 1968-69 Master Angler 27' flybridge.

There's absolutely nothing that compares with these SeaCrafts we're obsessed with, is there?