20' SeaCraft - better w/ or w/o a bracket ???

[TUGBOAT]

This was a BIG decision on restoring my 20'MA / 25" / merc.150. I researched most all w/ brackets & looked asked everybody(Mostly ol' Timers-Before SeaCrafts were cooool). from Lower Miami to 'bout Marathon_Mid Keys.Bunch of em' ,Saw maybe 2- 20's.I wanted a 20' not a made 23-You will not get that ride with a 20' But then I can go where they can't & Vice-Versa. The verdict was No Bracket. Too much weight hang'n that far back & didn't want a "SinkCraft". 23's Without a doubt. There are a few with them now.They seem to like em.

[keywasted]

Brad & John, thank you for your advice, I think i'll lean towards 20 seacrafts with a 25" transom. I'm assuming that you measure the 25" from the top of the transom to the bottom of the boat hull, in the center???

Thank you, Maurice

[Ryan]

keywasted, there are so few 20 with brackets, that its hard to say which is the way to go. My suggestion is to try and get a sea trial on both and decide for yourself. Explain to the owners what you are trying to see, they should'nt have a problem with a test run

[JohnB]

Ryan is right, and I closed my post with that same thought, sea trial and see what you think. There was quite a discussion over on classicmako.com about brackets on boats less than 23', the pros and cons. The general thought, at least on planet mako over there was that the brackets didn't work well on boats 21' and under. I know the mako and seacraft are different, but the issues of balance/etc would be the same on most boats in that size range. I don't know what the production numbers were, but I think there were a lot more makos, than seacrafts. There were more that had brackets put on them too.

[PressureDrop]

yall remember my 20' seafari with a bracket and 140 johnyzuke, after running it all summer in some beautiful and and some 2-3 chop days and i will say that anything under 2' the boat runs great and barely ever pounds but throw some 3's in there and its hard to stay over 22mph or so, it really starts to launch and bounce all over, kinda feels like there might be too much weight back there. anyways i love the room it affords and wouldnt change it but i have never ridden on an un bracked one. bushwaker? im in west palm lets get together sometime and see how they compare...

[Bushwacker]

JohnB nailed the key issue regarding brackets - balance! When the 20' hull was designed in the 60's, the biggest OB's were the I-6 Merc & V-4 OMC's that weighed about 275-300 lbs. With that setup, the gas tank was centered right on the cg so trim didn't change with fuel load. I ran my Seafari for over 30 years with a 115 V-4; it cruised easily at about 20 kts with a heavy, 2-weeks-in-the-Bahamas type load, rode well and always felt well balanced. At the Anclote Key gathering in March, I asked Carl Moesly about the design parameters on the 20, and he said it was designed primarily for inshore use, unlike the 21, which was designed for offshore use (and racing!) with much less dynamic lift, so it would cut thru big seas w/o becoming airborne. The relatively light weight and low deadrise of the 20 shows up in head seas at or above about 3', because it will get airborne pretty easy if you run much over 20 kts. With a light motor and a lot of gear in the cabin, I found I could trim motor and tabs down and plane at 12-13 kts and ride very comfortably (sitting down) in 4 and even 5' head seas provided period was about 6 sec or more. This is a big deal when you're running 165 nm to the Abaco's! The only thing I didn't like was that open transom in big following seas! On my first (of 6) trip across the Gulf stream, we had winds of only 10 kts, but it clocked from NW->N->NE! We were about 30 miles out (middle of stream, max current) when wind was N - seas were 6-8' with an occasional breaker, and seemed to be only about 40-50' apart, steep enough that I was worried about stuffing the bow into the back of a big one and pitchpoling! I guarantee that most folks in those conditions will "get religion" if they haven't already done so! (MORAL: if there is ANY wind out of ANY northern quadrant, stay the hell out of the Gulf Stream!!)

Sure wished I had a solid transom at that time, so when I finally repowered last year, I had the transom closed in, picked bracket with most flotation and lightest & quietest motor I could find, the V-6 150(165!) E-Tec at 427 lbs. I probably would have bought the V-4 115(125) which is about 50 lbs lighter but they were not yet in production. Waterline is within about an inch of original and boat is still self bailing, so the big bracket maintains static balance provided you don't go nuts with engine weight. I believe the Seafari has more weight forward than the cc, so it probably will handle a bracket better than a cc also. When you're up on plane however, bracket flotation is gone and the boat KNOWS there is a bunch more weight on it's ass, located 30" further aft! I believe this tends to hurt the ride a little, but you can compensate with a good stern lifting prop. A 4 blade prop was a big improvement over 3B. The bracket allows you to raise motor a lot (My cav plate is about 4.5" above keel) and is probably worth 2-3 mph in top end. I've seen almost 50 mph which seems to be pretty good for a 150 on the 20' hull, although I care about ride much more than speed. It WILL start to porpoise if motor is trimmed out more than about 60% (0=full down, 100=full up). This condition is most efficiently corrected by changing thrust angle (motor trim); trim tabs will also do it, but they add drag as well as lift, so use power trim to change running angle and use the tabs for side-to-side balance! Just my .02 FWIW. Denny

[Bigshrimpin]

You can see how much higher out of the water a 25" motor sits



I had this boat backing up into white caps along side the berkeley pier in nasty afternoon SF Bay winds rescuing a kayaker and his river kayak (upside down full of water). There's no way I could have done that with my 20 MA and open transom.

The seafari with the bracket doesn't corner at high speeds like the MA and the reverse handling isn't as good, but I'm seriously considering filling in the transom on the MA and doing another bracket this winter.

[zach]

Sure wished I had a solid transom at that time, so when I finally repowered last year, I had the transom closed in, picked bracket with most flotation and lightest & quietest motor I could find, the V-6 150(165!) E-Tec at 427 lbs. I probably would have bought the V-4 115(125) which is about 50 lbs lighter but they were not yet in production. Waterline is within about an inch of original and boat is still self bailing, so the big bracket maintains static balance provided you don't go nuts with engine weight. I believe the Seafari has more weight forward than the cc, so it probably will handle a bracket better than a cc also. When you're up on plane however, bracket flotation is gone and the boat KNOWS there is a bunch more weight on it's ass, located 30" further aft! I believe this tends to hurt the ride a little, but you can compensate with a good stern lifting prop. A 4 blade prop was a big improvement over 3B. The bracket allows you to raise motor a lot (My cav plate is about 4.5" above keel) and is probably worth 2-3 mph in top end. I've seen almost 50 mph which seems to be pretty good for a 150 on the 20' hull, although I care about ride much more than speed. It WILL start to porpoise if motor is trimmed out more than about 60% (0=full down, 100=full up). This condition is most efficiently corrected by changing thrust angle (motor trim); trim tabs will also do it, but they add drag as well as lift, so use power trim to change running angle and use the tabs for side-to-side balance! Just my .02 FWIW. Denny

Can anyone give a similar description to bushwacker's about their experience with a floatation bracket on a 20SF (the center console)? I am redoing my '72 and have seriously contemplated putting a bracket with a floatation chamber on. I plan on moving the fuel tank forward and batteries under the console to compensate for the extra weight on the transom. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

[CaptLloyd]

I would also shy away from the 20" transom w/ a big motor-sure to take water over the transom. I added a B-Bracket to my 20', and I believe it rides better, not to mentioned the space you gain. I did have some CG issues(If I did it over, I would use a bracket with more floatation and some lift, like a Potter bracket), but after alittle tweeking (moving batteries and adding some ballast forward) I'm happy. Try to ride on them all and let us know what you think. Good Luck!

Lloyd

[NAHIM]

I have a 73 20SC with a stainless Marine bracket "positive flotaion" with a mercury 200hp. Boat handles like a bigger boat. It will porposie a little at like 3200 rpm then I need to play with the tabs. Plus I can cruise at plain at lower RPM. I have pics but don't know how to send them