Post 1980 Seacrafts

[JohnB]

In late 1987, we got in an '87 Tracker SeaCraft 23 WA at Lake Worth Yachting Center, where the transom had been severely damaged in a rear-end collision while being trailered. As part of the repair, the entire transom was removed. I was then shocked to learn that the stringers in that boat were fiberglass-encapsulated plywood, unlike Potter hulls. And though the hull was just one year old, the plywood was already wet and separating inside the stringer.

That's a first, I have never seen a SeaCraft with wood in the stringers. Maybe the cap on the WA made them have to "adjust" things to make it work. Who knows.

The older these boats get, the more wear and tear there is, so there is a tradeoff with older hulls, although they might of been made better, time and wear causes other problems.

I have crawled around a lot of these boats in FL, and I have seen some manufacture/assembly glitchs in a few, but nothing consistantly wrong/bad across any models/year from about 1989 and back.

I think the only thing I have seen is the attachement of the hull/cap/liner losens up on all of them after 10 or so years of use. The transoms on almost all of them are wet in areas, but these boats were so overengineered/built that most are still safe and servicable.

All the rigging and wiring dropped off fast in the late 80's but that seems to be the way of the industry.

The design and ride are pretty consistant across all years. I believe the late 80's boats are heavier than most other years. T