Outboard Options for Classic 20

[Windrider]

Looks like you're ahead of the curve, damn academics ... Check with Wefco Rubber Mfg in Canoga Park re. rub rails. Try Wefcorubber.com.

Thanks! This looks like the place! I'll have to get a cross section on the old rail and try to match it, although it looks like Wefco carries many that will work well.

Oh, yeah, if you haven't yet taken delivery on the motor you might consider replacing the transom or at least raising it to take a 25" shaft motor.

I wanted to have this done. Really. I thought for sure that the whole transom would have to be replaced due to rot and we'd have it done at that time, but the Shipyard guys did all sorts of tests and found it to be quite solid still. Plus, there was the funding issue, you know. So she is going to have a stock transom and a pretty basic boat everywhere else, too. None of these awesome upgrades I've been reading about here. We're just making her into a more sturdy version of what she was already.

Let me see if I can remember everything that has been done so far:
Bottom stripped and re-faired
Gunnel cap resealed and riveted
Deck reinforced (but not raised)
Extra bulkheads (?) installed in the forward area (under the gunnel) to stiffen that section up
All extra holes glassed (how do boats always end up with so many holes everywhere?!)
Stress cracks glassed and those areas reinforced
Full paint job in school colors
All new hardware, gauges, motor, etc. (She is currently a totally naked boat that just got her new paint)

This week, I will be taking the console over to get a new windshield fabricated. I will also be looking for reasonably priced lean posts. You know a boat is hardly ever used at full speed when its crew is using plastic lawn chairs (yes, we are totally embarrassed about being so tacky).

After everything is put together and the boat is in the water, we are going to see if we have any money left and then look into having a samson post made like that one on the towboat Frank posted.

Caring for classics like those Shields I guessing you're far more savvy with maintenance than most...

Well, yes and no. We are finding that the stresses on a sailboat are quite different from a powerboat. You never worry about the transom on a Shields - all the stress is at the chainplates and that is where they usually fail. That said, since we all admit we know very little about powerboats, when Evinrude gives us the instructions for breaking in that E-Tec, we are likely to do EXACTLY what they say.

The brass through-hulls I think Gillie was talking about are the aft deck-drains, which are brass tubing, and normally drain vertically straight down through the hull. They usually end up leaking like a sieve.

Those were replaced back when we first got her, oh, back in '05 or '06, otherwise she would have been a SinkCraft. The original ones were quite corroded. Do they need to replaced again now? They haven't been giving us problems.

There were two other through-hulls, going to what I think were the bait tank and the fish locker? Those are the ones we glassed over.

Here in south MS we call you guys "Blow Boaters", just kidding.

Yes, we also hear the term "Wafties." But we call you guys "stink pots." And our students often comment, when a overpowered and overloud powerboat races by, that the powerboat's (male) owner is making up for a lack in another area (this belief is especially dear to the female sailors).

(On a funny side note, we were donated a Laser that proclaimed in big letters that its name was "Blow Me." We coaches stripped those graphics off about five minutes after taking possession of the sailboat).

[McGillicuddy]

we were donated a Laser that proclaimed in big letters that its name was "Blow Me." We coaches stripped those graphics off about five minutes after taking possession of the sailboat).

Hilarious...
I grew up sailing in Midwest - learned the ropes on Intl. Optimist and then a wood Sabot. When I started sailing a Hobie 16, I thought that was it. But my taste for classics led me to racing Thistle class. Love the Thistle.

I was actually looking for and considered a beautiful Cape Dory Typhoon, and then a well used Montgomery 17 prior to finding my 20' SeaCraft.

After recently finding my 21', I told my wife no more boats. But next one will be a Montgomery 17.

[Fr. Frank]

Hilarious...
I grew up sailing in Midwest - ...
After recently finding my 21', I told my wife no more boats. But next one will be a Montgomery 17.

I grew up in the 60's with both powerboats and sailboats. My grandfather owned a 45' Rybovich sportfisherman and a yawl-rigged 41' Morgan.
My father owned a 1923 40' Matthews (only 9' beam) and a 19' Aristo, and a great-uncle owned a brand-new '69 SeaCraft Seafari with a 105hp Chrysler, which later became my grandfather's boat. That's when I first fell in love with SeaCraft. I used that boat like it was mine (I even called it "my boat").

My first boat came in early '68 at the age of 8, when my brother and I bought an 8' wooden center-board sailing punt. (We later bought a 9.9hp Chrysler for that boat.)

The first SeaCraft I actually purchased was a 23' SF with twin 115 Mercury inline 6 motors. I picked that up in '83 while I was working at a Seacraft dealership. Later that same year I bought my grandfather's old Seafari from my cousin, who had rigged it with an inline 150hp Mercury.

[Windrider]

I grew up sailing in Midwest - learned the ropes on Intl. Optimist and then a wood Sabot.

We share our sailing center. Our boat yard must have about 50 Sabots for use in the youth program, though only the one in the front used as a flower planter is wood. It seems like all the locals learned to sail on Sabots as kids at our sailing center.

When I started sailing a Hobie 16, I thought that was it.

When I took charge of CSULB's program I worked hard at getting us donated a small fleet of Hobie 18s. There is no doubt that the adrenaline junkies in the group LOVE those boats. The 18 was Hobie Alter's premier design for wave jumping - all catamarans can jump a wave, but the 18 is one of the few that will LAND afterwards - without a pitchpole, that is.

I remember hauling along on one of our 18s in a wind advisory, half out of control, just barely holding it together - and passing up all these fishermen in small powerboats struggling in the chop we were just flying over. Like this:



No doubt catamarans are a thrill ride, but you might as well go swimming, because that is how wet you are going to get!

But my taste for classics led me to racing Thistle class. Love the Thistle.

Sailboats are pretty regional. I don't think I've ever seen a Thistle in real life, though I know what they are. Our bay is full of Lidos, which look similar to a Thistle but smaller. I teach my beginners on the Catalina Capri 14.2, which you probably never see outside of the West Coast.

I was actually looking for and considered a beautiful Cape Dory Typhoon, and then a well used Montgomery 17 prior to finding my 20' SeaCraft.

After recently finding my 21', I told my wife no more boats. But next one will be a Montgomery 17.

Typhoons are a wonderful classic. I like my boats to be a little sleeker than the Montgomery, but there is no doubt that boat has a lot of room below for a pocket cruiser.

[loon]

Not as fast as my Seacraft, but I keep trying.

[Windrider]

Ooh, a Lightning! Yep, those are hot rods.

To bring this thread back on topic... our 20's console is all painted, shiny and ready for me to take it to get a new windshield fabricated. This boat was given to us sans windshield, so I don't have an old one for a template.

I stole this pic from somewhere on this site to use as an example, since this looks exactly like our console, even down to the darker acrylic shade strip/splash guard thingy behind the windshield and the strip of aluminum across the front of the console (purpose unknown to us).



My questions:
How tall are these "original" type windshields, measuring top to bottom across the front? How thick is the acrylic? (our fabricator says 1/4" will be good, seems kinda thin to me - if it makes any difference, we will be adding a stainless grabrail/protector around it like in the pic) Do you guys prefer clear acrylic, slightly smoked, or very dark? (I've seen all types here)

[eggsuckindog]

1/4" is good, I have a tinted one and it is impossible to see out of with dark glasses on while sitting - forget in the dark. I think there are 3, clear, smoke and a darker tint, mine is probably the darkest

[uncleboo]

Here you go.
http://www.updplastics.com/seacraft%...indshields.htm
The aluminum 'thingy' is the retainer for the backrest cushion. The cushion would have come with a barrell-shaped piece of plastic stitched into the top edge and it just slides in to hold the cushion in place.