1967 SeaMaster 27 ft

[Seasprite]

Thursday was a good day on the Bleu Bayou...Sheepshead at the rigs were plentiful.check out the photo on the album page

[Brett]

I recently purchased this beauty and had it sent down to St Croix USVI. We are about 40 miles south of St Thomas and BVI and about 50 miles from Puerto Rico. She definately has some blue water runs in her future and there is some great fishing here. Haven't got it out on the water yet but she is still in good shape for her age. Hoping to get her out this weekend but have some minor repairs. The oxygen sensors went out on the engines and I just rigged it with some new fuel flow sensors to take advantage of the nice Garmin GPSMap on her now. Really want to get an autopilot put on her but going to have to wait a bit on that.

The only other long term repair I'm expecting after getting some use out of her is to design a way in the deck to make the fuel tanks more accessible. They can't really be accessed and are currently foamed in. It has one 100 gallon with a mechanical gauge that can be viewed through the deck. The other tank is 80 gallon but has no sender or gauge. Each engine has its own tank. With the new fuel flow sensors I plan on just keeping track of how much gas goes in and once it is full to mark each as 80 gallon tanks. They are located forward and aft under the deck. The emergency reserve will be 20 gallons on one engine. I'm not sure how I would eventually change the current tank setup although it would be nice to have fuel senders on each and a way to make each engine accessible to each tank if necessary. Or would you run both off one tank and then have a valve to access the second? I think there are advantages and disadvantages to any setup but having the ability to switch which tank/tanks has access to would be ideal. Any ideas? Probably not going to happen for some time since the deck is still solid and I hate to cut it up quite yet.

PS. Anyone coming to St Croix send me a PM. She isn't going to be a good single handed boat but that's what the extra room is for!

[Bushwacker]

Originally Posted by Brett

. . . I'm not sure how I would eventually change the current tank setup although it would be nice to have fuel senders on each and a way to make each engine accessible to each tank if necessary. Or would you run both off one tank and then have a valve to access the second? I think there are advantages and disadvantages to any setup but having the ability to switch which tank/tanks has access to would be ideal. Any ideas? . . .

Welcome aboard Brett! Sounds like you have the perfect boat for your location! I saw your boat at the local E-TEC dealer several years ago and told Carla about it, who told her dad, and he ended up buying it a couple weeks later! Too bad his health didn't allow him to hang on to it!

If I had a boat with twin engines and twin tanks, I'd definitely want to be able to feed either engine from either tank! Don't know what your fuel filter setup looks like, but I'm guessing you probably have a Racor-type filter for each engine. Most of those filters have two inlets and one outlet, so all you have to do is run fuel lines from each tank to each filter with a shut off valve in each line, and then either engine could draw fuel from either tank! If each filter head only has one inlet and outlet port, you could change the filter head to one of these stainless steel filter heads with dual ports like I did to eliminate corrosion issues on the Racor. It will accept the Racor S3213 Merc style filters.

If those tanks are foamed in, they definitely aren't original, as Carl Moesly never put foam up against an aluminum fuel tank! A friend of mine bought a 27 Seamaster new in 1967 with an I/O. He upgraded from a 350 to a 400 and finally a 454 cu. in. engine before he got acceptable engine life, but he was very happy with it after that. He had a custom fuel tank made for it that I believe held about 150 gallons, and he used to run all over the Bahamas with it. With bracketed outboards, you should have room under the aft deck for some big fuel tanks if needed!

[gofastsandman]

Welcome Brett,
get some Techron and pour about an inch in a glass. Soak the o2 sensors vertically for a few days.
Many times they just can`t sniff anymore due to varnished fuel.

[Brett]

Thanks for the advice. I replaced the sensors but will see if I can get the old ones to function and try to resell them to put some money into my repair budget. The fuel filters also have two inlets so that should be an easy fix.

Unfortunately, I just discovered a much more serious problem. Sea Mistress/Bleu Bayou is going to have to go under the knife before getting back on the water. After knocking through some thick glass on the inside of the transom I've found the wood to be completely rotten. I can stick my finger straight through to the bracket. Ugh. I'll start another thread in the repairs/mods once I read through all of the previously related threads.

[Bushwacker]

Originally Posted by Brett

. . . After knocking through some thick glass on the inside of the transom I've found the wood to be completely rotten. I can stick my finger straight through to the bracket . . .

One advantage of a bracket is that it distributes the engine loads across the entire transom, so that may be why you haven't had any problems so far. Just curious, how thick was the glass on the inside of the transom? Were there any cracks showing on either the inside or outside of transom?

One comment Carl Moesly made about that boat after he bought it was that the engines were mounted too close together. (The motors were always mounted in the center of the center panels on each side of his race boats so the props would see cleaner water!) Since you'll be pulling the bracket off anyway, it might be worth doing some measurements first to see if any bracket mods are needed to allow moving the motors outboard. Might be able to raise the motors too, which would reduce draft and drag and possibly reduce fuel consumption a bit!

[flyingfrizzle]

Originally Posted by Bushwacker

(The motors were always mounted in the center of the center panels on each side of his race boats so the props would see cleaner water!)

How about a race boat with 2 panels per side? How would he mount it then? You know if in theory if he had just two not three! I would love to know what he thinks about that one...

[Bushwacker]

Originally Posted by flyingfrizzle

How about a race boat with 2 panels per side? How would he mount it then? You know if in theory if he had just two not three! I would love to know what he thinks about that one...

They did have 3 motors on some of those later race boats! Those I-6 Mercs could be mounted pretty close together! I would send a PM to Carla (65 Bowrider) and see if she can ask him how he would mount twins on a race boat!

My guess is that you'd want to mount them in center of the 2nd panel. Maybe compare the center of the 2nd panel on your 25 Seafari vs. the race boat and see if there is any difference. If you could find some pictures with good bow or stern shots of his "My Flying Machine" or "My Racing Machine" boats with twins, since you know the actual beam at the transom, it shouldn't be too hard to scale the pictures with those I-6 Mercs to figure out how far apart they were mounted.

In my earlier post, I was referring to the stock 21' production boats with 8' beam that he raced in the early 60's. Notice how far apart the motors are on the VDR prototype SI-VAD in these pictures. The all out race boats like you have are pretty narrow (about 6'6" beam?) and I think he basically just eliminated the outer panel on them, as the outer panels are probably out of the water anyway when you get over 40 kts, so not really needed at racing speeds anyway!

[gofastsandman]

Originally Posted by flyingfrizzle

How about a race boat with 2 panels per side? How would he mount it then? You know if in theory if he had just two not three! I would love to know what he thinks about that one...

The center of the panel.