76 23' SeaCraft Advice

[Stauter99]

Looking at this 1976 23, and the outside hull seems to be in good shape for its age and being all original. The inside is a different story. The deck and gunnels are all original. The transom has been replaced and beefed up from the looks of it. They cut the big splashwell out which i like, but they did a half assed job. There has been a new fuel tank installed but thats about it. Surprisingly most of the deck is solid, there is one good soft spot up front on the bow platform. There are also soft spots around the gunnels and a pretty poor attempt at patching one large one. Spider cracks around the hawse pipes, cleats, latches etc. The deck plates over the gas tank had 0 screws in them so I just pulled them up to take a look at the guts of the tank. What do yall think?

Did the original tank go this far back towards the stern?
Does this look like the original thickness of the transom?
How hard would it be to patch up the gunnel with out removing the whole thing?
Where those semi circle cracks in the floor are where the old spashwell was, I think I would just cut that whole regtangle out and replace with wood and glass. What do yall think?
What could I do about the spider cracks around latches and hawse pipes? Beef them up from underneath?

Thanks

Sonny

[martin]

I would also check the outside of hull for spider cracks. My 76 had some on the port side toward bow.. Look like a dry spot of resin.. Gle coat cracked and glass was slight ly dry...or perhaps a air pocket when laying up glass... My transome was about 2-5/8" thick .. But my seacraft was an i/o...i think that would be qut abit of weight in the stern.. Two engines live well and tank...jmho. Again i do not have an outboard rigged boat... Check the specs on tank placement.. I thout that they went forwad of in floor livewell. Looks like they remved that aswell

[martin]

If that is all the work you need to do looks like a good deal to me.... I paid .4500 for mine without a trailer and bad engine.. Then found the transom needed replaced. But other than that the hull was in pretty good shape...