'73 Seafari 25-bringing her back

[Bushwacker]

Welcome aboard Capt. Nate - you have one of the rarest SeaCraft models and it's good to see you keeping it in the family!

Carl Moesly designed the 25' Seafari to have his patented ballast tank up forward that he used in his race boats. He sold the company to Potter before building one however, and Potter never built any 25's with the ballast tank. They were built only as I/O models, where the weight of the engine is located a couple feet forward of the transom. Most folks that have restored a Seafari have elected to stay with the I/O configuration because of the more forward CG location. However even Connor, who probably has more "wheel time" on a 25 in rough seas than almost anyone else on the forum, says that his I/O model still likes to have more weight forward. I've ridden in Connor's boat and noticed that it will plane at about 12 mph, like all other Moesly designs when run as originally powered. Most extreme deep V hulls will not plane at such a low speed, and my experience with brackets is that moving the engine weight aft by 30" or so tends to significantly raise minimum planing speed. The extra weight of your tower should help offset some of the effects of the bracket, so I'm looking forward to hearing how your boat performs when you get it operational!