Which rides better - very few know !

[Fr. Frank]

Originally Posted by Snookerd

I will say that the pre-tracker mid 80Â’s 18SF does not get airborne nearly as much because of the sheer weight difference. It is a tank.

My 18' SF has a rigged weight with full tanks of 2808 lbs. It was a towed weight of 3374 on the scales, and my trailer weighs 566 lbs.
With a 357 lb motor, 336 lbs of fuel and roughly 260 lbs of batteries and trolling motor, that puts the remaining hull weight at 1905 lbs including rigging, fishing tackle and gear. That's a heavy 18' boat.

I have an 18 that is titled as an '87, but when I pulled the fuel tank out to replace it, the gel-coat under the tank had "CSY 05-20-86" written on it in what looked to be magic marker. The HIN on the back of my boat has been re-gelcoated, and the newer gel coat is flaking off, with the remains of what was a previous HIN underneath. I had a friend of mine who is a Sheriff's detective look at it, but not enough remains of the old HIN to determine what is was. We can tell, however, that the first two letters were "TX" and the last character was the number "6".

We both think that the old HIN may mean that it was a left-over incomplete hull when Tracker bought out SeaCraft. I know the boat was originally sold with Tracker decals on the hull sides, and a "Tracker" Mariner 140 hp inline 6 motor. The current HIN begins with SIC.

One more oddity, the capacity plate says the max hp is 200 and the manufacturer was SeaCraft Industries. I figure the PO must have changed that out, because when I calculated the formula for figuring USCG max HP rating, I came up with a max legal hp of 187. So when I re-powered I stuck a 90 Etec on it.