Project Seafari Tuna-fication

[Bushwacker]

Bill - nothing wrong with a little overkill! We used the belt & suspenders approach on Pratt engines a lot! Here's another example of structural overkillThe VHF and bimini brace photos I promised to send.)




The bimini braces really stiffen it up, so the bows can be used as handholds when going around stbd side to front deck. When I want to fold the bimini, just pull the screw out of jaw fitting on bimini frame.

On the VHF antenna (a 9'9" Phelps-Dodge 9 db gain unit, mounted so tip is flush w/transom when laid down), I fg'd a wood block and a couple of pad eyes to a 1" ID x 33" schedule 40 PVC pipe and slid it down over the antenna. Attached the 2 ss turnbuckles to windshield frame with pad eyes/pins and used fastpins at antenna end. The turnbuckles pull the wood block up snug against the bimini brace, so the whole deal is fairly rigid. When antenna is lowered, I just connect the turnbuckle ends with one of the pins, and that locks them out away from the glass. Looks a little ratty because the 20 year old paint is peeling off, but it works well - it's a soft enough support at the antenna to allow it to move a little and avoid a concentrated stress, but it takes most of the cantilever bending load off the deck. Mount scheme would probably work on a Scepter also.

[NoBones]

Bill,
The boat looks great! You may now qualify as one of the
"Gold Spoon Trailer Queens"
But the "Spidercrab" 2x8 gin pole may hold you back.
Keep up the good work...
See ya, Ken

[oldbluesplayer]

alright - without the "spidercrab" gin pole

it's coming.....slowly




Bill

[BigLew]

Oldbluesplayer,
It really is "looking good!" Keep up the good work.

I must say, I first thought that I saw a raydome mounted between the bowrail, but realized it is a backboard for a basketball hoop. It reminded me for a moment of the guys on the 33' Egg's and 32' Silvertons who end their child bearing years by mounting their radar arrays on the front of the flybridge. The RF fries the "Family Jewels", not something any of us want to do!

[nestorpr]

The boat looks great! From what you describe the riggers will work very well and you shouldn't have any flex. Those tuna better look out, Oldblues is coming!!

[oldbluesplayer]

a post sea trials update -

Finally got everything (well almost) done, close enough to go fishing. early on I talked about, and showed, how the forward bulhead had cracked out the tabbing, here's the repair - turned out to be very significant -



Also got all the basic fishability improvements done - the boat can work a six rod spread now - not that I can handle that when fishing solo, but I have the gear to do it



First trip out, just did southern CCB, fingers and Billingsgate - some good chop over there - I immediately noticed that the forward bulhead repair really tightened the boat up - a real improvement over the looseness I felt last year - everybody with a Seafari needs to check this.

Second trip out, last friday, the morning was calm, so I headed up to Stellwagen SWC. The stiffener plates for the outrigger mounts definitely did the job, those work solid. Hooked, but lost, one fish. saw tuna on the surface which made me doubt that even the Senator 114's were adequate - these were BIG fish. Spent some time over by Peaked Hill Bar, around the backside, and then decided to go home around 2pm - thought I'd fish my way down the Bay..... NOT.

came around Race Point, straight into a very strong SW breeze, that obviously had been working awhile. For myself, and another fellow from reel-time, we fought 6 footers all the way down the bay - took me over three hours from Race Point to Sandwich.

The Seacraft can do it. She was solid as a rock, all the way. I'm just not sure I can. Felt like I was doing a personal re-enactment of the Perfect Storm movie. Had blisters on my right hand fingers from gripping the wheel so tight, for so long.

Time, for a time out.

Bill

[nestorpr]

She looks fantastic! Bet she looked good running down those 6 footers but I agree, that's something better left for the young'ns! That's why my wife insisted I sell the 20 and get another boat with a sharper "V", she hates it when the boat pounds on a choppy sea!

[Kahuna]

OBP,
How much fuel do you carry in your 20? That is a pretty good poke to be able to leave Sandwich (I assume the basin) fish the SWC of Stellwaggen, run around the corner and then pound your way home at 12 knots, spending more time going up and down than you were forward from the point.

I've got 76 that is pretty close to yours with a replacement tank. (I still need to post some pictures). Its got the I/O (140, approx '84). Dimensions tell me its approx 30 gallons, not sure how much is usable (that is always a tough one to completely determine). Down in CT now. I'm still trying to get a handle on my fuel consumtion. I'm still a little over wheeled (19x14, should be the 17" stainless, next season) but I cruise 21-23 knots, turning 3300-3400 ( I know its apple to oranges yours to mine). Just wondering if you carry an extra tank or two and transfer once you get there. Engineer things i guess, being overly conservative.

[oldbluesplayer]

Nestor -

Wish I had been running them down, running down a following sea would have been easier, but I was going head on into them... water over the bow more than a few times - the big ones seemed to come in sets, close coupled, up and over the first, and smack into the face of the next, and the third - if a buddy boat had been with me, they'd have been able to get shots of an airborn Seafari more than a few times !!

Kahuna - the specs page says the IO gas tank, original, was 38 gal, and the OB model is 47 gal - that is pretty accurate to mine. I have done the trip from the basin, out the ditch, up to Race Point, then out to SWC, troll around awhile, and back to the basin, several times. But then, last year, with all the talk about ethanol effects, I went out early in the season, staying close in, with a spare tank, to try to run the tank dry - and found that I was still running at a full 1/4 tank -Below- "E" on the guage - then I filled up and still only took 40 gal, so probably about 6 gal or so left in the tank, though I don't know at what point the pick-up won't - I figure 6 gal in my tank is only about 1" deep.

On this particular day, because I had also gone out and around the corner to Peaked Hill Bar, and because it was rough and I knew I had a bad slog home, I did go into P-Town and gas up, (took 20 gal) before I headed south to the ditch - just to get from RP to the P-Town gas dock took me 45 min, left there at 3pm, back in the basin at 6pm. That was one hell of an Ugly ride I don't care to repeat.

Scary Bits -

when I pulled the boat out, and got it up in the parking lot to prep for the trip home, and pulled the drain plug, a Lot of water came out. I was too tired to sweat it at the time, and I know my float switch needs about 5" above the bottom of the V before turn on. Sat, when I went out to flush the motor, I discovered that the bilge pump hose had seperated from the thru-hull fitting, leaving me with an open hole in the side of the boat, and a bilge pump doing nothing useful.

Also, coming down the Bay, the motor had acted a little rough, not really bad, but noticeable; seeing the water in the bilge, then discovering the pump scenario, i thought perhaps water sloshing around inside may have given me some electrical problems. Just to check, I pulled the spark plugs, was going to run a compression test - found one of the plugs had the electrode bent in shorting to the center pin, and obviously wasn't firing, and all fouled up. I'm damn sure glad that motor kept running, but think I'm facing a teardown and rebuild now - at least going to pull the head, and see what I see - might have been a chunk of carbon, but expecting worse.

Argghhhhh !!!!

[nestorpr]

Glad to hear that you found the culprits for the water and they were easy to fix! Hope the engine thing is nothing big and will be easy to fix, cross your fingers!