Boat porn of a 25 Seafari beasty

[65Bowrider]

Doug, this is an info sharing site and I'm glad you love your boat. THAT'S WHAT'S MOST IMPORTANT.
Trim tabs are commonly used today ... but back in the 60's? The water ballast system I spoke of was it's own kind of trim system. I THINK Moesly may have realized with the high dead rise, narrow beam, the boat would list ... so he devised a water ballast system to compensate for that. He only designed it for the 25'.

BigShimpin, I could not read the print of the article you referred to, but the bottom logo MAY indicate a 70's article by the SeaCraft font & address of Princeton. In 1960's SeaCraft's font was different and the address was Miami. (PM sent) The 25' Seafari was not built in the 60's.

"All SeaCrafts deserve to be loved, regardless of color, size or shape".

[Bigshrimpin]

Sorry Carla - I couldn't find a date on the article either . . . I was just going off the date that Jason posted on the site
http://www.classicseacraft.com/broch...cle/index.html

When you view the link and you double click on the article the page it gets bigger.

I dug up the patent online and posted it below for anyone who is interested. Looks like a neat design with 2 compartments on each side . . . looks like it holds a LOT of water.
3503358 Patent

[doug7488]

I am sure to be sticking my neck out on this one - please feel fee to correct me.
Well, I can see why the ballast system was not implemented.
I doubt that the added weight in the bilge would add any lateral stability to the boat.
A boats lateral stability is mostly comprised of its horizontal sufaces, obviously, a boat with an 8 foot beam & 25 degree deadrise has a relatively small amount. Not to mention the lack of lifting strakes.
Sinking a boat further in the water does not change its footprint.
By effectively lowering the Center of Gravity of the boat by flooding the compartments, gains in stability, if any would be minimal.
How much would the boat actually lower?
2"-3"-4" tops?
Ever step in a swamped boat? - not to stable!
Yeah, I know, the water isn't contained, yada yada yada...
What happens to the self draining deck during this procedure?
How well is the boat going to plane off with, I don't know -1600 lbs.(200 gallons water) of dead weight added?
Certainly an outboard won't like it.
Even if the positives outweighed the negatives, there is simply no room available in our size boats for it to be practical.
Typically, where Ballast Tank B is located, there is a 100 gallon fuel tank. Not much room under the deck either side of it either.
Where Ballast Tank A is, the deck usually steps down in a cabin type boat - for increased head room. Again, lack of room.
Intake Scoop 19, even if minimized in size, would surely have an impact on speed.
I wouldn't want to depend on a valve/hose connection to stop water coming in when the boat is at speed and there is 40 psi pressure in the fill tube.
If you are really concerned about the boat rocking at rest, add a pair of mooring umrellas to slow it down, or get a flats boat!
Once again, I do not see the "Ballast Problem"
The boat is a deep V - meant for offshore, whitewater.
Roll is inherent in the design.
It is not meant for the back bays, if it was it surely wouldn't have a 25 degree bottom on it.
Thinking back to when I had my 1987(?) 23' WAC, it too, rolled quite a bit. I think that is basically the same bottom as all the other 23's running around?
Again, the problem exagerrated by the higher deck and helm.
The nicest riding offshore boat that I owned was my 24' Progression with 300 Merc. It gave the best of both worlds-
High speed and stability - I think that boat has a 22 degree bottom to it, along with lifting strakes.
I'd like to graft the Seafari's Cabin to that hull!
C'mon, lets here it from the nay sayers!
Funny thing how the picture on the patent design resembles a Seavette...LOL!

[Bigshrimpin]

The nicest riding offshore boat that I owned was my 24' Progression with 300 Merc. It gave the best of both worlds-
High speed and stability - I think that boat has a 22 degree bottom to it, along with lifting strakes.
I'd like to graft the Seafari's Cabin to that hull!

Progression 24 and 22 are bad azz boats. It's kind of funny though that the progression hull is variable deadrise hull (with strakes). I like the idea of the patent, but I agree with doug that it'd be a hard sell to the public.

[ScottM]

And so the plot thickens....

So how did Mr. Potter really feel about the boat fellas?


I want answers? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwyj78FpYt4



strick

I vaguely remember the conversation Chuck mentions, so I'm at a loss. I do, however, recall Potter talking about the 25 and how much he liked it. Believe it or not I still have the email I sent him in 2004 with a picture of what would eventually become doug7488's boat. He responded that he would be interested in contacting the owner at the time to ask some questions.

[Capt Chuck]

Boy, I was not trying to start a debate but I was referring to the 25' hull as a CC production line that never transpired. Not that Mr P didn't like the boat but only they could not get it's ride "up-to-snuff".

Doug
I meant NO Offense to your boat nor the intent of posting of disparaging remarks I'm sure the weight and design of the "SeaFari" was a different animal or they would not have made over 75 of them.

[NoBones]

This is like beating a dead horse!!!!!!
The bottom line is, Doug enjoy your SeaCraft as we
we do ours....... End of story!
See ya, Ken

[bigfluke]

My company has used a 25' Seafari for very deep-v planing hull and propulsion research for the past 4 years. The discussion in this thread has been helpful to understand the boats general performance. When I bought the boat in Florida the engines and drives were shot so I never ran the boat in its original configuration. The discussion about Moesley's plan to have an integral ballast system in this boat makes a lot of sense based on our findings that the boat was more seakindly and we could eliminate the chine walking, heeling and porpoising by a more forward lcg and other tricks. In fact our testing at 4800 lbs, through 7400 lbs was done by installing ballast to achieve a 0 degree static trim which equates to a 37% lcg.

[Bigshrimpin]

BigFluke - Welcome! what kind of speed did you see from the hull before it started to chine walk and what type of ballast did you use? were you testing other hulls or just the 25 seafari?

[strick]

Bigfluke- Ditto's on the welcome. However I was a little disappointed I did not see the 25 seafari in any of the boat pictures on your company's web site

http://www.navatekltd.com/index.html


Chuck and Scott thanks for clarifying.

strick