1989 23' Seacraft.

[Miles Offshore]

Welcome to the board Rich! I do not know anything of your model(I didnt know seacraft ever made a walk-a-round). Anyways it still carries the sea-craft name ,and that makes you one of "us".lol. I dont believe the quality of the hulls has ever really been better from any one year to the next. (IMO)I do know the quality of the hardware used suffered in the later years ,mid to late 80's. Good luck with your rig, and welcome to the site.craig

[Dan]

Ditto what Craig said. Mine is a '88 CC and is a technically a Tracker according to the registration but it has the Seacraft company decal on the console. However a Seacraft is a Seacraft is a Seacraft is a Seacraft. They are all great from the very first one made to the brand new 2003s. Like Craig said though, I think the quality of some of the hardware diminished later on in the '80s. Not to scare you but I have had pretty severe water intrusion thru the drains in the splashwell due to lack of sealant thus damaging the transom. I have fixed it pretty good w/ advice and products from the Rot Doctor who thinks I may have caught it in time. But, I know I may be replacing the transom sometime in the distant future.

Dan

[JohnB]

rsegreto,
I also own a '89 23 foot SeaCraft. Mine is the cuddy cabin style with a hard top. These were made by Tracker over in Tampa, and I have been pretty happy with mine overall. Some of the fittings, hatches, and trim were not top of the line, but most of that stuff has been replaced on my boat. The hull design is still the same in all of them and as best I can tell, if there were any problems with the hull, they would have already shown up after 12 years. When I was looking for mine, I was actually shopping for your model, and only found 2 in about 6 months. I don't believe a bunch of them where made and none of the ones I saw were right for my needs. The only suggestions I would have is to make sure that any holes or penetrations in the transom are sealed correctly with 5200. The Alum trim across the top of the transom cutout has screws in it the like to let water seap into the transom. Be especially careful of mounting screws for dive ladders (they use big screws), and trim tab accessories and holes. My boat also had chronic leaks underneath the rub rail which required me to remove it and reseal the whole deal. My gas vent also has a habit of picking up water in heavy seas when I point the nose of the boat down with the trim tabs. If your vent is on the outside of the hull, you might want to replace it with a clamshell style one.
What problems/improvements have you encountered with you boat?

[rsegreto]

Hello Gentlemen-
I've owned my 23' walkaround cuddy for three years now. I know that it's not one of the classics as it's a 1989 model. I was just wondering what your thoughts were on this particular model and how, hopefully it still may have some of the characteristics of the older classic models.
Thanks in advance.

[rsegreto]

Gentlemen-
Thank you for your input, I have noticed a few things on my 23' that I'm not too happy with. I have mounted a few things to my transom such as a ladder and trim tabs and unforunately, at the time of installation I did encounter some moisture while putting these items in. In fact, I had some water trickle out when I was putting the tabs on, so something tells me that I may need a new transom in the near future as I was telling the guys over at the repairs forum earlier. Another thing that I don't like about mine is the way the bow rail is attached. Besides noticing water stains in the inside of the cabin, I have also noticed that all the rails do not have fittings attached to the bottom of the rails to help secure it to the boat. For some reason I only have three of these fittings out of about six or eight rails. Why is this? Does anyone else have this problem?
Other than these two issues currently, I really have nothing to complain about. The boat handles quite well in white waters.

[Tony23]

This looks like a really old post but just for those who have this boat here are a couple things I found - I have a mid 1980's Tracker SeaCraft:

The transom on mine was rotting because the thru-hull fittings for the baitwell were not sealed well (if at all)

I had to have the wood in the transom replaced - the guy that did it did a masterful job of cutting the liner and replacing the wood from the inside so the outer shell was uncompromised. He glassed the liner back into place and you cannot tell where it was cut.

I also found that the aft 3 or 4 feet of the stringers was not foam filled but filled with steel shot that was rusting and popping the stringers open. The same fiberglass guy cut open the stringers, removed the shot, and re-filled it with foam and glassed it. All told he took out over 225lbs of steel shot from the stringers. The boat seriously trimmed better after the shot was removed - with twin obs it was always stern heavy.

My 2 cents is that the Tracker SeaCrafts were good hulls but the details of workmanship was not good - shortcuts and lack of attention to detail made them susceptable to transom rot and rust popping open the aft stringers.

Hopefully, now mine is better than new after all the work I've done to it. Love that hull - it dosn't rock much while at rest because of the flatter outer parts and it cuts nicely because of the deep V in the center.

[gss036]

I have the deck tore apart on my 1989 23WA replacing the fuel tank. The guy at the fiberglass shop examined the transom and stringers, the back part of the stringers are hollow and intact, but definitely no steel shot that you can see or tell tell anything about. It is getting the tank installed this week and I am out of town, when I get home I will have to take a "BIG" magnet to the strings to see if there is an pull, but I really don't think so. I have head of putting lead shot in different places on a boat to balance it if for some reason it was not balanced. I would be willing to be this was done by a previous owner, not the factory.
I will check my through hull fitting but no sign of leakage. I do not keep my boat in the water and trailer it every time I launch and retrieve and take it home and park in the pole building. I think my leakage problems occur when left in the water full time and the owner does no do the needed maintenance. [img]/forum/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[McGillicuddy]

Somehow I dont think the steel shot came from the factory. More likely one of them not so bright guys thought steel shot would give him ballast or balance or whatever goes through said man's head