Water logged 23' Tsunami Refurb Project

[Capt_Mac]

I own a 1978 23' tsunami open fisherman, the reason for me being on this forum is from what I have heard and seen is that the older seacrafts are similar to my boat. With that said, I now drive a barge rather then an open fisherman because of the water that is trapped inside of my hull. The foam filled hullis full of trapped water, stringers and transom are obviously made of wood and are rotted and causing the fiberglass and gelcoat to flex enormously. I've deciced to take this oppurtunity to go ahead and refurb and repower the boat. Now here are the qeustions:

1. How would I go about removing the bad foam and wood stingers and transom with out cutting my deck to pieces(which is in great shape)?

2. Would anybody recommend the seacast product as a core rather then marine plywood?

3. I am a Yamaha four stoke fan all the way and I would like to mount twin 200hp on a bracket with an enclosed transom, is their a weight issue here or have other 23' seacrafts already done this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated as this boat has been in my family for a long time now and I just can not give the boat up and buy one of these fast but rough 5 year life span boats. Or if their is any kind of literature or personal knowledge on my boat, that would also be great.

Fish hard and die happy!

[RUSTYNTABATHA]

WHATS UP MAC AND COOL I GET TO BE THE FIRST TO SAY WELCOME IM INTERESTED IN ANSWERS IF THE GUYS HERE CANT STEER YOU IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION..... IM GONNA NEED A BIGGER BUCKET I WOULD LIKE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE SEACAST IM CUTTIN WAY MORE THAN JUST THE FLOOR WOULD LIKE ALTERNATIVE TO WOOD TO USE IN TRANSOM, FLOOR, DASH AND UNDER GUNNELS AND PROBALY A FEW MORE PLACES WHEN I START CUTTIN

[Capt_Mac]

Say what??? If I understood you correctly, it may sound like I could be in for a world of trouble. The deck, Center console, and the gunwales all look good from what I can tell. The transom is shot, and I can only imagine what the stringers would look like after sitting next to water filled foam for at least 4 years now. Thanks for the heads up.

[RUSTYNTABATHA]

DIDNT MEEN TO SCARE YOU IM GOING INTO MINE PRETTY DEEP I HAVE FOUND MY MODEL ON THE BOAT TRADER AND IM GOING TO REBUILD MINE ALL THE WAY TO AVOID CUTTING IN THE FUTURE

[Capt_Mac]

Well I am a novice,unexperienced and worried but also eager and excitited about this project. The only upside is that I have 2 years of marine mechanics training from mcfatter votech down in davie while I was in high school. So I just need to focus on the carpentry stuff. What do you think of seamark brackets?

[RUSTYNTABATHA]

SEAMARK BRACKETS ARE AWSOME BUT A LITTLE HIGHER THAN OTHERS BUT FOR SEACRAFT OWNERS ITS LIKE BUYING ORGINAL EQUIPMENT DUE TO BILL POTER DESIGNING IT

[oldbluesplayer]

Capt Mac - just a thought, if you go to the home page and get to the pictures, there are quite a few 23's shown there, many with some step by step photo's showing rebuilds in progress - they may help.

that said, all the Seacrafts from 69 thru 82 are what is referred to as Potter built, in reference to Bill Potter, who co-designed and owned the company then - and they are all built pretty much the same way - so yours fits in this group, and will match what you see in the pictures.

You don't have any wood in the two outer, main stringers - they are fiberglass boxes filled with foam - but the hull, as a whole, is not foam filled, in the same sense as a Boston whaler is. Pulling the access hatches and the gas tank floor plate should allow significant access to the inner hull. Some holes drilled low on the box stringers would allow them to drain, and can then be glassed over, and that's done.

The transom is plywood. Most here have rebuilt it with either plywood or one of the composites - doing it looks scary, but really isn't so bad - there are many step by step pictures of guys who have done it. To do the seacast thing you would have to dig down from the top - probably not to bad for a minor repair around the outboard notch, but not as good as a complete transom rebuild.

The transom can be done either from the outside, or the inside - both have been done successfully - do a search on the forum for transom rebuilds, and find some of the stories the guys have posted.

Another resource is classicmako.com - where similar rebuilds on older mako's have been documented - again, many excellant pictures to show the way for a first timer.

Study up, I'm sure you'll be back with questions.

Good Luck !!

Bill

[strick]

capt mac is referring to a different brand of boat that he own's called Tsunami. It's a CC like the 23sf. see this thread
http://www.classicseacraft.com/forum...=&Number=41298
took me a while to figure it out. also I think Potter sold the company in 1980 so it would be from 1969-1979 or 80 someone else correct me if I'm wrong?

[ScottM]

also I think Potter sold the company in 1980 so it would be from 1969-1979 or 80 someone else correct me if I'm wrong?

1969-1980

[Capt_Mac]

Thats right Strick, there are very few people who have ever heard of my boat, including some repair and rigging shops that i've talked too. From the outside the two boats look almost identical, the deck is different but some features look the same.