Well, It’s finally splashed!

[dcobbett]

The 1976 SeaCraft 20SF that I bought from someone on the Mako site in November of ’05. The boat's hull is in great condition. What you see in the photos has only been washed with water and Simple Green; no compounds/buffing or polishing, etc. Also, the decks are in excellant condition.

However, it did need work. Over the last several months, I’ve re-cored the tank coffin cover, installed a new tank with all new hoses, wires and related fittings, replaced and raised the transom to 25” using Penske Board, alternating layers of 1708 and 1808 with MAS epoxy. Also reworked and patched the gunnels and redid the non skid using Griptex, installed pop-up chocks, bow light , bow, stern and spring cleats, new carpet in the rod holder areas, patched-up and redid the console, including all new wiring, battery and cables, installed a new NFB Teleflex steering system, and new Yamaha gauges and controls. I plugged the fish box drain, an old transducer hole and the through-the- bottom scuppers which I replaced them with pipes through the transom pipes capped with ping pong ball scuppers. Finally, I installed Bennett tabs that were given to me by another forum member (thanks Roger), hung and rigged a new, 2003 crate Yamaha 2S that I bought in AL and painted the transom, gunnels and console with Interux’s 2 part Perfection paint, patched the dings and holes in the bottom and painted it with anti-fouling.

Except for the coffin cover and the cutting and patching of the console, everything was done outdoors under a variety of tarps over an A frame structure and I wouldn’t recommend that to anyone, at least where I live, which is on the coast, about 12 miles north of Boston.

















How does the boat ride and how do I like it? It's on rails, doesn't sink in too much when you give it the gas, gets up on plane pretty quickly and the nose comes down with just a little touch to the
engine trim. 27mph+/- at 4K, 30-31mph @4.5K, 38-39 mph @ 5.3K, and a little
over that @5.5K with a 13x19 aluminum prop (speeds from my Garmin GPS).

The first day, we had a 2'-3' soft swell with a 1'-2' chop on top. Ate it right up. Little too much gas and it wants to get up in the air going into something like that, but it just settles back in; no feeling of crashing back at all. Great down wind in that stuff, both directly and on the quarter. Quartering up wind, it gets wet and seems to want to dig the up wind chine in a little, but I'll get used to that. Maybe that's where tabs might come in handy.

I have Bennett taps on the hull, but the pump has died, it’s not an inexpensive replacement, and I don't think I'll do anything about that until next season. Actually, based on limited time in the boat so far (< 10 hours), it seems to level off so easily and well with just the engine trim, I'm not sure they are needed except for correcting side to side weight and balance conditions.

All in all, it's clearly the best hull I've owned to-date and I can't imagine a better a better engine for that hull, given where I live and the waters I fish in.