Is yours bigger than mine?

[mrobertson]

Lately - seacraft owners have come out of the woodwork here in MD. I've met 5-6 other owners from all eras at the ramp.

My 23 is a 1985. Yesterday while loading, another 23 owner pulled up in his 1976 potter 23.

Side by side I couldn't help but feel like the potter "felt" like a bigger boat than mine. It seemed like it might have been a litter deeper. The bow platform didn't seem as big in his as it does in mine.

It was a long day on the water so I didn't break out a tape measure. We chatted for a while then went up the road.

Do you think my eyes were playing tricks on me, or is it true that the potter era boats are bigger than my SIC.


-mike

[BigLew]

Funny you should mention that.

I have no firm information, but one time I stopped in to speak with a friend who is a boat mechanic. He was working on a boat and I just really liked it and mentioned I thought it to be particularly well laid out. He said you should think so, its a Seacraft.

Granted it was an outboard configuration, but it still seemed to have a larger cockpit than my '85 I/O Scepter. I do know that the Potter boats companion way door to the cuddy does not sit as far back on the Scepter of that era as mine. The helm is set further back than the companion/port side cuddy bulkhead. This would likely mean that the deck is about 8-10" shorter on the earlier years.

[Bushwacker]

SIC bought the molds from Potter, so the hulls should be identical. However I believe they may have made some changes to the inner liners and it's possible that the front casting platform on the 23's was changed. I remember seeing some later brochures that showed different internal configurations, in particular a 20 CC laid out for diving with tank racks and a platform that folded out of the side of the hull! Have never seen an actual boat built like that however, so maybe it was just a concept they were exploring to test market response.

[mrobertson]

It also seemed like his boat had a little more freeboard. Neither boat has a raised deck either.

I guess I should have broken out the tape measure after all.

[NoBones]

Color has a lot to do with playing tricks on your brain!!
Keep in mind at one point I had a white 1978 23 Sceptre, A red 1983 Sceptre a blue 1977 Savage (center console Sceptre) sitting side by side
next to the barn... I swore the 77 blue was bigger then the 83 red and
the 78 white was the runt... Optical illusion, cause I did take a tape
and measure all 3!! They were all the same in length....

[mrobertson]

I'm not questioning that the hull itself is not identical. The inside configuration of the potter hull seemed like it had more room than mine.

Probably just mind games

[Blue197320]

the front casting deck on the later models is bigger than the potters.

[Billybob]

I don't know, maybe they raised the floor a bit in the later years?

[mrobertson]

Originally Posted by Billybob

I don't know, maybe they raised the floor a bit in the later years?

That's the feeling i'm getting. The floor in mine (1985) is a little higher, and the bow platform is a little bigger............giving the feeling that there is more room inside the potter and the feeling of a bigger boat.

it would be nice to compare side by side though. Anyone in MD with a potter built 23 cc hull want to get together?

[Wildman]

I do know my CC with a large bracket seams to feel like its 'much larger' than a CC with an I/O. This is especially true with 3-4 guys fishing on deck.