article on Carl Moesly and early SeaCraft History

[Ed]

PS-

There was some guy at the Boston boat show who works for Holby Marine (makers of the Bristol Skiff and Pilot 19) that claims to have original hull blueprints for Seacraft's (not sure what size or year). He was introduced to me by Mike Borelli (Metan Marine) at the in the Boston in the water show last year and I saw him again this year. I think his name is Fritz or something like that. Anyone know him?

[Bigshrimpin]

Sure sounds like potter's dad bought seacraft and let Bill run the show . . . then Moesly and Bill Potter were at odds with each other.

"get out of my way old man . . . this is my company now"

I couldn't even imagine . . .

I think the recessed bow rail was a potter idea/invention . . . correct? What else did Potter add to seacraft?

Let's just say I don't think Moesly has any potter built decals on his boats.

[Bigshrimpin]

Ed - all you'd need is a few nice seacraft hulls to pull molds from. i.e. buy a key largo, pull a mold or two from the boat, and resell it.

[David Bienvenu]

I have a 1966 S/C Bowrider (19') with Serial #441. From what I gather I have a "Moesly Built"? Any decals yet?

[Finster]

Yeah you do. You'll need to talk to Pipedreams, he has one too.
No decals from what I know so far, though you never know with Capt.Chuck. He's probibly making them as we speak.

[paulfurnari]

A great article but it's sad to learn Mosley and Potter could not work together. I wonder what Potters take would be on the ownership transition at SeaCraft. Does anyone know? -PF

[PipeDreamsMarine]

Funny thing that you should say that Finny...I am currently working on a sticker for Mosley built boats. I will be using the orginal SeaCraft logo shown in the article with the same font and hull shape... Stay tuned.....

[ScottM]

I wonder what Potters take would be on the ownership transition at SeaCraft. Does anyone know? -PF

PF - back in April, Potter gave us the rundown at Capt Chuck's house, but I've since forgotten the story. You might ask Chris, although he was too busy doing his best "Rodney" impersonation, so he might not remember either. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[David Bienvenu]

Last October I ran into a friend that came back to town to sell his boat shed and lift at a local marina since he moved from Louisiana to Maine. We started talking and I asked about his boat (which I had never really looked at before)and what his plans for it were. He said if he sold the shed he would proboly try to sell the motor and haul the 37 year old boat that no one would want to the dump. So within a week I owned the shed and got the boat, motor and trailer for "Lagniappe". (Cajun for a little extra thrown in for nothing) I was questioned by many why I was going to spend the time and money on restoreing an old boat like that. At that time I didn't know what I had but a year later with the project complete, all I've learned from this site and this article I'm sure glad I kept it from going to the "grave yard". When we stripped it down to bare hull many commented that they never saw a boat built like this one. Now I know the whole story and why it was constructed the way it was. No wonder it performs and rides so good. (And the fish like it too) I was told in the past that it was used to haul many loads of lumber out to build (rebuild too) camps out in the marsh. It does what Moesly designed it to do.
Another bit of history I learned about this "Red headed step child" was that a man won this boat as a prize in a fishing rodeo in 1966 and didn't want to come up with the taxes required and already had a boat so sold it for a "song" to my friends father.
Count me in for the decal's!

[strick]

That was a very good article and it's humbling to read about how much one man can accomplish. Thanks for putting that up guys.

Strick