23' with spray rails

JT · #1 05-11-2004, 07:13 AM

Just curious, while I was down at Jackson Marine in Ft.Laud., I saw a seafoam green older 23 center console which had custom spray rails on the lowest point of the hull sides(just below the boot stripe) Are these 23s wet boats????? at all???? It also had a large 3" pvc hole in the transom, went in about 2 feet darkness, couldn't figure why? below the water line Is this a member's boat?

FELLOW-SHIP · #2 05-11-2004, 08:52 AM

Ha JT
I have heard of this boat but I have not personally seen it my self. I think one of the guys that have a shop there own it but I am not sure though. I heard he has really put a lot of time into it though. As far as SeaCrafts being a wet boat I think I will answer this one in a little different point of view then I usually would. First off I will say all boats are wet boats and probably all boats are dry boats depending on sea conditions, skills of the pilot speed the pilot wants to go plus the predigest of the one that is talking about which boat he likes or dislikes. I will say that this last Saturday I was out fishing in Miami in 3-5 footers with a occasional 6 footer the wind was at least 15 mpr all day long I ran the boat into the waves at around 3400 rpms and then we ran some up and down the cost in the troft of the waves drifted fishing live bait with NO sea anchors out and then ran in surfing over those same 3-5 footers and we never got wet. But I will say someone else running my boat the same say could have got you drenched.
FellowShip [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Briguy · #3 05-11-2004, 12:03 PM

Interesting post. I would say my SeaCraft is very dry compared to my friends Hydra-Sports and Mako's. As far as spray rails, I put them on my flats boat and they are da bomb. Really work well as making the ride softer and dryer. Most of the Key West guides run spray rails. You can go to thesmartrail.com, that's where I bought mine. They adhere to the boat with no drilling. Trust me, they aren't ever coming off.

Curious about the pvc hole in the transom. A guy near me has a 23cc like mine with a bracket but he has 225 efi's merc's on the back. Needless to say. It rocks. I have seen his boat on his boatlift and he appears to have the same 4" roughly pvc holes low down in the transom below the water line. Always threw me for a loop. If I can ever catch him I'll ask.

TUGBOAT · #4 05-11-2004, 12:20 PM

Briguy,
I wanted those Smartrails also but the Idea of Gluing(?) them to the awlgriped paint seems to Me that It'll pull the paint off ?
Do they also have a way to fasten them to the Hull? Not that I'm really thrilled bout drilling more holes for Future problems.
Scream'n Reels'
TUG [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

JT · #5 05-11-2004, 07:59 PM

Thanks for the input, yeah that boat at Jackson looked like it has seen a lot of fishing. Weird hole though. Guess I can wait and see how wet it may be. The one at Jackson was glassed in pretty nice(the rail).

Dave Hirshberg · #6 05-18-2004, 04:01 PM

Capt Brad,
I put them on an awl gripped 25 Mako and they never budged in 4 years. They turned a submarine into an airplane. No more buckets in the face and improved fuel economy and plane speed to boot.
By the way I fished that Tiger Striped Lure this past weekend. And it caught the first Blackfin Tuna of the day within 3 minutes. I didn't weigh that fish in but we finished 2nd in the tourney and won $3000 for our efforts.
Nice lure, Thanks