1988 23 SC W/A

[stewgatz49]

I'm a new member to the site and realize the boat I acquired from my brother, that he took in as a trade in for a car is a red headed stepchild as far as classic Seacraft goes. I got it dirt cheap with trailer and a 200 Yammie with a seized lower unit. I changed the lower unit and I'm wondering if I should refurbish the boat. My question is what should I expect as far as stringers( what type of core) The transon seems to be solid but I havent done any test coring yet. Is it worth the effort or should I look elsewhere for a home to house the Yamaha. Any input is appreciated. Thanks

[Fr. Frank]

It's a great boat. Keep it. Before test "coring" the transom, check for crazing in the gelcoat at the corners of the transom motor cutout. Then, trim the motor most of the way down, and then stand on the cavitation plate and bounce your weight up and down, while observing if the transom seems to flex at all. If the transom does appear to flex, recore/replace it. But keep the boat. Or give it to me

[FELLOW-SHIP]

Hi Stawgatz49

Welcome aboard.

The one thing we all have in common is the hull design and your 23’ is one fantastic hull design sooo I would keep her and fix what ever needs to get fixed.

As for the cap there are 3 basic types of caps built for boats the cuddy the walk around and the center consol. The walk arounds are a attempt to have a cuddy yet be able to get to the bow with safety. You can store lots of stuff in the cuddy part and keep it dry plus you have lots of room in the back for fishing or whatever. You can put a port a potty in the bow and all the girls like that. It’s not quite big enough to spend that night in but the cuddy would come in handy to stow stuff and you can lock it up at night.

After you take her out on some trips and have some fun with her you will be vary happy you kept her.

Good Luck.




FellowShip

………………………….

Just for the Grins

Official 23’ SF Antique Classic SeaCraft Owner

[Bushwacker]

Welcome to the site! What you have is a very rare model of the SeaCraft 23 hull with a fairly common motor on it, so I'd say the boat is a lot more of a keeper than the motor, at least to SeaCraft fanatics! Check out Moesly SeaCraft and "The Amazing Mr. Moesly" article in Literature Section to gain a good appreciation for SeaCraft's history and evolution!

The 23' hull is one of the best riding boats ever made for it's size. The stringers are fiberglass with a foam core. The core isn't that important (it's the outer fibers of glass that carry the stress), although some foams can retain water and add weight if it gets wet. When Carl Moesly started building the 20' hull with all glass stringers in about 1967, the stringers were hollow and installed about half way through the layup, with more glass laid over them. (See the Boating Magazine article on the 20' Seafari in the Literature section for more details on the layup. After Potter bought the company in late 60's, he eventually changed the 4 stringer design on the 20's to 2 wider box stringers, starting with the 1973 models; don't know at what point they were installed during the layup. Never heard of a problem with either design on the 20's. All the 23's I've seen redone on this site seem to have the 2 wide box stringer design. There have been a couple of 23's and one 25 on here that had part of a stringer pull loose from the hull, but that seems to be very rare, as ALL the Moesly, and most Potter and SeaCraft Industry models seem to be built like tanks; I believe some of the latter models used plywood instead of balsa for deck cores, so they're probably a little heavier than the earlier models. Your model was probably built by SeaCraft Industries; the letters in the HIN/serial number will confim that.

[stewgatz49]

Thanks for the info, Fellow ship and Bushwacker. I really like the lines of this addition to my fleet( as my wife refers to them) I have a 86 Century 4000 21' cuddy cruiser and a 89 Sea Pro 18' CC That are water ready. I would like to replace the Century with the Seacraft, as the latter affords more room for family and fishing. Not to mention being able to wash the blood off the deck.( be it family or fish) LOL. Can't wait to jump into this new project with both feet. I'm sure I'll be crying for help in the future. Thanks again