Ms. MAK 20SF

[slowJEEP]

I picked up my first SeaCraft the other day. I'm up in the panhandle of Florida and drove about 1400 miles round trip to Hobe Sound in south Florida. I asked the dude what the deal was with all of the raven stickers and he said he liked ravens...








The hull was re-gel coated two owners ago and the topside got a second coat of Awlgrip non-skid from the last owner. New fuel tank and hoses and it is sitting on a way too big float-on trailer.

The Jeep wasn't thrilled about pulling it but fortunately most of Florida is flat.




It was supposed to be a 1978 but after getting it home and actually looking at the title and HIN, it is an 88'. I was dissapointed that it wasn't a Potter hull but I really like the 25" transom and the scuppers that run out the back instead of through the floor.

It came with a carb'd 150 Mercury that had no known issues. They disabled the oil injection and ran 50:1 premix so now it goes through spark plugs a little faster. On the ride home, I noticed that there was a big crack in the foot. It is totally shot so I bought one from a dude on the screamandfly forum.

I can't remember the justification but, I decided I needed a 175 Optimax. Same weight, roughly, a little bit more horse pressure and much better economy. I sold the 03' 40hp 4 stroke efi off of my skiff for 3k and found a 2001 Opti a few hours away for the same price!

So off came the 150



I was too cheap to buy a mercury specific lift ring and thought about getting a 1 1/2-16 bolt and welding something up but those threads aren't common and the optimax has a proud flywheel bolt that would require hollowing out the bolt. So, I spent a few hours of my precious time fabbing a bracket. All to save 45 bucks...(35 on ebay)



The little cosmetic aluminum plate on the transom was cracked so I pulled it off and found what I thought was a terrible repair job. Looking closer it looks like filler that the factory put at the hull and liner junction. I chipped some out and was pleased to find happy composites. Thoughts?





Unless the 150 sells in a few days, I'm going to stick with the cable steering and no jackplate.

I don't dig how these short little boats look with a bracket so I was thinking of running a 6" setback jackplate and building an engine cover like the one below. The setback would allow for full tilt/jack whilst the cover is in place without the cover having to excessively protrude into the cockpit.



I think the covers take some getting used to but seems like a good way to quiet down the opti and provide a work surface all while closing in the transom.