LOOKING TO BUY HARDTOP FOR 23 SCEPTRE

[Entourage]

Anyone out there have a hardtop for sale for 23 sceptre any suggestions would be appreciated.

[CaptEd]

Have you found your hard top yet?

[Entourage]

Well i have lost interest in putting one on the boat. Some of the guys i asked about them said they make the boat top heavy and change the performance. So i kind of had second thoughts about it. Why do you have one for sale?

[Fr. Frank]

A hardtop will definitely affect your performance, but perhaps not as negatively as you might think.

I have a parishioner who owns a '74 Tsunami/Sceptre, kept in the Keys, which he bought in '89 with a hardtop that had a "sunning station", ie; 6" high guardrails all the way around the topside. The boat was rigged with twin '85 140hp Johnson Loopers at the time. Top end was about 40-42 mph as indicated on an Airguide water-presssure speedo.

He repowered in 1990 with a single new '88 225 Johnson, and removed the hardtop eight years later in 1999.

His top speed with a single 225 Johnson with the top was about 35-36 mph, and without the top about 38-39 mph. But the biggest difference, according to him, was the way the boat performed in choppy seas. He said the ride was much smoother with the top. He said the main reason he removed the top was to lessen the amount of side-to-side roll while trolling or drifting, but that actually didn't change very much.

He sold the top right after removal, and today wishes he had kept it, especially as he will be repowering with either twin '07 150 hp eTecs or twin '07 Merc 135 hp Verados late this spring when the '09 engines arrive at the boat manufacturer plants. (He works for Pro-Line and can get a very good price of left-overs that are 2 model years old)

He also plans to get a new leftover/surplus hardtop/half-tower from Monroe Surplus Sales, a local surplus dealer who sells surplus marine supplies. About $1400 plus modifications to the top to fit his boat.

Whether you get a hardtop or not depends on what you want from your boat.

[JohnB]

As a Scepter owner with a hard top, I agree with everything Fr Frank says about the top, and the ride. Sometimes it isn't so much the top, as it is what you put up there. I have been on boats with a big I-beam radar, 4' array, and it makes them rock a lot. If you put a top on, just be careful what you put up there. I have a small 2kw jrc dome for radar on mine, it doesn't weigh much, and doesn't seem to rock the boat. I also think big coolers on top of the deck make them rock, I just finished fabricating an infloor fish box.

[Spidercrab]

I also think big coolers on top of the deck make them rock

mr john dat stayment dunt make no cents.
the ownly things thats yur dam bot rock iz da music yo play or da fat ass cusinz on bord

here is mi cusinz alex (we cals him pork flap)
see ya sam

[BigLew]

Spidey,
Yo'r dar cuzin lookin like one dem Boa Strikters hooz bin rapping round toooooooooooo meny dem burgerz!!!!

[Ed]

I like how he rests his burger on the built in casting platform....

[JohnB]

Spidercrab,
Last time I saw something like that I was off Alaska watching a Japenese whaling ship trying to put a harpoon in something that looked a lot like your cousin.