Seafarer Ventura Rebuild thread

[giddyup58]

Hi all.

This little Ventura came up for sale on Gumtree a couple of weeks ago and ended up at my place.

The 1600SO Haines is finished and I felt the need for another project, so son #1 decided a nice 1/2 cab would be a great idea and I've always had a soft spot for the Seafarer Ventura.

I particularly liked this boat, because it hadn't been mucked around with over the years,
The jump seats and the fold up table and all the bespoke trim was still there. The original floors and hatches with the trim bits were still there, as were the alloy cover strips between side pockets and deck coming.
The side pockets were still the originals, and although knackered, were so good, they will be perfect templates.
The original bunk boards and cushions were there and could simply be recovered - no damage - but of course, I will replace the boards.
A pump-out wc was there and everything was neat and tidy. 40 years old, but still presentable.

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1st order of business was to check out the hull for damage and rot and I determined that the transom needed doing, The girders sounded solid and there were no tell-tail cracks around the spray chines.
So move onto the mechanical side of things and check it all out.
It had a 1979 Mercury 150hp Black Max V6, with a really old and seized trim system. I just happened to have a spare transom assembly (left over from the Mustang rebuild), from a 2003 MercV6 complete with a good 2 wire power trim/tilt.
Ok, that's good, but the motor has to come off to fit the replacement parts, so my long suffering mate, Cyril the Merc Guru, came over and had a play.
The little 150 had a very healthy 125 psi on each cylinder, so we decided to keep it.
I thought of fitting the spare 200 Merc, but it's plated for 175hp max and the kids were going to pilot it, so refurb and pretty up the 150 it is:

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He is a happy chappie, because we didn't need to strip it down for a rebuild.

Stinking hot day, but we noticed someone had modified the windscreen to fold down to reduce height, so Into the garage it goes!

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Waiting for refurb parts to arrive and I'll need to find some time to spray all the "supposed to be shiny" bits.
Really pleased that I found a site in the US that does reproduction stickers for the early Black Max's including the wrinkle finish sticker. Should look great.

So that was day one.

Next, I decided to get the boat off the trailer to have a better look at the transom and to get rid of the trailer, which was so wrong in so many ways for the boat. But it was a beaut trailer.

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I kept the boat as low as I could to make getting in and out as easy as possible.
I'll block it up later when its time to prep for paint.

[giddyup58]

Given that I had decided to respray the boat, the easiest way to repair transom floors and girders is with the rear deck/outboard well removed. Just bite the bullet, grab the 5" with 1mm cutting wheel and 10 minutes later, you're committed! Doesn't take long to create a whole lot of work...

Day 2: Boat off trailer & Deck off. That's it, unceremoniously placed behind the boat:

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Strip all the rotten stuff:

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Move onto removal of the floors.

Day 3:

I had heard that seafarers had masonite floors, but I could never really believe it.
It's a fact, The floors are masonite.

They were in oddly very good condition. Remember, this boat is 40 years old and I know for a fact that it has sat outside unprotected for the last 5 years.
I had 2 soft patches towards the back that I wanted to replace, and the entire fuel tank floor was spongy as was the cabin floor, so it all had to come out.
The masonite in good condition was excellent. It was only 4mm, but was heavily glassed on the top side and sealed with resin below. All the floors and strengthening members were clinched in place with copper nails onto wet (sprayed) choppy. The adhesion was impressive, even after all these years.

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Found a rat nest under the rotten cabin floor!

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I got to have a good look at the stringers, and the 2 inners need a small repair each at the cabin "bulkhead" area and the keel stringer may need replacement.

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Finished it off with a thorough hoseing out:

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Hard to believe, but today was 7 solid hours.

Tomorrow, I'll try to prep the whole interior with the 125mm grinder and if I'm lucky, may even begin moving forward.

But I think there's a full day of prep there.

Grinding. Such Joy, but should only have to do it once and then the fun part of boat building begins...

[Fed]

A 150 HP C/W a well preserved 40 Year old virgin, could this one be a keeper GUP?

[shortthenlong]

Do you need an extra son? I'm quite good at finding boat projects

Matt

[Noelm]

Most don't believe the Masonite floors, all the ones I have pulled up were not coated on the underside, I have seen those silly fold up seats with a single leg for support go through the floor, transom rot is very common on lots of brands from that era, I think it's mostly from bad motor installs, just drill holes for bolts through the rubbish timber used and not seal them, it's just a matter of time. What length is it? can't think of the model range.

[giddyup58]

. What length is it? can't think of the model range.

Its a 1980 Seafarer Ventura - Same hull as under the Viking, I think. Little brother to the Vagabond.
They are rated as a 17'er (5.1m) but in order to get the correct trailer I measured it down the center line, and it actually measures 16'2".
Common practice back then was to measure around the gunnel, which came in at 18'6", so I guess they split the difference...

[Crooked]

Hey giddy up, i’m currently doing a cruise craft rambler, full rebuild with transom stringers floor and I am converting to a centre console.

When I pulled up the floors they were also Masonite, they were spongy but still sturdy. The other thing I noticed from your pick was the transom thickness. When I pulled mine out it was around 40mm (double thickness ply) above the floor and then 20mm single ply below the floor, yours looks the same. I was a bit surprised at this although there was transom knees in place. Suffice to say I have gone double all the way through.

Evan

[giddyup58]

Hey Crooked.
Well spotted and good call.
I'll be doing the same.
But it's nice we will both be applying overkill.
Mine had a 150 on it from day 1, and honestly, I was going to wait until next season to fix the transom.
Even though it was a crazy half thickness job, there was so much glass that there was very little movement, however sounding proved it to be rotten around all penetrations - motor, aux. bracket. swim ladder. ride guide mount, transducer & ski hooks and alloy top capping.
Not much left really.
And I was horrified at the state of the "wood" when I pulled the inner skin off!
But when putting a LOT of weight on the tilted motor, the transom barely moved...
Go figure...

[scottar]

Hey Crooked.
Well spotted and good call.
I'll be doing the same.
But it's nice we will both be applying overkill.
Mine had a 150 on it from day 1, and honestly, I was going to wait until next season to fix the transom.
Even though it was a crazy half thickness job, there was so much glass that there was very little movement, however sounding proved it to be rotten around all penetrations - motor, aux. bracket. swim ladder. ride guide mount, transducer & ski hooks and alloy top capping.
Not much left really.
And I was horrified at the state of the "wood" when I pulled the inner skin off!
But when putting a LOT of weight on the tilted motor, the transom barely moved...
Go figure...

Always been a "feature" of Seafarer transoms as I understand it. Plenty of glass - to the point the timber almost wasn't needed.

[Noelm]

Its a 1980 Seafarer Ventura - Same hull as under the Viking, I think. Little brother to the Vagabond.
They are rated as a 17'er (5.1m) but in order to get the correct trailer I measured it down the center line, and it actually measures 16'2".
Common practice back then was to measure around the gunnel, which came in at 18'6", so I guess they split the difference...

OK, I thought it looked bigger, just got a bit off target and thought maybe it was another model, they were sold as a 17' the runabout model was the Vermont I think, not many of them around, there was a really neat and tidy one in a yard near me for about 10 years, unused and was pretty unusual in that it was white and purple from new, it vanished about 6 months ago.

[Fed]

With mine (1985) they extended the thick part to include the bottom motor bolts.
Still solid, no cracks and no bolts depressing the fibreglass.
After seeing yours I'm not keen on any further investigation.
I like your style GUP, straight through the rodholders, classic!
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[gazza2006au]

Giddy i donno where u find the energy to do this much work in 3 days bloody hell u put me to shame

[Crooked]

I was just having another look at your photos and really the similarities to the cruise craft I deconstructed and started reconstructing is amazing. The same transom, masonite floors, same stringer layout and the same funny little cleats between the stringers to support the floor. Was there a partnership between these two builders in the past?

I'll be interested to watch how you tackle this project, I have made steady progress on mine in rebuilding and converting to a centre console. Here is a pic of when i started to pull out the floor you can see the cleats the same as in the Seafarer and the transom was also the same
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then when the stringers wet back in, I put them back in the same place (well I moved two inside stringers that create the fuel tank coffin out 50mm for a larger tank), you can see it's a very similar layout

Attachment 118764

and where it is up to now with the floors and fuel tank coffin back in, i put a bulkhead in where the cabin started to provide lateral strength given the cabin is now gone.

Attachment 118765

[Noelm]

Can't see the pictures, I don't think there was any connection between the two builders, probably just the accepted method back then.

[Crooked]

Thanks Noelm, I tried to fix it now I think I have double, buggered if I know but they are there now!