WELCOME "THEFERMANATOR"

TheTinMan said:
I don't know of ANY 20' boat that I'd WANT to to do 30mph in TRUE 3-4'ers  :-/
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I was out one day in it in 6 footers running a verified 31 MPH. 32+ would put you on the floor, and less than 29 would do the same. But at 31-31.7 it would glide over them(only heard the prop a little). I've been told I'm a bit nut's, but what the hey. I'm one of those idiots that's been 7 miles out in a 14' aluminum Jon boat in the midlle of the night to go troll behind the shrimp boats ;D. Or go 30 miles out in a 19 footer when 50 footers stay in port. I'm that guy 8).
 
As much as I love my V20, if you have a HYDRA-SPORT that will do 30+ in a 4 footers then you better stay with it.

Cause that isn't going to happen in a V20!!

V20 will get you home no problem!! But not fast like that!!
 
30 MPH in a true 4' sea ain't even doable in my friend's 28' cat ... well I guess doable, but it would BEAT the CRAP outta ya and where's the sense in that?? ... take MJ's advise above ::) ...
 
I had a 21 hydra-sport (kevlar) w a 235 evinrude and it would fly!!! I don't know about 3 to 4 ft, but it took rough water very well. It was also the driest CC I have ever been on. It would throw the spray 40 ft away and flat. With the 235, I was going so fast the spray never hit you. The reason I replaced it with the V-20 was the cuddy, needed room for baby stuff. The only real problems I had was the "V" was too much. I was doing a lot of diving then and when you sat on the gunnell with a set of gear on, you would almost dip the side under water. Mine also had no splashwell and a low transom. I also felt the sides in the rear were a little to low for bottom fishing. It is a great riding hull.
 
phatdaddy said:
I had a 21 hydra-sport (kevlar) w a 235 evinrude and it would fly!!!  I don't know about 3 to 4 ft, but it took rough water very well.  It was also the driest CC I have ever been on.  It would throw the spray 40 ft away and flat.  With the 235, I was going so fast the spray never hit you.  The reason I replaced it with the V-20 was the cuddy, needed room for baby stuff.  The only real problems I had was the "V" was too much.  I was doing a lot of diving then and when you sat on the gunnell with a set of gear on, you would almost dip the side under water.  Mine also had no splashwell and a low transom.  I also felt the sides in the rear were a little to low for bottom fishing.  It is a great riding hull.
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My 20' HYDRA-SPORT has the high sides and I have a 250HP YAMAHA to go on it when I redo the transom. My buddy who convinced me to get the HYDRA-S{PORT has an 86DC 20' with a 225HP JOHNSON and that is the one I took on the rough water in. But I now have a significant other that wants to go boatin with me, so I think the V-20 will prevail. And I don't beat myself up on the water like I used to either(broke to many boats in my life for only being 26), plus I'm disabled from a car crash and my body aint what it used to be. And when I say 4 foot seas I mean from the bottom of the trough to the top of the crest. Now if it was 4' with a short wave duration, no way would I be running that fast.

For those of you that have I/O's in your V-20's, do your transoms have wood all the way across or just in the center? The model on mine according to the coast guard placard is a V-20 I/O, yet it came with a sea-drive. Giving serious thought to making my 140HP EVINRUDE into a 25" shaft and mounting on a bracket to the back of this V-20. It should provide good performance and decent economy.
 
Mine use to be a I/O and I have a full transom of wood. I added a Stainless Marine bracket with full swim platform.

Had a 175 Yamaha when I did it , now a 175 Evinrude

I did all the work myself. Wasn't that bad eaither!

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I'm a little confused, can't figure out how it would not have wood across the whole transom. Mine is the exact same boat one year newer and I know it has wood along the sides of the transom because I drilled thru it to install my thru bolted aux engine bracket.
Ferminator you might want to check it out, I have a sneaky feeling you are in error on that.
Also if you decide for some reason to redo the transom do it with divinacell or marine wood, the sea cast has had a lot of problems for people who have used it..
But again if you have a sea drive boat and it sounds like you do, you will probably find it is more than strong enough for a bracket and V6 outboard. Your only concern will probably be buoyancy of the hull with a heavy outboard when rocking in a swell stem/stern. Make sure you go with a bracket that has good sealed buoyancy, and don't go with too long of a set back.
Mine for example is a V4 two stroke and though my engine has not dunked once it has come close in some heavy drift thru standing wave action we have around here. The boats I have seen and driven with a bracket and the heavier engines tend to dunk the motor more.. Just a thought.
 
Your boat's placard says I/O, yet it's sittin' there w/a Sea-Drive hangin' off the stern...sounds like as that hull went down the factory assembly-line as an I/O, it was diverted to the Sea-Drive assembly by mistake ... apparently it hasn't caused any probs, but if ya decide to ''go bracket'' especially ''full'', then you'll probably wanna add some more reinforcement ... provided all else is right w/ that hull, it'll sure be a worthwile conversion
;) 8) ...


Willy mentioned dunkin' ... a good way to avoid that is to get an outboard w/ a long shaft ... this will put the power-head higher above the water and less likely to ''dunk'' ;) ...
 
reelapeelin said:
Your boat's placard says I/O, yet it's sittin' there w/a Sea-Drive hangin' off the stern...sounds like as that hull went down the factory assembly-line as an I/O, it was diverted to the Sea-Drive assembly by mistake
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This is what I think happened as well. It says right on the placard MODEL V20 I/O, yet it has a sea-drive on it. There are no signs inside of a patch job whatsoever, and the main piece of wood is between the stringer section of the transom. There is a section of wood also where the swim platform is thru-bolted, but there isn't wood across the whole port section of the transom. I removed the tube that the transducer wire passes thru and there is no signs nor traces of wood there. I've got the 140 in my sig to put on it, but it's a 20" shaft so I'll have to try and find the parts to make it a 25" shaft. It has performed well on every boat I've had it on(pushes the 19' bow-rider to low 50's, and pushed my old 19' ANGLER CC to low 40's), and gets decent economy. Just trying to decide If I should try it first or just bite the bullet and redo the transom with COOSA(read some bad reports of divinycell over on classicmako), but I don't know how well it would work with the curved transom.
 
I got a chance yesterday to compare the transom of my V-20 to an 85 V-20 with a sea-drive on it, WHAT A DIFFERENCE! There was hardly no comparision between the two. Mine has a square piece of wood in the transom, it had a u-shaped piece. It also had some very heavy support braces(knees) running from the top of the transom and tied into the stringers at the bottom. It also appeare to have a thicker transon than mine by about a 1/2". I'm convinced now that I have an I/O transom and not the sea-drive transom. But then again, mine was built in 83 for the 84 model year and they might not had braced the transom until later on.
 
Well if that is how Wellcraft started making there I/O models and am sure glad I have a 1975 when they had wood across the hole back!!

I am layered from the inside 1/4 glass, 1 1/2 (two 3/4 ply), and 1/2 glass on the hole thing!
 
That must be how they started making there I/O's because the 85 sea-drive I looked at definately had wood all the way across. There is no cracking in my transom and the wood that is there is good, but it would have to be re-inforced to hang a bracket on it. I'm thinking of installing 2 big braces from top to bottom like the 85 I looked at had and putting a bracket on it with my 140. But I want to sea-trial it first with the current egine to see how it rides and handles. The previous owners rebuild job was less than stellar.

Do you think installing standard pistons in a block that has been bored .020 over will keep it from idling?

At least that's what I'm betting is wrong with it. Should have heard all of the piston slap :o!
 
Well if it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all. Got the powerhead rebuilt which entailed alot more than I was hoping. And got a replacement lower unit since mine was trash. And had to fix dozens of other items. Put it in the water tonight for my first time and ran it.

RAN LIKE CRAP!!! It was surging horribly so I switched over from the 25:1 break-in mix over to some 50:1 that I brought with me. HOLY CRAP BATMAN, she came to life and ran good. I got a total of 2/10 of an hour on it(according to the hour meter) aqnd decided to jump it up on plane. It acted like a real bad miss every once in awhile so I goosed it a little and BAM!!! My replacement lower unit let loose and lost all drive. Still pumping water though. Engine was running good except for the ocasional buck that must of been my lower unit goin.

So now I have to tear down my $280 replacement lower unit and see what went >:(. Not a good first impression with her, but the little bit I had it on plane felt good ;D.
 
Well Ferminator...you're too far in to turn back now...sounds like ya did some good work on the powerhead ;) ... hang in there...it'll all be worth it when ya get it all done 8) ...
 
Vary interesting read on the transom being solid or not.
Hope you can take some pics. of the isuues you have posted. Tear off the transom and lets see whats there. ;D
 
Well now that it's daylight I went out and looked it over and found the problem to be a plastic clevis end in the shift linkage. Now the question is, why did it break? Hopefully old age. But the powerhead seemed to perfom well on the 50:1, did not like the 25:1 at all. Surged like crazy and would smiss and buck at idle. 50:1 and all was good.
 
MSBHAMMER said:
Vary interesting read on the transom being solid or not.
Hope you can take some pics. of the isuues you have posted. Tear off the transom and lets see whats there.  ;D
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What's there is very solid, but it doesn't have wood all the way across. It's only 3/4" in between the stringers with another sheet of 3/4" covering about 75% of in between the stringers. After looking at it more there is more than enough room to glass in a pair of knee supports and brace it up like the 85 I looked at.

But gonna run the sea-drive for awhile(if I can keep it running and driving >:().
 
Fermanator...the plastic clevis end...any sense to trying to find a stainless steel or aluminum replacement?... :D ...did it break simply because it's plastic?...
 
reelapeelin said:
Fermanator...the plastic clevis end...any sense to trying to find a stainless steel or aluminum replacement?... :D ...did it break simply because it's plastic?...
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That's the one that broke. I'm hoping it broke simply because it's 24 year old plastic. I went down and got an aluminum turnbuckle that I think I can modify to work. Will find out tommorrow, had a barbeque to go to today(free food). I'm hoping that takes care of it. But I'm still wondering why it kicked back hard enough on the linkage to break it and go into neutral.
 
Things keep getting better. I made an aluminum replacement and it is still trying to pop out of forward. So I decided it was time to pull the lower unit apart. The dogs in the forward gear and the clutch dogs were slightly rounded to the point that it is kicking it out of gear. And the transom has started stress cracking on the port stringer to the transom joint, and some delamination in the inner transom liner. What fun! Amazing what shows up when you put it under load. I know the stringers were solid and the glass was attatched until I ran it, but loading it opened up PANDORAS box. Guess I'll be finding out what's really in that transom after all.
 
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