I pretty much gathered that the POTTER name is mostly just that, a name. And the reason behind the TRACKER problems wasn't the design, but more so was due to upper management trying to cut costs and maximize profits which resulted in poor build quality in many hulls. The POTTER hulls were built with good construction techniques and that is probably the #1 reason they are so popular I believe.

Spares - PM me your email address . . . I will forward you some things.

--- On Mon, 10/22/07, bpotter wrote:

> From: bpotter
> Subject: Re:25 ft SeaCraft
> To: "William BARBER" <[email protected]>
> Date: Monday, October 22, 2007, 9:28 PM
> Hi Tim,
> Please tell Strick he has the best riding SeaCraft we ever
> built. It is not a boat for someone who doesn't know
> how or doesn't want to use trim tabs and the power trim of
> the IOs or outboards to get the most out of the hull
> design. The boat has the deepest V (25degrees) of any
> SeaCraft and, due to having no lifting strakes, it is more
> sensitive to "leaning" in cross winds and from weight shifts
> while on plane than other SeaCrafts and other deep
> Vs. BUT, it is like flying an aerobatic
> plane, if you know how to use the trim you can set that boat
> up to run through anything you have the nerve to be out in
> with remarkable comfort and safety. AND, because of
> the Variable Deadrise Hull design it is a very stable
> platform at rest or at trolling speeds. I wish we had
> a recording of the story a guy told us about his run from St
> Croix to St Thomas during a major hurricane flying through
> and off 25 ft and larger seas in the dark! Pigs don't
> fly!
> Best regards,
> Bill Potter
> ps A SeaMark twin Fiberglass Bracket and properly
> positioned and operating trim tabs would be my
> recommendation unless he is going to go with a big single
> diesel duoprop stern drive or smaller twin duoprop
> sterndrives. ( Duoprops minimize torque roll)

BS- Would you agree with my assessement that the popular/uneducated opinion is that the Potter years were great and everything else sucks?
************************************************** ********

I have seen lots of tracker booboo's. I have two seafari's with solid transoms from 1972 and 1973. I even helped rip out a good transom from a 1969 boat. As long as the previous owners didn't do stupid things like drill lots of holes in the floor or transom . . . the boats seems to have held up very well for being close to 40 years old. I would say that Potter years has some good quality control. Mosley certainly took a huge amount of pride delivering a high end product . . . this was his baby. Mosley built the empire and was deeply involved with Mercury racing.

The 20CC was built in the mid 60's . . . that's not a potter design. The 20 MA in 1975 was a potter creation with the same 20 CC hull. I know potter changed the stringer configuration in 1972 . . . but I believe that was due to adding required flotation. Even the seacraft 20CC today uses the same hull. As far as the 19 bowrider is concerned . . . I am almost positive it's the same hull as the 20CC if not exactly the same it's very close.

Again I don't know everything and I might get some things mixed up . . . I was just as interested as you . . . and started asking about the racing on Screamandfly.com. Some very interesting posts . . . if you look over there.

Ok, that clear some things up. I was thinking the MA was just a fancier version of the CC. Yeah its definetly interesting stuff. Is anyone making boats like that anymore? What I mean is, is there any company out there that is just one guy putting out a hull? I bet not. Seems now there isn't even one company that makes one name. Seems all the boat companies are a huge conglomerate/corportation that put out numerous hulls with numerous names. Therefore, like you said with Tracker..quality starts to overcome quality. And there isn't anyone who is a true expert on a hull or a type of use. As Moesly was with offshore use.
You know what, Grady White just popped in my head. I think they are still a single operation. They make great boats too.

join the cult:

http://mobile.craigslist.org/boa/1270938233.html

please, make them stop it, one project at a time!!!!! Who am I kidding, that scepter looks nice!

There's a big yella scepter with a hard top parked in front of worst marine in savannah for sale too. No price listed.

http://moeslyseacraft.com/BeginningPg2.aspx

Moesly teamed with Carl Kiekhaefer of Mercury Motors. Moesly raced Mercury's on the back of his SeaCrafts and Kiekhaefer used SeaCraft boats to test-run his engines at Lake X and at his salt-water test station on Florida's west coast, while his team raced SeaCraft boats in many of the offshore ocean races. One such race, the SeaCraft boats came in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th in the outboard division. A reporter asked Carl, "How are you going to beat that?" Carl just shrugged his shoulders. The next ocean race, SeaCrafts took 1st thru 7th positions.

Carl and the Director of the Test Basin, "guesstimated" in the 1990's, one of the ex-raceboats built in 1967 and then used for test work, had between 2.5 to 3 million miles on it. That's a lot of miles on one boat!

Moesly kept designing, building, racing and selling his boats. Wearing many hats, kept him busy on the drawing board, out in the production plant or on the road convincing dealers to sell his boats. His wife, Jeanne, also worked many areas, handling personnel, payroll, inventory, promotions, and racing herself.

Often enough, Carl would walk into the production plant with a drill in his hand. His production manager would run and get the chalk marker following Carl around as he drilled small holes in the hull of some of the boats on the assembly line to insure their quality and thickness. The core samples would be weighed, the resin burned out and the fiberglass material carefully weighed to get the fiber-to-resin ratio, which is very important. The holes would be marked and then repaired. This was Moesly's way of insuring quality control.