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The Seamaster is a mixed bag. They were built in Fort Lauderdale or Dania to a Bruce Roberts designs and probably one of his better designs. They were sold as kits with a lot of options. I spent a lot of time in their shop talking to folks who were building them since my Stepfather was hot on buying one and finishing the boat himself. I would say they are far better designs for offshore work than the Morgan OI 41, and frankly the stock layout was less voluminous but a lot more liveable. The guy who owned the Seamaster company that built the kits seemed like a really knowledgeble and caring individual and from what I saw of the glass work, looked robust and carefully done. Far more so than the OI's that I have personally known.
The down sidw was that these were kits and you never know what to expect. For example the standard ballast was steel boiler punchings in polyester resin poured into the keel encapsulation envelope. That is a lousey way to build a boat but better better than steel boiler punchings in concrete which some boats had to save money. Others had lead shot in polyester resin, a dramatic improvement all around in terms of stability, durability and motion comfort. Some of the kit builders were glassing heavily over the ballast while others saw no point and were simply putting on a single layer of cloth and resin. In a grounding that single layer of cloth is easily driven upward breaching the integrity of the hull. Bad idea, not much of savings.
And so it went, a thousand decisions, a thousand ways to produce a good boat or a really short lived one. Each owner making what they thought made sense to them. So, Bulkheads and interior furnishings ran the gamut from interior grade plywood to exterior grade plywood, to marine plywood. Wiring from proper marine grade stuff to bell cord/ speaker cord to solid wire romex land wiring. One decision at a time. Tabbing ran from epoxy and cloth continuous multi layer tapered tabbing to polyester resin and mat skip tabbing. I have mentioned the former cabinet maker building a beautiful interior but who understood nothing about how to build a boat so in heavy going the interior would shift and his house wiring would corrode and short out.
That's the problem with kit boats of all stripes, its a mixed can of worms that is hard to sort. Still and all I'd probably buy even a half way decent Seamaster before I'd buy a pristine Morgan OI 41. But hey thats just me.
Jeff
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