Boat

Does anyone know anything about a Pacemaker "Sport Fisher"?

[Sensei-san]

Keta, If my memory serves me correctly the Pacemaker was a jersey style sport fishing boat. Similar to an Egg Harbor or Post sportfisher. I believe that the Post sportfisher is the successor to Pacemaker. Pacemaker made a lot of boats in the 60's that were woody goodies similar to Chriscrafts. Pacemaker was slow to convert to fiberglass. Jersey style sportfishers generally have shallow Vees and are not known as speed burners. If you are looking at Pacemakers, make sure that you are looking at a fiberglass model. The older wood jobs are nice as a classic jersey style boat but a maintenance headache.

No wood boat for me.

1968 PACEMAKER SPORT FISHER, 28'
or
1970 Skipjack, 24'

[ 09-23-2002, 11:41 PM: Message edited by: Keta ]

[Sensei-san]

Keta, If the Pacemaker is a fiberglass model, it might be worth looking at. The jersey style boats with the shallow vees are pretty good on fuel economy. But they are definitely not fun to ride out rough following seas. Now the Skipjack 24 with the deep vee is a good all around West Coast boat. Used to fish on one all the time in the Bay Area. With a Volvo V-8 duoprop I/O they are great boats. A lot of guys would built a pilothouse (copying the design of the 25 Fisherman) for the 24 Open Fishermen and they look great. Skipjacks are built solid. You never see Skipjacks with cracked hulls or blisters. Definitely get you out to tuna city with no problems. Now if you want a really nice 28-31' boat look at some Blackfins.... The Ferraris of fishing boats.

[Miss B Haven]

Keta - If it's a 68 - it's a woody. The new Pacemakers are glass, but a 68 is wood. Current Pacemakers are built in Anacortes WA. What happend to the 27 Tolly ??? I thought you were going to buy a real boat there for a while :grin:

[Sensei-san]

Keta, Was it a Salty Dog? Great boat. Would have been worth putting in a newer diesel. Yeah, a Detroit 353 is a modern marvel of diesel technology. There are so many boats out there to consider. Like you I didn't like V-drives but I notice that the new Albin 28's use a V-drive hooked to a Yanmar diesel. Most of the guys who own them love them to pieces and use the seriously. Like you I am partial to old fashioned shafts and rudders. Less complications in a sea going boat.

Less moving parts less breaking parts. I also like the power going in a straight line and not being eaten by bevel gears.

Motor-reduction gear-shaft coupiler-shaft log-prop-strut!

[Threemuch]

One of my friends in CA has an albin 28 with a V drive. God help the poor sucker who has to work on that engine. I think you would need to be a contortionist or lift the engine to do just about anything.

[Miss B Haven]

There's a 28 foot Albin in Hammond as well (Crazy). Owner loves that boat (so do all his dock neighbors.) I'm pretty fond of the looks too. I'm not sure about the top end on it, but I know it's got some serious legs. Lots of cockpit room as well. Just no Flybridge to spot those Bill's from. Kinda scarry on one engine out there too (I think they're all singles right?). Oh well - it's all a trade off. :grin:

[ 09-24-2002, 03:59 PM: Message edited by: Miss B Haven ]

[Sensei-san]

Hey, if you own a Porsche, changing sparkplugs is no problem.

[Miss B Haven]

If you own a Porsche, you should sell it and buy a BIGGER BOAT :grin:

[Sensei-san]

My sediments exactly......

Now pass me another beer......

Miss B,
Still looking, the Tolly had lots of cabin and little fishing room. I could take a chain saw to it. It is still on the list, it is hard to pass up on a boat that has never seen saltwater.

[Sensei-san]

Miss B must really love his Tollys. I noticed that one of the charter operators in WB is using a 27' Tolly. I heard that he had a lot of problems with the gas engines in it and isn't using it it because the fuel costs to run it was so high. A 27' boat is close to the gas vs. diesel arguement. I still disagree with David Pascoe on this issue. I think that the new lightweight diesels from Volvo, Cummins and Yanmar make a 27' possible to do. I don't think that a 27' Tolly with gas engines and the small fuel tanks has enough range to do serious tuna fishing.

[Miss B Haven]

MY guess is that Tolly is gas as well. Twin Small blocks ?? Shouldn't be too bad if it is. I would certainly try for diesels, but you'll pay the $$$$$. It's the ability (because of the torque) to run any dang speed you want that impresses me. My last boat was either 7 or 20 knots. Just doesn't work if there's any chop at all. Miss B will go any speed I ask her without just pushing a wall of water. Flatter bottom (14 deg) helps that as well. Don't go for an underpowerd deep vee whatever you do (been there, done that). :shocked:

Miss B,
My thinking is to run the gas engines until I locate a wrecked truck with a good diesel (Ford or Dodge) and then repower.

[Sensei-san]

Keta, if you are serious about your idea, I would carefully measure the present powertrain and your proposed powertrain. If you go from the gas V-8's to four or six cylinder diesels, they are a lot taller and longer. You will need a V-drive or downshaft transmission to stuff them in. As far as I know, there are no aftermarket conversion kits for Ford Powerstrokes. The Dodge Cummins engine is the same as the boat BTA block. There is a place in Texas that makes marinization parts for the Dodge engine. But I think that the six cylinder might be too long to fit in the engine compartment. Cummins makes a four cylinder marine engine that would fit. So does Volvo and Yanmar. I would check around for rebuildable cores. It should be fairly cheap to rebuild a four cylinder diesel. They are more like gas engines than the larger diesels. Remember that diesel horses are usually real horses. So a 300 hp gas engine is more like a 200 or 250 hp diesel engine. Now if you want to go putt-putt with a 27' Tolly, a lot of commercial trollers use the Isuzu diesels. As they don't have much hp, the max you can do is hull speed.... 8 knots. But the fuel economy is tremendous.

Sensei-san

My Uniflite had a Detroit 353 and would do 8 kt down hill. I want a faster boat.

Thanks for the information on the Dodge diesel. Engine dimentions shouldn't matter, I can make a new cover.

I don't like or want a V drive or an outdrive.

[Miss B Haven]

Keta - just ran across a bud of mine. He's got a 69 Chris Craft Commander (Fiberglass) in really nice shape. He doesn't really want to sell it :depressed: but they've decided they just have to have a certain property and need $$ for a down.
It's 28ft, Twin 307 chev's with 515 original hours. :smile: It spent 25 years in a covered/heated boat house. :smile: He's the 3rd owner. It's got Loran, VHF, CB Depth (probably want to update). It's a hard top cruiser and has a full camper top for the cockpit.
He just dropped it from 16,900 to 14,900. Oh - and no trailer. It's in Scappoose so if you want to look next week, gimme a shout. [img]graemlins/icon_argue.gif[/img]

[fishwhenican]

Keta I believe that there is a company that does a marine conversion for the 73DI (T444E) Ford powerstroke I believe it is the same company that did the conversions on the earlier Ford 7.3L IDI. If you need I could look a little closer for you and see if I can find the info. I wouldn't put an older indirect injected 7.3L into a boat, the 5.9L B series would be a good choice. If you get one from a wrecked truck only get one with the inline injection pump (94-98.4) it is far more "bullet proof" than the VE rotary pump. BUT understand that the governor is setup for an automotive application and would need to be changed over to a variable speed for a marine application ($1000). The rotary pump applications are really only good for max of 190 HP, beyond that they don't hold together very well.