I owned a 1983 Seafarer 23, as my first boat, and liked it so much I bought a 1978 Seafarer 30, about 3 years ago. It needed alot of
maintenance / upgrades, but is a very solid boat. I agree that the solid
hull is well built, and the "faux" wood panelling in mine looks
cheap as well. It only has the cheap paneling in the
head and v-berth. The rest of the boat is either
teak veneer, or solid
teak (i e table).
I read somehwhere that some / many Seafarer's were
sold as Kit boats (bare hulls) so
interior finish does vary significantly.
The pic of the Seafarer 26 looks like it has chainplates on the outside of the
hull. On mine, the are inside, but are bolted to very solid glass knees, that were glassed as part of the original hull
layup. Here is a pic.
Many more
repair / upgrad pics under my gallery / username.
When I owned my 23'er, I converted the
trailer to be bale to float on / self haul. Of course, with the trailer underwater, it's pretty hard to see how it is sitting on the trailer.
After hauling it out I noticed that the boat was completely resting on the four hull pads, and the
keel was about 3 inches off the ground. With many modern boats, I believe the pads would have went up through the hull. They were not specifically lined up with bulkheads either, just in the general area. I carefully turned each of the adhjustable pads, a few turns at a time, until the boat was lowered enough that some weight was on the
keel, for the tow home.
The chainplates are removed for
inspection / rebedding, in the pic: