74 Starcraft Kingfisher

[Tomsh2012]

I am new to the starcraft fan club. After a ton of searching for an older boat to build into my new fishing rig I fell in love with this one. It is a 1974 Starcraft Kingfisher 16' long. She has a 1969 Evinrude 33 long shaft that runs. I will be restoring her over the next few years and will document the build on this forum. I have done some research to try and find more history of both the boat and outboard. Please advise of what I should look into doing first or things I should look out for.

 

[jbcurt00]

Welcome to the Starmada, the tin hat wearing fellas will be along directly to help/harass you along the way.........

Nice looking Kingfisher

Is that 33hp Evinrude a long shaft motor? On a short shaft transom? Looks like the flat plate above the prop is well below the bottom of the hull......

Good luck w/ your project, and welcome again

 

[Watermann]

:welcome: to the forum and the Starmada Tom!

Not sure I've seen a kingfisher before let alone one be restored. She looks like a very worthy project deserving of a second chance at the waves. :thumb:

 

[Tomsh2012]

Welcome to the Starmada, the tin hat wearing fellas will be along directly to help/harass you along the way.........

Nice looking Kingfisher

Is that 33hp Evinrude a long shaft motor? On a short shaft transom? Looks like the flat plate above the prop is well below the bottom of the hull......

Good luck w/ your project, and welcome again

Yes I measure exactly 2" lower when in place. Is this going to cause a problem? I plan to fix this outboard up and if I like it keep it going for as long as I can. If she will pose a problem I will start planning the final power plant now. I am tracing down an ignition issue right now. The only way I can start her is jumping the solenoid with the key turned on. She fires right up first try every time so as soon as I replace the impeller I will see how she performs.

Thanks for the welcome from everyone!

 

[jbcurt00]

I don't think that the long shaft motor will be the long term concern, the 33hp might be. IIRC, a 16ft Kingfisher is rated for about a 60hp.

As long as you are aware that the skeg and prop are a couple inches lower then ideal, it should work ok. It will be a little deeper in the water, so there's more leg creating a little extra drag. I don't think that will matter much w an OB that's about 1/2 the rated max hp.

It will get you were you want to go, except into very skinny water You'll want to be very conscientious of tilting the motor up for trailering to protect the low skeg and when launching off the trailer. As well as watching for rock and stump stick ups that'll get clipped by the prop since it's a little low.....

But as you rebuild it, keep an eye out for a little larger OB, IMO, you'll eventuallly want the extra HP. No reason to replace it if it runs though, not a high priority item unless the current OB isn't great runner. I think you'll get the key start sorted fairly easily. I would suggest you look for a similar vintage Johnson/Evinrude so what you have can be easily used w/ a replacement OB. A Merc would require cables and ignition swaps.

 

[Tomsh2012]

Thank you for the advise! I was wondering about the HP rating on this boat as I can not find it on her anywhere. I did not think about the cables and ignition being swapped if I went with a Merc. Upon my research the 33 ski twin was a pretty good motor so maybe I will find someone looking for a long shaft willing to do some haggling. Is it really only going to push around 15hp?

I found that I am going to rewire the ol girl to make the key work right. Upon investigation i find that someone in the past used extension cords to wire in accessories. I will also be removing all of that. My goal is to have her in the water in the next few weeks to get a feel of what I would like to do to make her mine.

Hmmm now to research what Johnson/Evinrude motors would make good upgrades for her......

 

[jbcurt00]

I meant the 33hp was about half the BOATs rated max hp, not that it only put out 15hp. And Im still not 100% sure that the Kingfisher is rated for a 60hp, but on a 16ft it seems an appropriate size.

The 33hp WAS a powerhead rated motor so it did lose a bit of hp in the transfer to the prop, but certainly not a 50% drop. Maybe 3+/-....

 

[MNhunter1]

You can convert that motor to a long shaft for a little over $100 in parts, but I'd be inclined to find something a little bigger for a 16ft hull as well.

 

[Tomsh2012]

Ok I did find some info stating 50 hp rating on the boat online last night. Thank goodness the motor did not loose 50% as I was thinking that she needed to go away first thing. I will be on the look out for a better and bigger Johnson/Evinrude over the next 6 months. I have a few other fish to fry first and some fishing to do along the way....

MNhunter...This is a long shaft already.

 

[MNhunter1]

Yep, sorry. Should be comparable to convert to a short shaft as well, but IF I stayed with the motor, I think I'd look at one of those transom extenders rather than mod the motor first. I had the opposite problem with mine, someone cut down the transom to mount a short shaft.

 

[Tomsh2012]

Had non stop problems with the old Evinrude so I traded out for a 20 horse tiller. This is an old chrysler and runs great so far....

 

[BWR1953]

Any updates on your project?

Been making slow but steady progress on my 1976 Kingfisher functional fixup.

Link to mine: http://forums.iboats.com/forum/owne...42-i-have-returned-with-a-starcraft-this-time