Finally, the hull I have been looking for!

[reelfishin]

I finally found one of the Starcraft boats that I have been searching for, it's in fair condition, with a few minor issues. Theres a poorly repaired crack in the hull about 2 foot above the keel a bout midway back, it looks like it may have been a lateral split caused by stress at the end of one of the inner ribs, but someone tried to solder it or something and failed. It was covered in some sort of sealer. There's a few leaky rivets, but nothing that a coat of Gluvit won't cure. The transom is sound but has a weak upper corner, so I'm just going to change out the wood, it's a fairly easy job on these. The floor is decent but has been redone by simply laying a new floor over the old one, I will toss all of it in favor of some new wood. These are all aluminum other than that, so there's no major surgery to repair this. I will use 3/4" plywood and I'll epoxy coat it thoroughly before and after installation. The same for the new transom wood.
I plan to only install two pedestal seats, no carpet and a fresh 12 gallon tank. It came with a new windshield, but I think I may leave it off for now, it's one less thing to get in the way. The rest is just touch up and cosmetic work.

The most serious concern is the crack in the lower hull, it's about 4" long and I think I can just clean and weld it up the right way, then I'll reinforce the backside with some epoxy just to be safe. It's a freshwater boat and is an early 60's model.

With this addition I will have to thin the heard a bit, this makes 8 boats in all, at least two will have to go. I will have to part with my Duo and either my Starcraft Capri or my Renken.
I basically need to free up some of my trailers. I am two short right now.

 

[Brimauster]

Re: Finally, the hull I have been looking for!

Eight boats??? Dang! I turn 40 this Aug. and I'm just ready to get my first...:redface:

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Finally, the hull I have been looking for!

Eight boats??? Dang! I turn 40 this Aug. and I'm just ready to get my first...:redface:

I turned 41 in March, that's not counting any that I've traded off or sold over the years. I've had dozens. I've given up on the larger boats though, too much money for fuel these days. I am trying to stick to the smaller boats, under 20'.

I've been looking for one of these older Starcraft hulls for years, this is the first one I've seen that's decent. I wanted either a closed bow or a completely open boat, this one is a closed bow.

The part I like is how easy these are to rebuild, the transom comes out on these by simply removing the two upper corner caps and removing a few bolts. The floor is just plywood on aluminum, and the hull and structure is rock solid on these.

I was thinking of doing the inner hull with Rhino Liner to deaden the sound a bit, (after a good coat or two of Gluvit.

I especially like how easy these are to handle out of the water, they are super light and can be towed with just about anything. I'll have to find a good trailer for this, or do some swapping around, but this will be my number one priority now. At least to get the lower hull done and new wood in place, the rest will be easy. I can't wait to hang a motor on it.

The only other boat I'd like to own now is a small pilot house boat, something small and hopefully aluminum.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Finally, the hull I have been looking for!

i'm thinning out my herd also, got one sold, that has never made it home, and one on ebay, with good bids on it. got one left in the yard waiting for cooler/dryer weather for an transom, then it's gone, already have a buyer for it. that leaves me with 3 boats, 3 pwcs. of course there will be more to replace the projects.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Finally, the hull I have been looking for!

I got rid of one today, but that one really didn't matter, it was either leaving or getting chopped up.
I hate to part with any of these, but I guess the one that has to go first will be the 1971 Duo Gypsy, it's the least fishable boat I have. It's got a full interior and is really clean. Too clean to gut fish in. The way I look at a boat, if I can't fish in it, I don't have much use for it. I was going to gut the Duo and pull the vinyl flooring up and redo it with rubber or spray in bedliner, but it's too original to ruin. The last owner had just replaced the motor, outdrive, boots, shaft and bearings, had new floor professionally installed at a boat works up north, and had all the upholstery redone. The two back to back seats are the only original pieces and they are in nice shape yet. It's even still got it's original bimini top.
The only problem is that it don't have it's own trailer. It just sits since it has to share a trailer with my other Starcraft. I ran it once when I first got it, then pickled the motor for last winter and haven't had the chance to do anything with it this year. It really only needs a battery. If I lived closer to the water I'd rent a slip and leave it there, but I also hate to use this in saltwater since it's always been used in only freshwater.
I was going to do a fresh water pump and take it up to PA for a week or two but ended up buying a boat up there.

When it comes to the slightly larger boats, I've become partial to my Renken 900, I like all the deck room. I also have a Hydrasports 24' that I have to pick up, I was originally only going to strip that for it's motor, but that turned out to be a really nice boat after I gave it a serious cleaning.
The next one in question is either the other trihull, a 1973 Starcraft Capri, which is in really nice shape needing only an interior and a motor hung on it. The next would be the Duracraft aluminum. The only reason I would even consider selling the Duracraft is that it needs the most work and is the smallest of the little boats at 16' and a 64" beam. I may make that a freshwater only boat with only a transom mount electric motor.
I have a shortage of trailers by two.

If there's anyone in the NJ area that has an interest in a clean trihull, chime in, as long as the Duo is in the garage on stands, I don't have anyplace to work on my other boats. I keep the Duo inside since it was always stored indoors, even when it was in the water up north, it was in a boat house.

 

[TBarCYa]

Re: Finally, the hull I have been looking for!

Reel,

Does the new boat happen to be red and white and about 17'-18' with an Evinrude outboatd and center console? I just noticed that you're from Jersey and the description you gave (weak transom and leaky rivets) sounds almost exactly like a boat a former acquaintence of mine got rid of late last year. It was a good boat that had a bad driver back then.

Good luck with it. BTW, what part of NJ are you from? I'm in Clementon and boat either out of Cape May or on the Delaware river when the boat is running.

 

[bassboy1]

Re: Finally, the hull I have been looking for!

Eight boats??? Dang! I turn 40 this Aug. and I'm just ready to get my first...:redface:

Well, I turned 14 in march, and am ready for my third. Well, MY second, but the third in the household. Had three for a while, and only one ran, but we sold one in January. Now we got one running one (mine) and one nonrunning one. I spent five years saving up the money for the one that I bought, and hope it won't take that long for my next.:redface:

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Finally, the hull I have been looking for!

Reel,

Does the new boat happen to be red and white and about 17'-18' with an Evinrude outboatd and center console? I just noticed that you're from Jersey and the description you gave (weak transom and leaky rivets) sounds almost exactly like a boat a former acquaintence of mine got rid of late last year. It was a good boat that had a bad driver back then.

Good luck with it. BTW, what part of NJ are you from? I'm in Clementon and boat either out of Cape May or on the Delaware river when the boat is running.

This one is powder blue on top with white and a custom oak dash. It measures just over 16' 10" long and came to me with no seats in it. The transom is actually fine, only about 3 inches of the upper corner on one side is rotted, the rest is fine, but I want to redo it now so it has no problems handling the maximum motor. The floor is original and has a few soft spots. I pulled up the floor and was surpised to see that it has 'cut' foam flotation not the pour in type. The foam in this looks about line those float noodles, very soft and it don't hold water. I have to pick up a can of gluvit and also will weld up the small crack while the floor is out. I am debating whether to put the windshield back on, it was off when I got it, with no hardware to mount it, but I am sure it's available from some place?

 

[TBarCYa]

Re: Finally, the hull I have been looking for!

I'm glad it's not the one I'm thinking of because it was involved in a minor accident that separated the transom from the hull on the port side. Absolutely the driver's fault and never should have happened.

Good luck with it.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Finally, the hull I have been looking for!

I do remember looking at one that had a lot of damage and putty around the transom over near Columbus a few months back, someone had tried to fix either a bad accident or some really bad corrosion with what looked like spackling putty or plaster. It was a real mess. That one had wood seats still in it and was originally a red boat that was repainted with white and blue house paint. The trailer was equally impressive. The owner had it listed on Craigslist and made it sound like it was ready to run. I was there on a rainy day and the underside of that boat looked like a sprinkler. It was so heavy that three of use couldn't move it away from a wall on it's trailer. It was so bad that I don't even think you could scrap it. The part I couldn't understand was what would every possess someone to even think that wall plaster or tile grout would work on an aluminum boat? It looked like they had filled in all the missing and rotted pieces of the transom and then got carried away and sort of molded it over all the rivets around the perimeter of the transom.
When I talked to the guy on the phone, I made it very clear that I was only interested in a fairly clean hull, if it was in bad shape, had any damage, or dented or leaking, I didn't want to make the trip up to see it. He swore it was real nice boat that he had used for years. The trailer was rusted so bad that the axle was sitting against the frame and someone has put wood in between to keep it high enough to hand a motor on it. The tongue had no coupler, just a bolt hole and a 1/2" bolt and two large washers. The tires were off some old car, one was 4 lug and very light duty, the other was a 6 lug very heavy wheel and hub, my guess was that someone cut and spliced two totally different axles together. I really couldn't tell if the guy didn't know any better or if he was just a liar. Just about everything else I noticed in the yard was in just as bad of shape. Lots of duct tape, mis-matched wheels, and cheap paint.

 

[TBarCYa]

Re: Finally, the hull I have been looking for!

That sounds like something my former acquaintence would do but he gave it away without trying to fix it. He was going to unload it at the scrapyard and the guy running the scale offered him going rate for aluminum to take the hull rather than scrapping it.