starcraft 16 ss owners

[bluefinsportsman]

hey all I picked up my first boat last year and from what i can tell it's starcrafts stepchild a '78 16' Bluefin sportsman.(can stepchildren join the club?) the hulls look identical to me. i have been reading all the resto threads and convinced myself i need to redo mine. it will have to wait untill this fall/winter though. how ever i want to do my trailer now(its hidious), new winch,new wheels/tires, fenders, lights and paint.

a few questions:
whats the best way to get the fully loaded boat off the trailer?

bunks or rollers, whats better?

can i see some pics of you guys setup, i have two bunks on the front of mine that have knocked a couple of riveets clean off and several loose, and its kind of a pain in the butt to get the boat loaded on the trailer straight, theres got to be a better way

heres my baby:

 

[bluefinsportsman]

Re: starcraft 16 ss owners

 

[reelfishin]

Re: starcraft 16 ss owners

Nice looking boat.
I've got a 1974 Starcraft SS myself which I've been redoing. Basically laid out the same as yours.
I tend to go with roller trailers just because their easier to launch and retrieve in shallow water.

If your bunks knocked off rivets, then those rivets weren't doing much anyhow. You will need to replace those rivets though. I normally set up my trailers so that the rollers or bunks aren't sitting on or passing directly over the rivets if I can just for smoother operation.

Bunks tend to give more support, but you'll be backing the trailer in deeper to float it off rather than just rolling it into the water.
The way I see it is that these boats just don't weight enough to worry about any damage from trailer rollers, and if you have enough rollers under any boat, there's not enough pressure per square inch to worry about it anyhow. (I can pass my hand between any roller under my boat with not much effort, there's not a lot of weight at all on any one roller.

I do still have the original bunk trailer from mine, a painted Shore Land'r trailer that I keep around as a spare trailer and for winter storage since it fits into the garage better on that trailer since it's both narrower and the tongue is about a foot shorter.

That motor is also a good match for that boat.

 

[roscoe]

Re: starcraft 16 ss owners

Welcome to the club.

Better responses will come, if you post this in the starcraft forum, or the boating forum.
Also, the restoration forum has plenty of photos of these.

have fun.

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: starcraft 16 ss owners

Welcome to the club bluefin, you certainly own some starcraft DNA there...not much difference from my SS at all. We even have the same steering wheel. Your bow platform is the only structural discrepancy I can see.

Well here are some photos of my ugly trailer I've only launched her twice since I bought her in November but the rollers worked great. I'm used to roller trailers since that's what my dad's always had for his boats, so I'm gonna keep them.

I built bunks for my 12' boat trailer and they do offer good support.

Ezmobee switched to bunks and I'm sure they will support the boat very well.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: starcraft 16 ss owners

Nice boat blufin! In my opinion you have a perfect motor for a 16' tinny also. Those 3 cyl JohnnyRudes were the perfect balance of weight/power and economy.

Here's my trailer set-up. I converted from roller-bunks.

 

[bluefinsportsman]

Re: starcraft 16 ss owners

thanks guys, so from looking at your setup theres nothing supporting the bow besides keel rollers, so i assume the short 2x4 boards on the front of my trailer are unnecessary?, also EZ did you buy your bunks or make them, i will probably make mine, i assume treated wood is a bad idea, but plain old 2x4 should work if i seal with epoxy. hopefully i can make my trailer look as good as Archbuilders in the next couple months, the snows melting down here and i'm ready to get back out.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: starcraft 16 ss owners

With the weight of the motor and everything towards the back, there's isn't much weight on those keel rollers. So your front supports probably aren't necessary. Though if I already had 'em I don't know if I'd get rid of them. I made my bunks with PT 2x4's ( I don't forsee them going upwards through carpet and paint to corrode my boat