Starcraft Chieftain 18.5 rescued from the blackberry brambles for the second time.

[BWR1953]

Hello Everyone,

I'm been on here looking at the restorations and dreaming of my chance to own a Starcaft. I live on the west coast of Canada in Victoria. Starcrafts are not easily found for sale in this area. I found myself driving around much of the time with my head on a swivel looking from left to right hoping to find the silhouette of a Chieftain.
Man my neck became sore. I finally found my current project. I felt very uneasy peering through the fence to get a look at her...(The Starcraft). Anyways, I have a long way to go but it will be a labor of love to get her back to a usable condition. I won't kid myself, she will likely never look as beautiful as some of these restorations on here but she will be functional and sea worthy, and that is what counts for me.

Good job on keeping an eye out and congrats on finding your Chieftain! :encouragement:

 

[oldhaven]

Welcome to the Chief club. And an outboard model too. They are less seen than the I/O's, and can be a bit easier to restore and re-power. Based on splash well shape, yours is very late 60's or early 70's. You can tell the year by the original hull color since they were a different color every year. If you peruse the brochures in the Starcraft section of IBoats, the specs give each years color. Yours may have had a mustard or yellow color? My '67 was burgundy, and had the same vinyl cabin sides. The rated HP for my '67 Starchief OB is 120, and the hull weight is listed as 860, but that went up to 140 in later Chieftain models as they became a bit heavier, though I am not sure why, since they are pretty much the same boats.

While you have had the dirty job of deconstruction done already, you end up in the same boat as Chem did and will have to guess and do detective work about where things go and you may have missing components that could have been templates. I had to do the tear out, but found the old stuff useful as templates and I made note of where things went for the put back. Take a lot of pictures anyway. Still, all you need to know is here in the work others have done, and anything you find will have a solution documented. You should really look forward to this if you are at all handy, and you will be rewarded by a very fine boat in the end.

Finally, Chem gave me some good advice recently, so I'll repeat it here: "...don't pressure yourself or give yourself arbitrary deadlines. Take breaks, keep up on the house chores, and try to enjoy the process."

Ron

 

[Watermann]

Welcome to the Starmada and the Chief club :wave:

I normally look for new threads daily but somehow your Chief got by me for a while. I guess I should also say hi as a neighbor somewhat, I live in WA State just south of the border from Osoyoos BC. You're Chief looks like she's very deserving of a second chance at life on the water rather than a field or bone yard. I found mine the very same way when I was swivel necking every lot and field in my area. I had an easier time taking a pic though it was just chain link :lol: The older gentleman who had horded my Chief was astounded a year later when I called him to come down to his shop and look at what I had done with the old derelict boat.

I didn't have a bow hatch for my Chief either but another member with an Islander who was removing the cabin sent me his and they are exactly the same. If you look through the threads we have a member who is desecrating his Chief and may just part with the hatch as well.

Don't worry about your Chief having spent time in the salt, mine was a Puget sound boat too and there was nothing that couldn't be repaired. Go with the 140 HP OB, it's nice to have more power than you need.