Starcraft hull damaged

[emoney]

Re: Starcraft hull damaged

Sounds like you made the right choice. They're not ALL salvageable, and just based on what you'd seen to date, this old tinny may be better served as an ornament or recycled into something useful. Especially knowing you're going to be dunking whatever you get into the salt. Good luck and I hope this one works out for you.

If nothing else, you can always look for another tin hull if the itch just won't subside.

 

[vintageglass]

Re: Starcraft hull damaged

Those older Starcraft hulls didn't have much to rot, they didn't have wood stringers under the deck, they were built with a double floor of sorts using fiberglass arches, the upper deck was the only wood. They drained well and were easy to fix. The transom though was wood cored, but that ad said it was redone without wood, most likely Sea Cast or Nida Bond. If that's the case there's not much there to rot.

I have to agree with getting out of any hull that's had that much damage, especially if the result is getting on the water right away.
The OP can always find another boat down the road.
Since I'm also in a saltwater area, I have to agree that glass may be better than aluminum. I can't count how many aluminum boats I've seen with severe corrosion issues. The salt gets between the wood and the aluminum and eats away. I've seen four alone just this year where the outer skin of the transom had rotted through. I've rebuilt my share of glass boats over the years and I've never yet found one with rotten fiberglass. Of course there's good hull designs and bad hull designs, generally the less wood the better. The early Starcraft glass boats had no wood below the deck, and even better, MFG from around 1962 to 1967 had all glass decks, only the transom had a wood core.
With fiberglass there's no rivets to leak, no aluminum to corrode through, and in the the OP's case, the boat will be much lighter. I think the 1960 Starcraft 15' model was rated at 410 lbs or so, roughly 200 lbs less than a Jupiter hull.

While I'm sure you could make an argument for either type of boat, for saltwater use I feel glass is the right answer.

 

[mark1961]

Re: Starcraft hull damaged

Im also in a saltwater area, I have to agree that glass may be better than aluminum.

Whilst that may be true in this particular case and in some places.....its really a non issue in others where aluminium boats are constructed in alternative ways.

 

[slowleak]

Re: Starcraft hull damaged

Well, the aluminum hull is gone and I now own a glass 1960 Starcraft Voyager.
I'll get a few pics of it if I get back in time tomorrow.
I actually got home with it before dark but I got the bug to give it a test run.
I hung my back up 15hp Force tiller motor and hung it on the 15' glass hull, and headed for the river.
I took along a lawn chair to steer from since I didn't have time to hook up the controls.
I didn't expect it to get on plane, especially with me in the stern. That motor won't get my 14' jon boat out of the water yet it planes this hull with no problem. I can't wait to see what it does with my 25hp four stroke. I suppose top speed was about 15 or 16 mph with the 15hp. Way faster than I expected or had ever gotten from that motor.

The boat handles great, don't leak, and the deck and transom are rock solid.
The only issues I see is that I'll have to paint the deck with some non skid paint and I need to add a working horn.

To my surprise it popped right up on plane, even with my 300+ pounds at the stern.

The seller also gave me a new rub rail and rubber insert for both sides and a bucket of trim that came from another boat. When the transom was done, the top of the transom and corners were molded over in fiberglass and the original caps were not reinstalled. The right rub rail has a several breaks in the aluminum, it looks like it was cut in sections for some reason. NO damage to the glass though.
The seller wasn't the one who did the work on the boat, he bought it for its motor some time ago and didn't need it, he had 5 other boats there. There's no doubt that someone spent a bunch of money on this hull, the resin alone had to be expensive. The deck has 3 or 4 layers of glass, there's a few high spots but nothing worth messing with. The transom work looks great. What ever they used was pink in color and loaded with fibers. There's a few spots up under the gunwales where it spilled over. They didn't cut the cap, but drilled holes to allow pouring the upper corners with the transom filler. The top cap is then glassed over and made smooth with filler.
Who ever did the transom repainted the back of the boat, the transom, and about 20" around the sides are painted with good paint, the sides and top of the boat are painted with what looks like Rustoleum that was put on over un-sanded gel coat. Its peeling all over, by spring the majority of it will most likely have blown or worn off in the water. If I decide to paint this, I'll just quick sand it, prime it and roll or brush it with a good enamel. Appearance isn't important, its a fishing boat, I don't want anything I have to worry about getting blood on or in.