Furrylittleotter's Starcraft Chieftain Revival

Furrylittleotter

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Oct 16, 2014
Messages
167
I began this obsession by spotting a sweet old Mako Center Console in September. I obsessed over that boat far too much but we were in the process of moving from L.A. County to Davis (Just west of Sacramento), while looking at Craigslist ads I spotted this Chieftain. It was gutted, abused, had once been inboard/outboard, then been converted (poorly) to outboard, then a restoration begun but honestly wasn't going well when it stalled.

I became fascinated with the boat because I believe it is light enough to pull with my Subaru powered VW camper (1984 Vanagon Westy) and the cabin I thought would be ideal for the perpetually cold areas like Monterey Bay.

While we were still in a motel I rented a Uhaul and went and bought the boat. I left behind the plywood flooring and the engine he planned to install. (an outboard). That was in October. The boat has sat and I have plotted and planned and made inexpensive purchases since then

My plan is to build a bare bones fishing boat that my wife and myself can camp on reasonably comfortably. Local usage will include Sacramento river, Lake Berryessa, Tahoe, Monterey Bay, etc.

I intend to build the boat without ANY wood or textiles (besides the cabin cushions and curtains).
 

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Jigginglow

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Dec 27, 2014
Messages
106
Sweet tinnie you found there. Looks like an ambitious project but I have confidence you can get it done. What kind of other details can you provide on the work required? Good luck and I'll climb aboard for your rebuild.
 

Watermann

Starmada Splash of the Year 2014
Joined
Jan 12, 2013
Messages
13,747
:welcome: to the Starmada!

That's a nice big Chieftain Express hardtop you have there. Looking forward to seeing how you work out the no wood approach.

fetch
 

jbcurt00

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 25, 2011
Messages
24,829
Welcome

No wood build, intriguing.....

Good luck w/ your project, and planning on keeping the Admiral happy is a great start...
 

g0nef1sshn

Lieutenant
Joined
Feb 24, 2015
Messages
1,291
Good intro story, I woulda needed my own room or slept in the uhaul if I pulled something like that!
 

Furrylittleotter

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Oct 16, 2014
Messages
167
No Title

Yes this is the boat I bought from Shieky, btw my comment about the restoration not going well wasn't a personal attack, what I meant was it wasn't progressing (because of his health issues).

I have to say I wasn't sure which forum to use. I chose boats because it comes up in searches I have done but on my first attempt it just said "Working" and I wasn't sure it uploaded my thread. Turns out it did. Still, not a good first posting experience. Is this "normal"?

I want to say right now if you are offended by people that "Think outside the box" and "don't do what is commonly done", please excuse yourself from this thread right now, you will not like me or the boat I'm building.

That being said if you want to make suggestions, that's why I'm here. But keep in mind I've always danced to my own ukelele. I am happy to hear suggestions but I hate being told what to do.

I have done some research and observation and figured out salesman and marketing guys design boats. They are made to look good in ads involving bikinis.

I have no desire to have a salesman designed boat. It will be a fishing/camping boat


While researching I became obsessed with surface piercing props and "Kitchen" rudders. I spent a TON of time designing mine and I did so to eliminate the transmission. We may try and take the boat way out for tuna on nice days, so I want it efficient and extremely reliable.
 

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Furrylittleotter

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Oct 16, 2014
Messages
167
No Title

The first thing I did was go to an auction and buy this behemoth. It is a Deutz f3l912 with 600 hours on it. These are commonly believed to be the second most reliable engine on the planet, right after the Mercedes Turbo diesel in the 300 series cars. These engines are designed to run 30,000 hours without rebuild and each cylinder is rebuildable individually. It is designed to sip 2 gallons of fuel an hour or less at WOT.

This engine is air cooled and completely mechanical. It also fit my bottom feeder budget at $475 cash money and the auction was 30 minutes away so that was nice.

I have since fabricated that manifold and riser. I bought the muffler to try and the engine exhaust is completely silent with it in place. I returned the muffler and will mount one when ready.

The exhaust will be dry stack. ( I know I know I know, its starting already?out of the box)
 

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dozerII

Admiral
Joined
Oct 25, 2009
Messages
6,527
This should be a real interesting build, when posting you will sometimes get that "working" box up for a while, click the refresh button on your browser and it will usually correct the problem. You drive idea looks like fun.:couch2:
 

cj8mule

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Apr 7, 2012
Messages
660
Great looking project. I think you'll find most of us guys think outside the box.

Just remember... without pictures.. it never happened! :D
 

Furrylittleotter

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Oct 16, 2014
Messages
167
The Kitchen rudder and surface piercing prop ideas have both since been abandoned. This was mainly because I figured I would have to fabricate about 40 parts and it is already 80 degrees here.

We have a campsite reserved in Tahoe in July so hopefully the boat will be seaworthy by then. That seems reasonable to me. We shall see.
 

Furrylittleotter

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Oct 16, 2014
Messages
167
Test to try and upload from iPhone. This site is a bit archaic. It keeps saying the file is too big so I guess I will have to figure that out when I get home.

Yea yea, I know everyone lines pictures. I like both pictures and videos myself but I need to hammer out some information and will upload photos later. I have a bunch.


So when I abandoned the aforementioned ideas that left me without a thrust bearing or neutral. I didn't want a transmission because if reliability and cost issues so I began to troll craplist again and found an old "Hot Boat". It had a few things I could use and some I couldn't.

On the plus side it had a Hallcraft V drive with both neutral and a thrust bearing. It also had a prop shaft, some aluminum and a trailer with 4 brand new tyres. I gave $600 for the privelege of scrapping out this perfectly good fiberglass/balsa wood relic.
 

dozerII

Admiral
Joined
Oct 25, 2009
Messages
6,527
Gotta love donor boats, Photo Bucket is the best way to upload on Iboats, it takes care of sizing issues.
 

Alumarine

Captain
Joined
Feb 22, 2005
Messages
3,684
Very interesting project.
As others have said when getting that Working message either hit refresh or sometimes the back button works for me.
Also Photobucket is the easiest way to post pictures here and then we get to see them BIGGER. Which us old guys like.

Regarding the engine.
Like you say they're air cooled. Will you have to come up with a way to get fresh air to it or can they work in an enclosed space?
I've only used them in tractors which have plenty of air.
 

Furrylittleotter

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Oct 16, 2014
Messages
167
Ok here is a front view of the Deutz lump. Afaik, if that inlet has access to fresh air and there is an outlet on the other end, it should run the correct temperature. It has a "Murphy" switch that shuts the fuel off if it loses the cooling belt, if it goes over temp or if it loses oil pressure (I think).

 

Furrylittleotter

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Oct 16, 2014
Messages
167
Ok here is some of the drivetrain (or whatever boat people call stuff) (propulsion system?) interesting to note this stuff is from four different sources. The prop is a rebuilt 13 13 1.125 feom Fleabay ($80), the shaft and log are from the jet boat, it's s.s and 1" (I will use bushing to fit prop). The strut is 10degree from Shipwreck Marine Salvage in Sacramento ($100), the rudder is from Craplist and came with through hull packing, steering system including the perfect length teleflex cable and 2 motor mounts I didn't need $250.

I have it here on a door to mock it up and determine where to put holes in hull. When I showed it to my wife she asked "so you are mounting the door in the bottom of the boat? To which I replied : yes, that way when we catch a dish we can just open to door and let it in (more on that idea later).



 

Furrylittleotter

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Oct 16, 2014
Messages
167
Because the boat is too tall to put in the garage, I took the time to make a portable work station so I don't have to walk back in the garage every 2 minutes. I will be adding castors to it. I also sorted all the great s.s. Hardware I got off the hot boat. Here you can see some of the aluminum I have accumulated for the build.

 
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