Looking at an older boat tomorrow.

[Viking...]

Hi guys,
I'm going to look at a 1975 Starcraft 22' Aluminum boat tomorrow, with a 140 Mercury I/O.
I'm assuming the engine and drive are original.
What caught my eye was that the boat appears to be well taken care of, and in very good condition.
The question I have, since this will be my first I/O type of boat, is what to expect regarding the idiosyncrasies of this type of equipment.
Any tips or anecdotes would be welcome, as well as any known problems with this particular boat.

For background purposes, I should say that I've owned an 18' aluminum fishing boat (center console) with a 28 hp Evinrude OB for about 15 years now.
I do my own maintenance and can handle pretty much any type of electrical/mechanical issues that might arise (I'm a field service engineer for CNC machines).

This is pretty much the type of boat I'm looking to upgrade to, since my kids are getting older/bigger. We bought a tube to try once the water warms up a bit, but mostly we like to fish and putt around.
We only go out on nice days with calm water, with many options within an hour's drive, so we trailer everywhere.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

 

[windsors03cobra]

Re: Looking at an older boat tomorrow.

I have a similar power plant and drive and have found the parts for it to be plentiful and reasonably priced.
Its also pretty low tech stuff and easy to work on for the most part, the hardest part is replacing awkward and heavy parts back into place like the lower unit after an impeller change or engine alignment.
I would expect do some work on a few key consumables on the sterndrive but who knows maybe the seller just did it all up.

As with any quality built aluminum boat they seem to last quite a while with a little bit of common sense on the owners part.

Good luck.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Looking at an older boat tomorrow.

There are lots of us Starcraft people on here. You can't go wrong with that boat!! It's got a common and proven powerplant with parts support as noted above and the hulls are really solid. Worst case scenario is it's going some rotted wood on the deck and transom but on these boats it's not a big job to replace.

Check out this thread http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=163722

and this thread: http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=298301