gfbiii51
Petty Officer 2nd Class
- Joined
- May 28, 2011
- Messages
- 140
This may not be the right place for this post, my first, but there is an eventual restore here and this is the community that led me to this lunacy.
OK, you guys are a bad influence, enablers. First I bought this sweet-looking, 1982 model, glass boat. I put it in the water twice and couldn?t get the motor started.
After I owned it a week, I sent it to a mechanic who kept it almost a month. In the meantime, I discovered this forum. The mechanic hadn?t even gotten to my boat but I had this sick feeling my sweet little glasser was rotten.:facepalm: I knew the floor was soft but I figured that was an easy fix with a sheet of plywood on top. Guess what??? Not only is the floor all but gone, the transom is very soft and the stringers are hollow.
You see, I initially had the mistaken impression that fiberglass boats didn?t rot. I bought a Thompson wood (plywood lapstrake) boat to renovate and was introduced to rot. Long story short, that boat was too big, too previously abused and we moved to a place where I couldn?t work on it inside, so I sold it. (I?ll post some pics eventually. It was a cool old boat.) I remembered the 14? Holiday glass boat (with 1965 Johnson 30) we had when I was growing up. You know, the one I launched on the highway when I was 17 :redface:?oh wait, that?s another story.
While I was waiting on the mechanic, I continued to scour CL mostly for fun?some days I was looking for another boat. I also spent a lot of time here. First I discovered Azlo?s Starcraft resto and my interest was piqued. Then I read Jasoutside?s Islander thread (I can?t believe I read the WHOLE thing!!!) and fell for tin boats. I also discovered the concept of a donor glasser, oh my.
About the time, I retrieved by glasser from the mechanic, I found this Starcraft SS 18 on CL at The Little Boat Yard. He wanted $600 for the boat and trailer. As far as I can tell, the boat is all original. Since I paid $2,000 (plus $200 for sales tax) for the rotten glasser (with a good trailer and a neat little 1982 70 Merc with tilt and trim), that sounded like a pretty good price. I ended up paying $650 and he swapped the Merc from my accidental donor glasser to the Starcraft, and he paid the sales tax.
Long and short of it, I love this boat. Simple. Big. Easy to work on.
I?ll continue the saga in future posts.
Oh yeah, some pics?
We'll, they'll come later, or as an edit. The way I've linked Photobucket pics to another forum produces huge pics. My files are too bit to attach. It's stuff like this that should be so simple and proves to be such a PITA that makes me lose my religion. I'll regroup and get them up.
Here are the five pics this system will let me post at once. I'll add more in a later poat.
OK, you guys are a bad influence, enablers. First I bought this sweet-looking, 1982 model, glass boat. I put it in the water twice and couldn?t get the motor started.
After I owned it a week, I sent it to a mechanic who kept it almost a month. In the meantime, I discovered this forum. The mechanic hadn?t even gotten to my boat but I had this sick feeling my sweet little glasser was rotten.:facepalm: I knew the floor was soft but I figured that was an easy fix with a sheet of plywood on top. Guess what??? Not only is the floor all but gone, the transom is very soft and the stringers are hollow. You see, I initially had the mistaken impression that fiberglass boats didn?t rot. I bought a Thompson wood (plywood lapstrake) boat to renovate and was introduced to rot. Long story short, that boat was too big, too previously abused and we moved to a place where I couldn?t work on it inside, so I sold it. (I?ll post some pics eventually. It was a cool old boat.) I remembered the 14? Holiday glass boat (with 1965 Johnson 30) we had when I was growing up. You know, the one I launched on the highway when I was 17 :redface:?oh wait, that?s another story.
While I was waiting on the mechanic, I continued to scour CL mostly for fun?some days I was looking for another boat. I also spent a lot of time here. First I discovered Azlo?s Starcraft resto and my interest was piqued. Then I read Jasoutside?s Islander thread (I can?t believe I read the WHOLE thing!!!) and fell for tin boats. I also discovered the concept of a donor glasser, oh my.
About the time, I retrieved by glasser from the mechanic, I found this Starcraft SS 18 on CL at The Little Boat Yard. He wanted $600 for the boat and trailer. As far as I can tell, the boat is all original. Since I paid $2,000 (plus $200 for sales tax) for the rotten glasser (with a good trailer and a neat little 1982 70 Merc with tilt and trim), that sounded like a pretty good price. I ended up paying $650 and he swapped the Merc from my accidental donor glasser to the Starcraft, and he paid the sales tax.
Long and short of it, I love this boat. Simple. Big. Easy to work on.
I?ll continue the saga in future posts.
Oh yeah, some pics?
We'll, they'll come later, or as an edit. The way I've linked Photobucket pics to another forum produces huge pics. My files are too bit to attach. It's stuff like this that should be so simple and proves to be such a PITA that makes me lose my religion. I'll regroup and get them up.
Here are the five pics this system will let me post at once. I'll add more in a later poat.
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