Starcraft Islander Not over my head but advice is welcome

justaboutgeese · May 31, 2012

Acquired a 19 ft Starcraft Islander from an estate. The floor and transom have been removed are are gone. the other wood parts are there to be reused or used as patterns. My dilema is the floor seems to be made up of atleaset five separate pieces of half or five eights plywood. It was suggeset that I screw down half inch ply even though the original was rivited down. As well just forward of the transom there are two braces about an inch apart for reasons unknown to me. The boat is powered by a 140hp OMC Sea Drive which my dealer has serviced since new and tells me the motor is a solid performer.
Do I screw or rivet the new floor? do I go with half inch ? What are those Channels for?

ondarvr · May 31, 2012

Re: Not in over my head but advice is welcome

Re: Not in over my head but advice is welcome

We just put a floor in my buddy's 20' aluminum boat, we used Velcro to hold it down, so far it has worked great and is rock solid.

Rivets work better, but are more of a hassle if you need to pull up a section.

jigngrub · May 31, 2012

Re: Not in over my head but advice is welcome

Re: Not in over my head but advice is welcome

justaboutgeese said:
Acquired a 19 ft Starcraft Islander from an estate. The floor and transom have been removed are are gone. the other wood parts are there to be reused or used as patterns. My dilema is the floor seems to be made up of atleaset five separate pieces of half or five eights plywood. It was suggeset that I screw down half inch ply even though the original was rivited down. As well just forward of the transom there are two braces about an inch apart for reasons unknown to me. The boat is powered by a 140hp OMC Sea Drive which my dealer has serviced since new and tells me the motor is a solid performer.
Do I screw or rivet the new floor? do I go with half inch ? What are those Channels for?

You can rivet or screw the deck down, it's not really that big of a deal with which one you use.

Aluminum rivets are considerably cheaper than stainless self tappers though. I also believe that rivets are easier to install, at least for me anyway.

You should post some pics of your boat so we can see what you have to work with.

1973Chieftain · May 31, 2012

Re: Not in over my head but advice is welcome

Re: Not in over my head but advice is welcome

Welcome aboard! Pictures are always useful, also check out here:
http://forums.iboats.com/forumdisplay.php?f=53 there is a thready stickied at the top that has dozens of Starcraft restos there with tons of useful info. Welcome to the Starmada!!

justaboutgeese · May 31, 2012

Re: Not in over my head but advice is welcome

Re: Not in over my head but advice is welcome

The boat is completly cleaned out and ready to lay the floor as soon as I figure this out. The transom is going to go back in being treated with preservative and the edges sealed with epoxy resin. Again open to suggestions. My view is the original laster twenty plus years and it this lasts half that long I will probably be in my grave.

justaboutgeese · Jun 6, 2012

Re: Not in over my head but advice is welcome

Re: Not in over my head but advice is welcome

now that I have the boat cleared out and only some pressure washing and cleaning in corners and crevices left, oh yes a few floor rivets remain to cut off I have some better pictures to illustrate what I am asking .

those channels near the transom appear to be for bracing which in my mind should be tied to the transom in some manner. but I dont see any type of knee bracing

bgc · Jun 6, 2012

Re: Not in over my head but advice is welcome

Re: Not in over my head but advice is welcome

They do look like they would tie into the plywood for strength.

Add Starcraft into the title of your post and the thousands of Starcraft owners will come out in full force to answer your questions.

jasoutside · Jun 6, 2012

Re: Not in over my head but advice is welcome

Re: Not in over my head but advice is welcome

I'm not entirely positive the Mercs had angle braces that tied in to the transom. But, my OMC Stringer did have em. Though they were cracked and wimpy so I replaced them with beef eater style angle alum that I bent up...

Rock on

Wait, EDIT: We are talking about a Sea Drive, sorry! Yah, you could always add knee braces to those stringers if you wanted to. Certainly would make the whole works that much more solid, eh.

magnumdeke · Jun 6, 2012

Re: Not in over my head but advice is welcome

Re: Not in over my head but advice is welcome

Looks like reinforcement for your sea drive, must have been a factory option. Kinda cool

MichaelP · Jun 6, 2012

Re: Not in over my head but advice is welcome

Re: Not in over my head but advice is welcome

justaboutgeese said:
The boat is completly cleaned out and ready to lay the floor as soon as I figure this out. The transom is going to go back in being treated with preservative and the edges sealed with epoxy resin. Again open to suggestions. My view is the original laster twenty plus years and it this lasts half that long I will probably be in my grave.

Hope you don't mean pressure treated when you say preservative.
You've got a great boat there. Now the fun begins!

bgc · Jun 6, 2012

Re: Not in over my head but advice is welcome

Re: Not in over my head but advice is welcome

(Pressure treated is bad for the metal.)

I use .75 ounce Chopped Strand Mat and 635 Epoxy for the tinny transoms at the shop. Wet it with warm epoxy (80 ish degrees), lay the mat and wet it again. After curing flip and do the other side.

http://www.uscomposites.com/mat.html
http://www.uscomposites.com/epoxy.html

justaboutgeese · Jun 6, 2012

Re: Not in over my head but advice is welcome

Re: Not in over my head but advice is welcome

never considered using pressure treated but an antifunguside. There are two pieces of aluminum I have not figured out a function for. Will get pictures of those tomorrow. its possible they might be braces but look to frail. Next question is the pedistal seats. Hard to believe those bases will have enough support sitting on half inch ply without flexing under the load.

justaboutgeese · Jun 7, 2012

Re: Starcraft Islander Not over my head but advice is welcome

There are two of these braces a right and a left about twenty four inches long. They do not appear near rugged enough to stand the flex from the 140 hp Sea Drive. The seat pedistal (dont know why the edge appears flat in the photo. Must be a loose nut holding the camera).
As I said re the base, my thoughts are that this bolted to 1/2 " ply would flex to some degree without some sort of additional bracing.

justaboutgeese · Jun 11, 2012

Re: Starcraft Islander Not over my head but advice is welcome

Guess my best bet is to draw up a brace similar to whats in my fishing boat and have a machine shop bend it up for my. Might be overkill but its peace of mind.

Starcraft Islander Not over my head but advice is welcome

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