Help educate me some on the Chieftains please :)

[Watermann]

I have strong opinions about putting Asian anything in my driveway let alone have it hanging off the back of my American made boat.

 

[FrankenCub]

I have strong opinions about putting Asian anything in my driveway let alone have it hanging off the back of my American made boat.

lmao.. I don't blame ya I used to ride Honda dirtbikes a lot, but raced American made ATK ! I do like Honda though, of all the Asian crap, they do have a good reputation but I still own all Chevy. Now if Chevy just made an outboard .......

 

[laurentide]

Since we're bashing "Asian crap" here as a result of my comment on Hondas--a brand I happily have hanging on my transom and the world's largest engine manufacturer--I'll point out the fact that the hardest working outboards in the US are on commercial and law enforcement/USCG vessels. That market is absolutely dominated by Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, and Tohatsu. They're reliable workhorses that regularly see 7000+ hours of service before routine repowers. Etecs and now Mercury now share some of that market, but it's really not even close. Look at what's on the transom of your local Coast Guard patrol...it might be an etec but it's probably a Honda. I'm sure the commercial boats would happily buy American if they were as reliable as Japanese engines over thousands of hours.

I get the inclination to buy made in USA products but I think the more pragmatic approach is to buy the most reliable product at the greatest value. When most US autos are assembled in Mexico and the majority of US market Japanese autos are assembled in the US the line gets pretty blurry.

Sorry, that's the end of my little rant/

 

[FrankenCub]

Regarding the OB vs I/O subject, do the these hulls have a difference in transom angle ?
Reason I ask is even if I ended up finding an OB Chief, it wouldn't be that hard to convert the transom to an I/O style.
Seen an Islander, but I think the Chieftain's bigger cabin would be better

 

[jbcurt00]

IIRC the short answer is yes.

Watch the video BWR posted here:
http://forums.iboats.com/forum/owne...arcraft-boats/10100046-gotta-get-it-worked-on
Look at the angle of the motor mount under the OB on the bracket, then compare that to the angle of the transom on that Islander.

I dont recall the #s, but the OB transom is angled rearward further at the top, the I/O is closer to a 90*

SCs I/O transom angle discussed here
http://forums.iboats.com/forum/boat...building-and-hull-repair/458400-transom-angle

 

[FrankenCub]

Thanks jb, yeah I can see the difference for sure. Would make a substantial amount of work to tilt the transom back up for I/O. Not that it can't be done, but more than I would be interested in getting involved in. Going on memory from what my Volvo/Penta has, there isn't even enough trim hole adjustment outward to account for the transom angle.

 

[Watermann]

IO transom angle on my Chief is 15 degrees.

 

[FrankenCub]

Well I found for sure that it will be the 21' Chieftain near me I will buy. But also thanks to certain events it will wait. My daughter was in an accident, rear ended by a pickup when she went to her bank downtown. Oddly enough, by another neighbor :facepalm:
Her car was totaled so all of our spare spending money had to be used to help get her another car before the next semester of college starts Monday. Thankfully she wasn't hurt too bad, banged up a bit though.

I talked to my neighbor with the boat to let her know things got put on hold on my end and she said no problem she'll make sure it ends up in my hands this spring.
Wife is into it so taxes will be buying a boat. She just might make Admiral yet :lol:

 

[jbcurt00]

Congrats, encourage them to get all the paperwork in order so it goes smoothly when the time comes.

Glad nobody was hurt.

 

[oldhaven]

That is exciting news, and since you can't do much outside in the coldest part of winter, a delay until spring is not a setback. Think of it as free storage. You will be doing almost as much pre-planning as if it was in your own backyard.

Ron

 

[laurentide]

Sorry to hear about the car incident, but nice to hear you're moving forward on the boat. Like oldhaven said, if you don't have a shop you can't get that much done in the dead of winter anyway.

 

[FrankenCub]

Thanks guys, her back and neck are starting to catch up with her now and getting more sore but she's back at work. She was really needing a new to her car anyway and we got a pretty fair price on an all wheel drive Santa Fe that is so much better than what she was driving.

I like your thought Oldhaven, free storage Not having it here to tinker with during decent weather is a bummer, but still, not having a shelter for it to tinker with in the winter wouldn't be very pleasant anyway. I will be thankful that it will be waiting for me for a couple months.
And you're right about all the pre-planing, I'm certainly doing plenty of it. Most of the Chieftain threads I've read through at least 3 times lol. Was looking for some old literature for '74 but the links are dead in the brochure sticky. Some of the other years I would imagine would be similar so I've been checking them out too.
I payed a visit to a friend of mine today that owns a salvage yard, he had a 20 something foot cuddy that I was thinking I could grab the pedestal chairs from but it's gone now. Did see a couple other small Starcrafts though. And a bunch of old OB engines. Oh, and a Sprayliner Capri that may have a belly mount gas tank I may look into using.

 

[Watermann]

There ya go thinking ahead! No better way of starting a project than to have it well planned out and some new parts stored up for the rebuild. On both my boat builds I shopped in advance of the impeding project and had a good stock pile of new parts just waiting for the day. The pre-shopping also helps lessen the impact on the pocket book when the time comes.

 

[FrankenCub]

There ya go thinking ahead! No better way of starting a project than to have it well planned out and some new parts stored up for the rebuild. On both my boat builds I shopped in advance of the impeding project and had a good stock pile of new parts just waiting for the day. The pre-shopping also helps lessen the impact on the pocket book when the time comes.

I've been doing lots of planning lol. Thinking for now I will just clean up the paint as it really doesn't look all that bad from spending a lot of time looking over the photos. A bit faded but otherwise good shape. The upholstery on the sides even look decent, but dirty. Won't really know for sure until I get it here to see if it's hardened or not. Seat upholstery is shot though. Got some outstanding ideas from other builds here for the cabin that will be huge improvements over the stock look. And of course replacing all the wood.
Even though I'm still on line for bringing the boat home, buying any parts before hand has been put to a standstill. My stepdaughter was in an accident and her car was totaled, got rearended and pushed into another car. So, we ended up helping her foot the bill for a replacement. A bit of a blessing, if it can be thought of that way, she has a much better car now with AWD.

A curiosity I've noticed about the Chieftains, all of them I've looked at here the swinging cabin door. This one has a pocket door. Which I like much better. I see the literature section doesn't have anything specific to the '74 Chieftain and '73 & '75 are missing. There are also other threads pertaining to the Chiefs that no longer have any pictures, just dead links to Photobucket. Was the pocket door something not well received and dropped from the line, or an optional thing ?

 

[oldhaven]

Coincidentally I was thinking just last week that a pocket door sliding into the port side cabin bulkhead would be a nice way to keep it out of the way when not needed and it would open up the cabin while underway. I had not noticed that yours had it. When you get to the point of tear down be sure to document how it was done since it might be a good option.

Ron

 

[jbcurt00]

Watermann s Chieftain doesnt have a pocket door, but I do seem to remember there being 1 posted. It may have been factory, but I think it may have been changed to a sliding pocket door by whoever posted it here. Also it may not have been on a Chief....

iIRC, he completely rebuilt the cabin bulkhead in nice mahogany plywood and totally fab'd the door too, w open slats, like a shutter.

I can see the image of it in my head, but cant pull it outta the sludge like grey matter to ID the topic/builder.

GA_Boater do you remember that build Don? Rob?

 

[GA_Boater]

There should be a CG data plate or SC's version up by the helm It will ID the boat better than looking through our incomplete brochures.

I seem to remember a pocket door, but I think it was a big 28' Islander or Weekender, maybe a 25-26' Chief.. I'm suffering from Total Recall..............Not.

 

[FrankenCub]

Coincidentally I was thinking just last week that a pocket door sliding into the port side cabin bulkhead would be a nice way to keep it out of the way when not needed and it would open up the cabin while underway. I had not noticed that yours had it. When you get to the point of tear down be sure to document how it was done since it might be a good option.

Ron

I will be sure to take a lot of pictures once it gets here and I start deconstruction. Should be about a month and as soon as the weather is tolerable I want to get on it so I can hopefully have it water worthy by springs end. I may not have a good supply of coin, but have an abundance of time lol.

Watermann s Chieftain doesnt have a pocket door, but I do seem to remember there being 1 posted. It may have been factory, but I think it may have been changed to a sliding pocket door by whoever posted it here. Also it may not have been on a Chief....

iIRC, he completely rebuilt the cabin bulkhead in nice mahogany plywood and totally fab'd the door too, w open slats, like a shutter.

I can see the image of it in my head, but cant pull it outta the sludge like grey matter to ID the topic/builder.

GA_Boater do you remember that build Don? Rob?

I wonder if that one you're thinking about may be one of the threads that have dead links to the pictures ? I haven't seen one yet and have been stalking the Chieftain threads. I don't believe this one had been modified by a PO, I looked it over really good while I was milling around in the boat checking everything out. I thought it was odd to have a sliding pocket door as all I've seen on cuddy boats have been swinging or bi-fold doors. Otherwise the door structure itself looks identicle to the normal aluminum doors on the other Chieftains, except it has a sliding track up top. I should have gotten better pictures of it.
I'll go through the Chieftain pics again and see if I find anything.

 

[FrankenCub]

There should be a CG data plate or SC's version up by the helm It will ID the boat better than looking through our incomplete brochures.

I seem to remember a pocket door, but I think it was a big 28' Islander or Weekender, maybe a 25-26' Chief.. I'm suffering from Total Recall..............Not.

Yeah there is one there still, "21 CHM4 I/O". It's a bad angle but can be read.

 

[GA_Boater]

Now if we only had a decoder ring from Starcraft to see what CHM4 meant.

Chieftain Model 4?