1978 Starcraft Mariner - Complete

starcrazy

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Aug 8, 2011
Messages
88
So I have finally completed 90% of my restauration, just a couple more minor things to go, but the main thing is, IT"S SEA WORTHY.

Please find enclosed some pics of the restored Mariner.

th_DSCN7610_zps4b021663.jpgth_DSCN7611_zps9882d1b2.jpgth_DSCN7580_zpsac86e04a.jpgth_DSCN7605_zpsc842d952.jpgth_DSCN7607_zps72136193.jpg

Pretty much everything has been replaced. Lots of time and patience to say the least.

Thanks again for everyone's input and advice when I posted on here.

Thanks

Wayne
 

jbcurt00

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 25, 2011
Messages
25,047
Re: 1978 Starcraft Mariner - Complete

Need to try & post the pix bigger, esp this one:
attachment.php


Looks like you've done nice work, but cell pix turned out small.....

Congrats on the splash!
 

Grandad

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
Jun 7, 2011
Messages
1,504
Re: 1978 Starcraft Mariner - Complete

Hi neighbour. Nice rebuild. How cum you stopped posting to your rebuild thread? I had to go looking for it. The 90 day limit on posting to a thread is not meant for the original poster. And, ya, larger pictures by copying and pasting the IMG codes from Photobucket will do more justice to your creation. - Grandad
 

starcrazy

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Aug 8, 2011
Messages
88
Re: 1978 Starcraft Mariner - Complete

Sorry I have been a bit busy. In the coarse of starting the project, I had a litter of puppies (Black Lab). Boat was a project to say the least. In the past year, I have trained 3 of the pups to retrieve reliably, one of them my own.

I will try to post the picst up so they appear larger. I was having issues yesterday and rain out of time.

Wayne
 

starcrazy

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Aug 8, 2011
Messages
88
Re: 1978 Starcraft Mariner - Complete

All the lights are LED, as well as 11 led light under the rail for night fishing or in my case to see where all the decoys are in the boat. Lights up pretty good. I didn't remember to take a photo of it all lighted up.

Custom gas tank is set inside the center console seat. (20 gal)

And I am sure the most important question on everyone's mind? How does she run.

It will do 50 mph with me alone. But that sucks up way to much fuel, but I had to try it.

Average top speed with 3 ppl on board is 40 mph.

Speed I like to run is around 22 to 25 mph.

She is a bit heavy in the rear. I will need to add some weight in the bow to help out even her out. Had I known this would have been a issue I would have made the adjustments during the build. I was hoping by moving the gas tank closer to the bow that it would offset some of the weight. Also the salesman never really gave me any ideas after they sold me the motor. Even though I had expained to them what I was doing and showed them pictures of the vessel before hand. Lesson learned...

Overall pretty happy with the result's for a first time rebuild. I learned lots and may possibly look for a 22' Mariner in the future. Although like the rest of you, it will have to be a bottom feeder price.

Any questions about the build, please feel free to fire away. I will try to answer them the best I can.

Regards

Wayne
 
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dozerII

Admiral
Joined
Oct 25, 2009
Messages
6,527
Re: 1978 Starcraft Mariner - Complete

Really nice job on the CC, great choice on outboards as well.
 

jc55

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Nov 3, 2006
Messages
665
Re: 1978 Starcraft Mariner - Complete

You nailed it. I love it, and I don't even fish.
 

64osby

Admiral
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Messages
6,823
Re: 1978 Starcraft Mariner - Complete

Very nice and clean, Fantastic job on the Mariner.

Where did the console come from, it looks great.
 

jvanhees

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Mar 20, 2013
Messages
284
Re: 1978 Starcraft Mariner - Complete

Wow great work. Clean looking boat!
 

Weep'n Willy

Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jun 12, 2012
Messages
831
Re: 1978 Starcraft Mariner - Complete

Congrats, looks like a very clean job, nice and neat. More than ample room onboard to do some fishing. Have you considered putting a top over he console?
 

jasoutside

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Dec 20, 2009
Messages
13,269
Re: 1978 Starcraft Mariner - Complete

Looks like a super nice, functional project, well done:thumb:
 

pckeen

Commander
Joined
Jun 20, 2012
Messages
2,067
Re: 1978 Starcraft Mariner - Complete

Looks great - how hard was it to get the Nautolex installed?
 

starcrazy

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Aug 8, 2011
Messages
88
Re: 1978 Starcraft Mariner - Complete

Thanks for the compliments. I think it turned out pretty good for my first project. For the amount of time I had it out this season, I had several compliments. Even had one guy looking at it at the dealership, the day I was picking up the final motor/gauge install.

DozerII

The motor is great. Although I think that a 90 would have been fine. It had a 80 mercury on it previously.

64osby

Believe it or not, that is the original CC that came witht the boat. I was able to get someone to cut and bend a piece to go over the existing CC. I then used some caulking to hold it in place and hopefully remove any future vibrations. As you can see, I then added 4 bolts on the top section to hold it securely. I didn't add anything to the lower section because I thought that between the panel, steering wheel, gauges and throtle it would be fine.

Once it was in place I designed the layout of the CC myself. I think it turned out pretty good and clean looking.

Weepn Willy

Yes there is a plan to have a top put over the CC, just not at this point. It's on the short list of things to complete. It would have to be something that will go up for fishing, but come down for Hunting. Budget was used up and and I wanted to get some use out of her this past season.

Pckeen

Nautolex was not really an issue. It was a bit harder because I placed it down as one piece over the riveted floor. The rivets area's don't seem to show that much.

The bow section were done prior to installing. Therefore I was able to glue them and wrap them individually.

If I had to do it over again, I would wrap the floor individually and rivet them after for a couple reasons.

1) One piece is allot of work. More than a one person job.
2) One person can do it.
3) I had to bend some aluminum and caulk it in place over the edges. This will hopefully prevent it from coming up in years to come.
4) If by chance one piece rots out, I can simply redo it and reinstall it
5) During the layout portion, make sure to leave enough space for the two sides of Nautolex. This way the floor will still fit snug together.

Lessons learned, none the less.

Wayne
(Starcrazy)
 

greenbush future

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
Aug 28, 2009
Messages
1,814
Re: 1978 Starcraft Mariner - Complete

Great job on making this boat better than new, you did it right. The heavy back end may be fixable by adding a set of trim tabs on her, sure beats moving stuff around now that she is all finished. 50 MPH is awesome for top speed, I bet its a bit scary! 50 MPH on water always seemed like 150 MPH on dry land IMO.
 

starcrazy

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Aug 8, 2011
Messages
88
Re: 1978 Starcraft Mariner - Complete

GreenBush

I never even thought of trim tabs, it woud definetly be an option. Hoping to tweak things a bit more over the spring and get her all ballanced out.

Definitely looking forward to pickerel/walleye season.

Wayne
Starcrazy
 

Fleetwin

Lieutenant Junior Grade
Joined
Nov 23, 2011
Messages
1,141
Re: 1978 Starcraft Mariner - Complete

OUTSTANDING JOB!

One of my all time favorite boats/hulls.

Having owned several Starcrafts, of that vintage and design (18FS, 18SS, 22 SS, 22FS etc.), I can say that they are pretty trim neutral.

They tend to sit a bit stern heavy. I never had an issue with following seas on Lakes Michigan and Huron. But, they plane out nice and I don't think "tabs" are necessary. Your call.

Run it, enjoy it.

Again: NICE JOB!
 
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