1965 Starcraft Nassau Refurb / Restore

[gberl001]

Request for semi-professional opinion on the state of my transom

I just bought my second boat, a 1965 Starcraft (Jupiter or Nassau I believe due to the 16' x 69" length and beam). Anyway, I felt it was probably a good idea to replace the transom, didn't look bad but I would like to do some tube pulling so I want to know for sure that it's in great shape.

After pulling apart the splashwell I noticed a few things, the center knee brace has a tear, not too bad so I think I'll just lay a bent strip of aluminum over it. Then I noticed an ever so slight buckle in the starboard and center knee braces and I'm wondering...

• What kind of support do they still offer? It doesn't look all that bad to me but I'm not a mechanical physics guy either so I'm wondering how much rigidity is left given the slight buckle.
• Is this something I should be overly concerned with?
• Is there a way to fix or reinforce them?

A view of all three, you can see the buckle on the center and starboard brace and a tear on the center brace seam

Port side (the good side)

Center

Starboard side

 

[MTboatguy]

A "semi-professional opinion"

Boy, that is rich!

 

[gberl001]

A "semi-professional opinion"

Boy, that is rich!

Well, didn't really know how to word it, I don't want some random person coming in and saying that it's all good if they really don't know what their talking about. For instance, I think it would probably be fine but I'm not well versed in the mechanics of metal strength so I'm just looking for someone who knows metal and knows this stuff from experience, not their best guess.

It was meant to be a jokingly, ha ha, grab your attention title but I'm guessing by your response it didn't come off that way, sorry about that.

 

[jbcurt00]

Dont discount the value of a completely Non-professiinal opinion. :watermelon:
Many of the Starcraft crew hanging out over in the Starcraft forum have the factory beat for sure and most of the 'pros' too.

The bulge is a new wrinkle for transom knee damage, but the torn center knee brace is a regular occurrence...... Some have had that tear extend the entire length of the flange on both sides, on more then just 1 knee brace. So there was NO connection of the brace to the transom.

Examine the splashwell corners too, they also tear when a weak transom starts to damage the knee braces.

Look along the bottom of the hull where the braces connect thru the hull. Is there any deflection upwards?

Look around http://forums.iboats.com/forum/owners-groups-by-manufacturer/s/starcraft-boats

You wont be disappointed....

 

[jbcurt00]

Oops:

Welcome to the iboats tin drydock

A Jup/Nassau will be a good 1st boat, and a great 1st rehab.....

The Starmada will be along shortly to help and harass you. But you've 'fed' the motley horde by posting pix already. Well done.

 

[MTboatguy]

Most of us that post in the Restoration forums are not pro or even semi pro. But there is a heck of a lot of us, that have a lot of experience tearing them apart and putting them back together. I am sorry, and I really didn't mean anything bad by my message, I just got a really strong giggle from it.

by the way, here is a big WELCOME to the forums, you have found the most informative source on the internet for figuring out how to fix those things that pop up!

:welcome:

 

[GA_Boater]

In my best semi-pro voice - Welcome to the Tin DryDock, gber. :joyous:

Looking at the '65 brochure, You have a Nassau, a year older than mine. Jupiters have an 81" beam and starting in '65, a concave V hull where the stern is V'ed at the bottom. Yours appears to a flat stern, again like mine. The 69" beam also goes with the Nassau.

I wouldn't be concerned with the bumps in the knee braces. The appear to made that way. Maybe the die slipped when the factory was punching them and they look symmetrical to me. The crack in the center one can be repaired with some heavy aluminum angle stock. Repairs like that are quite common in many of the Starcraft restos here.

Three things contribute to the structural strength of the stern. The transom plywood, the knee braces and the splashwell. If any of these three are compromised, the remaining two absorb the weight and drive forces of the motor, resulting in damage to those two as well. As mentioned above, cracked knee braces and splashwell are the result of having a rotted, mushy transom plywood somewhere in the past. The outer AL skin on the transom basically only keeps water out.

Soon you will be one us, a noted Semi-Pro. And driving another Nassau on the lake. :thumb:

 

[g0nef1sshn]

Looks like the deck might be soft too from here... :laugh: Might want to tear that out. Flip it, strip it, wash it GLUV it, paint it and post a lot pics so we can see! Im an amatuer and these guys help a lot along the way!

 

[Tnstratofam]

:welcome:. To the tinsanity so to speak. I agree the knee braces should be okay even with the two bulges. If anything the upper holes on them may be a little lower, but I wouldn't think it would make to much difference. Repair the cracked one like ga mentioned with some aluminum angle. Also check the rivets to the bottom of the kneebraces as well. Make sure your splashwell isn't cracking at the seems and you should be good to go. Also as an after thought remember no pressure treated wood. It will eat away at the aluminum.

Good luck and have fun. Oh and post up some more pics when you can we love looking at old boats.:becky:

 

[gm280]

I would have made a comment before but I haven't even reached the "semi-professional" title yet... I am still a semi-amateur still :facepalm:

 

[GA_Boater]

I would have made a comment before but I haven't even reached the "semi-professional" title yet... I am still a semi-amateur still :facepalm:

Does that mean you're only half-a..................Never Mind. :lol:

I glad tnstratofam mentioned not to use pressure treated wood. Too many think its the way to go because it lasts longer than non-PT. That may be true, but it causes the aluminum to evaporate. I know firsthand and many of us have suffered through fixing corrosion caused by PT. No fun at all!

 

[gm280]

Does that mean you're only half-a..................Never Mind. :lol:

I glad tnstratofam mentioned not to use pressure treated wood. Too many think its the way to go because it lasts longer than non-PT. That may be true, but it causes the aluminum to evaporate. I know firsthand and many of us have suffered through fixing corrosion caused by PT. No fun at all!

GA_Boater, probably so. I've been called many things in my life and most I can't post on these forums. But like ducks, it rolls off my back... However, please please don't call me late for dinner....ever! :facepalm:

 

[gberl001]

Sorry for the delayed response, I've been trying to tear apart the boat to replace the floor while I do the transom. Thanks for the feedback, good to know that the masses feel the braces are still structurally sound. I do think something happened to cause the knee brace buckle though because there is some lifting of the hull at the base of the center brace, looks like something gave the transom a big tug, plus, the starboard side corner cap was held in with screws as well as the brace at the forward end of the splashwell (the aluminum column that crosses the beam and has guides for sliding doors underneath).

Anyway, I'm going to try and fix all of that, maybe I should start a thread in the remodel section. I'll get some more photos in of the boat, currently I'm waiting to see if I can get my name changed, as you can probably tell I accidentally entered my email address.

I just purchased my sheet of Marine Fir, I'm going to glue the two boards together with polyurethane Gorilla Glue as suggested by the lumber shop owner. After it's glued and cut I'm going to coat it in some leftover fiberglass resin I have.

 

[jbcurt00]

Name change will have to wait until Monday but can be done. Did you private message a mod w/ the request? Don or I can forward the request, just send any mod a PM w/ what you want it changed to.

We can change the name of this topic for you, any time you'd like, if you want to keep this as the rehab topic. It can be moved to the Starcraft forum if you wish too. Or start a resto topic in either forum, both have quite a few SCs documented.

Good luck

 

[GA_Boater]

Yep - Just let us know what new name you want. We can move the thread and/or rename in minutes after seeing what you want to do, gber. Admin does name changes - A little more involved.

BTW - I took the semi-pro stuff as a joke and I feel most of us did.

I wonder if some where in time the boat was rear-ended and a bonked motor tweaked the hull a little. It doesn't seem serious from the pics I've seen so far.

 

[gberl001]

Name change will have to wait until Monday but can be done. Did you private message a mod w/ the request? Don or I can forward the request, just send any mod a PM w/ what you want it changed to.

I used the contact us feature in the footer. Not sure who sees that but I sent a message that way, I haven't seen a response yet but I figured I'd wait until Monday to follow up. Should I still PM a mod?

 

[jbcurt00]

I suspect Admin is who gets those messages, and I'm sure they will handle it as soon as they can. Maybe PM a mod by 4p EST Monday if you don't get a message back.

 

[gberl001]

I am not planning a full restore at this point but I just purchased my second boat, a 16' Nassau to replace my 50's nameless 14' bench style boat. I like this one because it has the deck layout and it's much wider so there is a lot of room and it won't rock as much while moving around. Also, I plan to tug my boys around in a tube, nothing too crazy but to them it'll be a blast.

Anyway, my initial plans are to replace the transom, deck, dash and just a cosmetic touchup here and there. Not sure how long I'm going to keep this one so I don't want to get too crazy just yet. In the future I plan to open the bow and maybe put a fishing platform in the bow where the kids could jump off as well.

I figured I'd start one thread to ask all of my questions along the way rather than separate threads for each topic since, this way I may get 'followers' who will know the history as I ask more questions going forward... Anyway, enough text, here are some pics of the whole gal.

Overall she's in pretty great shape, it looks like someone shot at it from the sky with an automatic weapon because it has upwards of 30 holes in the gunwale and closed bow from the windshield, looks like various covers etc. I plan to fill those in with JB Weld and repaint the top, the rest of it could use a paint job too but I don't have the time, ambition or space to flip it over right now.

Lemme know what you think! I'm pretty happy considering I picked it up for $1,500

EDIT:
'till I work this out with the mods, here is a link to my first question, regarding the state of the transom (before I decided to create a restore thread)
Transom Question

 

[gberl001]

I started a new thread appropriately titled for a refurb project, I wanted to properly introduce the boat first this time so now I'll see if I can get a mod to merge this thread with the refurb thread.

If you want to see pics of the boat, check them out in the refurb thread

 

[Grandad]

I think those bulges in the transom braces could be caused by the formation of ice if the boat was stored in a cold climate with water in it. A repeated freeze/thaw cycle over the winter could do that sort of damage. Ice surrounding the brace would have a place to expand away from the brace, but ice inside the brace could cause it to expand like a soda can left in your freezer. Have you noticed a corresponding bulge downward in the hull skin beneath the braces? - Grandad