Just brought home another Starcraft SS 16ft

[slowleak]

I was browsing CL last night when a strange ad for a 17' boat popped up. Nothing in the ad but 17alum. boat, free.
I shot the guy an email and he called me this afternoon.
The boat is a one owner, but badly neglected.
I went to see the thing, it was parked in a field, and it had apparently been there for decades.
The best way to describe the interior is a combination between mud and mulch.
There were 3ft of wet leaves in the boat, the seats had melted into a pile of brittle vinyl and rotten plywood.
I climbed into the boat and looked around but the deck is rotted completely away, not so much as a single strip of hard plywood left. Its a 1973 16ft Starcraft SS.

What got my attention was that I kept finding concrete blocks laying about the boat. When I asked what they were for he told me his buddy told him that a boat needs ballast to float. I though he was joking at first but he went on to explain that if you put enough weight in the boat it can't capsize. After that comment I just backed my truck and trailer up to the boat and winched it on, the trailer had no tires left, about 2 inches of the rims and most of the trailer was rusted away but it was still holding the boat.
When I got home, I took a grain shovel and started to clean out the boat a bit, what I found was 16 concrete blocks, four under the splash tray, two under each side console, 6 up in the bow, and two just laying out in the middle of the deck, which i think may have been in the lower seat boxes but at this point I can't tell. Most of the deck came out with a shovel and a hose. What I have left is white polystyrene foam blocks, most of which all seem to be ok and not water logged somehow. There was also four spare wheels for the trailer, two 15" car rims, four plastic 6 gallon fuel tanks full of what used to be gas, and one Evinrude metal fuel can rusted to the point where the bottom fell out. This probably explains the melted section of foam in the rear corner.

The things people do to their boats never ceases to amaze me.

At this point I'm not sure what I'll do with it but the hull itself is super clean, the bottom of the boat still shines. It certainly holds water, it drained for four hours before it stopped dripping out the drain hole.
I'm sort of thinking of making it an open boat, maybe with just one console. No railing, no windshield, but that's just a though. I've got a good 110hp Evinrude that needs a home but these are only rated at 85hp, but I think I might give it a try anyway. I had one of these with a 50hp, another with a 75hp, and my last one had a 90hp and that by far was the right motor.

 

[GA_Boater]

16 concrete blocks for ballast - Mmmmm. Unique idea for something.

Pull the styrofoam blocks out - I bet they are holding a lot of water and they never dry out.

Hope you have some pre-clean out pics.

 

[BWR1953]

Wow, do we ever need pix!

 

[MD28]

Some people!

 

[slowleak]

I'll get a few pics once the rain stops here, it was dark by the time I got home with it last night.
The good thing about the rain is that its melting away some of the moss and green mold all over the hull.
I did remove the cement blocks, each one weighed 31.5 lbs. Making the total of concrete in the boat 504 lbs. The two rims weighed in at 84 lbs for the pair. The case of oil was 22 lbs. I found two 20 lb cast iron anchors up front, plus the galvanized anchor that had a rope on it. There were two layers of 3/4" plywood each with a layer of carpet, on top of the original deck, all three layers of plywood are all but dissolved into mulch. Figure that a sheet of 3/4" plywood weighs in at about 68 lbs when dry, and that the total area used to make up the deck is roughly equal to 3 full sheets, that means there was 6 extra sheets of plywood in the boat, with the thought in mind that they wouldn't have added the next layer until the one before it was wet and sagging, the weight of the added deck alone has to be close to 450lbs or so. That's nearly 1100 lbs of weight in the boat before passengers or gear, or the motor itself for that matter. No wonder the 35hp wouldn't get the thing on plane. They should have been glad it even moved the thing at all. What's even more amazing is that it didn't sink.

 

[BWR1953]

Yow! :faint2:

 

[GA_Boater]

No wonder she sank into the ground. Nature was digging a grave!

 

[slowleak]

I'll never understand why anyone would ad weight to a boat like this, its not making it any less likely to capsize, its doing the opposite in fact. But of course, if it did capsize, it would have most certainly dumped its entire contents instantly. The concrete, rims, and all the layers of wood were just laying in the boat, nothing was secured in anyway. The only thing that would have stayed in the boat would have been the rivets holding down the original deck and the two side consoles since they appear to be attached to the gunwales on each side. The rest would have been gone.
If I can find a safe way to rotate this thing upside down, I'd remove both consoles and flip it over, then just shove up the mess. It would be far easier then scooping it all up one handful at a time or using a shop vac. I removed the anchors and ropes in between the rain showers today, the rope tide to the smallest, about 5lb, anchor is over 200' long, The lead rope tied to the bow was 100' long. I guess they had planned to run in deep water. I have the two ropes soaking in detergent and some bleach right now, they were covered in mildew and moss stuffed into the forward compartments. I found more dead weight, about 20' of 3/8" chain with hooks on both ends, this was in a poly bag shoved down in front of the right console through the front access hole. Its the kind a flat bed driver would use to secure the load on a tractor trailer.
I found an unopened but empty 12 pack of Dr Pepper cans buried in the leaves too, they look like they corroded away from the inside out. The few pieces of foam I pulled out seem dry, but there doesn't appear to be any foam down the center, only on the outer edges of the floor. As if they didn't put foam between the two aluminum stringers? All my old boats had foam blocks throughout the entire floor.

Does anyone have a source for two rear corner caps? The kind without handles molded into them?

I'm also debating on what thickness plywood to use. The original layer is 1/2", I keep reading where some used 3/4" plywood. I'm not sure I want to add all the extra weight.

I'm leaning towards just using 1/2" plywood, well coated in epoxy on both sides, then maybe just coating the whole inside with gray truck bed liner paint?

 

[MD28]

I find 1/2 inch ply to be a bit prone to bending unless you use more support than the original two stringers. Maybe compromise with 5/8ths? I used 5/8 on my deck and it bends just enough to notice when im stepping in the ski locker area. I wanted to shed the pounds if I could too. If you add cross member aluminum angle in the wider areas you might be OK but that stuff is expensive. It is tough to beat 3/4 for strength. Sub floors in house construction is all 3/4 inch for a reason I suppose...

 

[slowleak]

Won't the foam blocks support some of the weight or at least take a lot of the flex out?

I can find really nice looking 1/2" and 3/4" plywood around here but all the 5/8" stuff looks like cheap sheathing.
They don't stock ACX grade in 5/8".
I guess the weight difference overall won't be all that much, I figure 68 lbs for 3/4, and 46 lbs for 1/2".
A rough guess tells me that 3/4" will ad about 75 to 80 more pounds to the boat, or about the weight of a deep cycle battery. While that don't sound like much, in a 16' boat it can make a big difference. If I remember right, these only have about a 1500 lb capacity, including the motor. So if the motor weighs 300lbs, then I'm down to 1200lbs, then figure two big men out fishing, another 800 lbs, a 100lb cooler full of ice, another 100 lbs of misc gear onboard, a 20 gallon livewell, 12 gallons of fuel, and I'm cutting it close. I want to keep this as light as possible.
In reality I'd be better off with an 18' hull but this is what came along this time, and I found in the past that the 16' boat is far easier to power efficiently vs. the 18' hull. The same 115hp V4 that will make this thing fly, would be under powered on the 18' hull.

 

[fishrdan]

Get the title?

Crazy story, but looks like a nice hull to rebuild. Just be glad the guy didn't fill'er up with ready-mix

 

[slowleak]

Got the title for the boat, nothing on the trailer, but we don't title trailers here, just registration. The trailer isn't a concern, I've got a super clean Load Rite sitting idle for it when the time comes.

I haven't seen any with Ready-Mix but I did see a few with masonry type floor leveler. It was a glass boat that donated its motor. The guy decked the thing with hardwood flooring and then filled all the 'gaps' with floor leveler, then carpeted the thing with padding and carpet like you would do a house.

The worst one I pulled apart had been filled with biodegradable foam peanuts. When they got wet, they melted into snot and re-hardened like melted candy. Those that weren't melted took off in the wind the minute I lifted up the old decking. About 10 trashbags worth of foam peanuts flying in the wind all at once. The good thing is they were gone with the next rain. They had bagged some of the foam peanuts but the black bags broke down too.

The boat that had the foam peanuts for flotation also had multiple layers of paper backed linoleum flooring on the deck, each time a layer lifted or fell apart they stapled and glued down another. There was about 8 layers. That boat was only 15 ft long, and the guy used four vintage Pompano boat chairs for seating atop of stainless pedestals, the seats alone weighed more than the boat.

I sold a Starcraft Capri trihull about five or so years ago, I passed it on the water one day about a year after I sold it, the guy had gutted the hull, left only one side console, added a hand crank winch behind the drivers seat and painted it red, white, and blue. He was coming into the back creek when I passed him, loaded to the water line with crabs and crab pots. He was using it as a commercial crabbing boat, it was sitting so low in the water you couldn't see the rub rail. He was sitting on top of a crate so he could see over the pile of crab pots stacked high on the bow. When I had it I worried if I had an extra passenger on board. The max capacity of that boat was 1025 lbs. He had five times that in it.
(When I sold it, I removed the state registration decals, when I saw the boat on the water it had no numbers or registration decal).
I haven't seen it lately, someone told me they thought they heard he capsized the boat offshore somewhere and had to be rescued.

I bought a 24' Larson trihull for its motor years ago, the owner wanted a cabin so he cut away most of the forward structure and both side consoles and built what looked like a wooden storage shed van windows on the side and a rear house door. The windshield was a sash window mounted sideways. He had a kerosene heater, a bench seat from a Buick and pink carpet in the 'shed'. It was complete with an asphalt shingle roof. The rest of the deck was flat with 5/4" boards for decking. It weighed a ton but it gave me a good 175 hp Evinrude for cheap. It took me a week to cut it up so I could haul it to the dump. Even a month on CL in the Free list didn't find any takers for that one.

I've got two pallets of used 3" thick polyisocyanurate foam insulation at work that's being tossed, so I'm thinking that will become my new flotation. Its got a foil backing on one side, paper on the other but I don't think the backing will be an issue and I can peel off the paper and glue it paper side to paper side to make thicker blocks. Best of all its heat and chemical resistant. I've had a piece of it sitting in a bucket of water for a year now and it don't seem to gain any water weight and it takes half a cinder block to hold it down in the bucket. Its been through freezing temps now as well as all summer in the sun and it still floats and doesn't show any signs of breaking down. I'll fit it to the floor tight but leave it a bit above the stringers so I can go back and cut it flush with a long knife or saw. That way it'll sit tight to the floor.
I'll likely leave a few air gaps here and there too, for drying and drainage purposes.
Of course, the few pieces of original foam I pulled up from around the consoles are dry, but there is no foam down the middle that I've found so far but all I've done is poke around and shovel out some of the trash and leaves.
I hauled the concrete blocks down back to where I plan to add onto my one shed.

We're supposed to get rain for the next few days so I won't likely get a chance to tear into it for a bit yet.

 

[Watermann]

The pic of the SS on the trailer is not what I expected to see, great story though. :thumb:

 

[slowleak]

I'll get some more pics when it stops raining. Its been raining since I brought the boat home.

When I first brought it home the inside pretty much just looked like a pile of wet leaves and compost. I got the weight out as fast as I could to take the load off the rusty trailer, and the hull for that matter.

Its looking better and better as I got some of the crap out of the boat.

 

[slowleak]

​ After an hour of shoveling out the boat, here's a few pics of the boat minus the garbage, concrete and leaves. I pulled up the two top layers of plywood as well. The foam I was pulling up wasn't the factory foam, there was a layer of 1" polystyrene foam under the first layer of plywood, plus two plywood bases from some old seats. After getting all the stuff out that didn't belong, I took the boat around the corner to a buddies shop, he's got a drive on scale and gantry hoist. I l weighed the whole rig, then lifted the boat off, and weighed it again. The hull alone currently weighs in at 646 lbs 7 oz.
I'm pretty much going to bet that most of the original foam is still good. They list this hull at 670 lbs. Figuring there is no seats in the boat, and the fact that much of the remaining floor and wood is wet, I don't think its holding much water weight other then the wet wood.

 

[Watermann]

That's some nasty soggy crud alright.

It sounds like you're talking yourself into the reuse of that the old stinky Styrofoam, rigid foam board is a much better option and isn't 4 decades old.

 

[GA_Boater]

That's some nasty soggy crud alright.

It sounds like you're talking yourself into the reuse of that the old stinky Styrofoam, rigid foam board is a much better option and isn't 4 decades old.

The styro will crumble making an easy decision. :smile:

 

[slowleak]

I guess I'll make that call when I get to that point. So far the styro looks ok but this boat has flotation in places my other 16SS boats didn't. As I mentioned before, there doesn't appear to be foam down the middle between the stringers, only outboard of the two aluminum rails. There is a layer of foam under the short bow deck, a block under the 'seat' at the very tip of the bow, a 2" thick strip under each gunwale but only where the gunwales are straight. It stops just shy of the side consoles, and blocks below each package tray on both sides. None of my other boats had this upper foam. The foam under the gunwales appears glued in place, but all the rest is trapped in place and is loose of the hull otherwise.
I have roughly 15 4x4 sheets of Polyiso foam insulation from work, its closed cell, fuel and chemical resistant, and 3" thick, but with out its backing its not very strong. It won't support weight and it crumbles easier than the pink foam does.
I priced pink foam board at HD, they want $24 per sheet for a 1-1/2" 4x8 sheet, if I replace all the below deck foam and fill in the center as well, I'll need many sheets, well over $200 in foam, more if I replace the upper area blocks. I won't bother with the under gunwale or deck foam, its not bad and can be replaced at any point. As can the forward block under the bow seat.
(I'd really rather that area be storage, I'm considering losing that chunk of foam and hinging that lid for access or anchor storage. Adding foam down the middle will replace that foam and then some).

 

[slowleak]

Can anyone think of a reason why they would have left out the foam down the middle? Maybe drainage?
Boats I had in the past were both older and newer but only my SS models were newer. I had a few older Jupiter models which also had foam down the middle below the deck. It seems odd they would neglect to take advantage of such a huge area to add flotation to. No other Starcraft I've owned had foam under the gunwales or behind the side panels. but this is the first one I've owned that was all original when I got it, all my other boats were either modified to some extent, stripped of trim or original interior or had been rebuilt in the past. This one appears to have all its original bits still in place.

 

[BWR1953]

Can anyone think of a reason why they would have left out the foam down the middle? Maybe drainage?
Boats I had in the past were both older and newer but only my SS models were newer. I had a few older Jupiter models which also had foam down the middle below the deck. It seems odd they would neglect to take advantage of such a huge area to add flotation to. No other Starcraft I've owned had foam under the gunwales or behind the side panels. but this is the first one I've owned that was all original when I got it, all my other boats were either modified to some extent, stripped of trim or original interior or had been rebuilt in the past. This one appears to have all its original bits still in place.

Yes, it's to add water ballast when the boat is swamped to prevent capsizing. Theoretically providing upright and level flotation. If you do the math, you'll find that there would be several hundred pounds of water down low with flotation along the sides below deck and along the sides of the hull, plus the flotation under the gunnels. Maybe it'll work, maybe not. Depends on a variety of factors, one of which is the amount of flotation at the very stern where all the motor weight is located. If there isn't enough flotation there, the boat just sinks from the stern.