1979 Starcraft Holiday my first boat

[TAC]

Just bought this boat a couple of days ago for 200 dollars. It has a good trailer, is 18ft long, with a mercury 70hp. outboard. Was wondering what preliminary steps i should take as far as inspections to the alum. hull, and or the engine. I'm a newbe with boats, but wanted to try a new hobbie. Any input would be appreciated.

 

[Reinellchris]

Re: 1979 Starcraft Holiday my first boat

welcome to i boats
would do a compression test on out board then replace impellor and gear oil before trying to fire engine.make sure you have muffs on.as for the hull look for corrosion around rivets and loose rivets
hope this helps

 

[sdunt]

Re: 1979 Starcraft Holiday my first boat

Also for the OB take a read of: http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/07/columns/max/articles.htm

Great stuff in there about going through an outboard from end to end.

Probe the floor, assume its wood, with a ice pick or similar looking for soft rotten parts. Also check the wood transom for soft spots.

Use shareaproject.com for a 'blog' and its a great FREE place to put all of your project pictures.

If you're plan is to gut the interior you can leak test the hull by running water in it and checking for leaks on the outside.

Friend gave me a great idea for finding small slow leaks. Tape a paper towel over the area where you're trying to locate the leak. The spot that gets wet 1st, you have to be watching it all the time, is the source of the leak.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: 1979 Starcraft Holiday my first boat

1st you buy the oem manual for the engine. post the serial number and we can tell you the year, and the proper manual. you can just walk on tip toes all around and aluminum boat floor and see if there are any soft spots. tilt the engine all the way up then rock it up and down if there is alot of movement in the transom, it need to be investigated.

now take some pictures, follow these directions

load your pictures to photobucket, then clik the small box under the pictures you want to post, go to the bottom of the page, clik generate HTLM. it will go to another page, about the 3rd section down it will say thumb nails for message boards, clik the box, and copy. then when posting in the forum, at the end of the post just paste the HTML, and click add reply. this is the easiest way to post pictures.

and read this.

http://forums.iboats.com/bbBoard.cgi?a=viewthread;fid=36;gtid=1035575

you've got a great first boat. may be a little project. but all the help you need is here.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: 1979 Starcraft Holiday my first boat

Got any pics?
I used to have one of those, they were great boats. A Starcraft Holiday was my first 'real' boat, or at least the first boat I had that I would travel a distance in.
I have been keeping my eye out for another one, so far all the ones I have seen have had too much damage or corrosion to mess with here. The last one I saw someone had tried some amature welding on the hull and finished up with about 10 tubes of silicone.

They also made a cuddy cabin version, and a walk-around cuddy version that used a similar hull.

 

[maulph]

Re: 1979 Starcraft Holiday my first boat

Hey- 1st time boat owner- congrats! I bought my first boat last September. I bought a 1972 Starcraft Holiday 21. It has a 115 Merc that runs but the water pump is not working. I just joined the iboats Forum and I can't figure out how to post my own questions. Any advice would be appreciated. I hope I have better luck working on the boat. Good Luck!!!