waterrat828
Recruit
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2012
- Messages
- 2
Hello, I am new to this great website, and have never been a boat owner, before. I am, though, quite handy, at fabrication, and do-it-yourself projects, in other hobbies. I have been given a 16' foot older Starcraft boat, that the former elderly owner abused by leaving it out, exposed to several Michigan winters, with no cover, shelter, or any kind of protection, whatsoever. Consequently, the interior of it is totally ruined from accumulated rainwater, wind, rain, and sun damage. The owner gave it to me to take to the salvage yard for scrap metal value, and said I could keep whatever money I get, for payment of hauling it away. But after closer inspection, I think the boat is much too nice yet, to scrap out. I believe the hull is still water tight, with no leaks, because when I was bailing out gallon after gallon of standing rainwater, I didn't see any dripping or leakage from the hull's bottom. All the carpeting, and interior is water logged and worthless, with very few parts salvageable, if any. I took about 30 photos of it, but am having trouble downloading them to this site, even though I tried to use the lowest possible resolution setting. I searched all over inside and outside, to find a nameplate or plackard, stating capacities, and model name or number, but can't find anything except: "Starcraft," on the outside hull sides. and its last state of Michigan boat registration numbers. Looks like it was last registered in 2003. Could anyone tell me how I could further research the value of what I have here, and tell me whether it would be practical and/or cost effective to make a project out of restoring this boat, and possibly tell me from photos I could directly email you, what model and year of manufacture Starcraft I have? Also, is there any way I could learn the model and year of manufacture of this Starcraft, through the numbers of the former owner's State of Michigan boat registration numbers on the side of the boat? I see on my local craigslist, that there is a marine upholstery expert available that can: "totally gut the interior, repair and replace rotted wood, re-configure seating, build custom consoles, repair and replace cushions, any style of boat, any kind of fabric." I am planning on doing the "gutting out" part, myself, to keep costs down, but I don't know what to throw out and what to keep, that might be able to be re-used.Thanks for any information anyone can provide me.
