Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

[Gibbles]

I like those avalanches, you wont even notice the boat behind it

 

[Pmccraney]

H2OMan - been a while since I checked in. I took a little break from iboats, particularly when all of the technical issues happened.
Man, I hate that I missed the latter part of this build coming together in real time, but I thoroughly enjoyed catching up on it this a.m. over coffee.

From bees, to tornados, to corrosion - you kicked this rehab's ass. Great work. I'm sure the payoff is sweet.

Take care,
pm

 

[Watermann]

Welcome back and thanks for stopping by, glad you enjoyed the rebirth of my old Chief!

You were right there with the Sea Nymph resto and I wondered what happened to you. I guess that forum nuke helped to chase off a bunch of guys for for a time.

 

[GoldDuster360]

Nice looking Chieftan, man that was some work to bring her back but worth it!

 

[classiccat]

Agua...I was out at the storage tent talking to....er I mean...checking out the SS (assuring her that the project will someday resume...)

How is that metallic bottom paint holding up after some use? That may be the direction I go as well...someday :lol:

 

[Watermann]

I was out moving the Chief over closer to the garage doors so I can ponder the fabrication and installation of the top mount controls so I was able to take a good look at the bottom. Since it's the same tractor poly alkyd paint with hardener as the rest of the boat and after a short summer on the water it pretty much looks the same as when she rolled out the garage door.
I did however on a windy day put a scrub mark on the white when docking. :watermelon:

 

[Furrylittleotter]

I have read your blog and your boat turned out super nice. It has given me a lot of motivation for my project. I was curious, in your video of that ride on that super glassy lake I noticed multiple very rough sprays in your wake. I suppose this is "normal" but it seems like quite a bit more than what I'm used to seeing. Had you noticed that? Are all Starcrafts like that? Just Chieftains? Can't remember at this moment if you have trim tabs or whale tail or anything else that could account for that spray but it seems excessive? Any thoughts?

Neil

 

[Watermann]

Thanks for taking a look at my Chief. I do have the Nauticus smart tabs installed and I know what your taking about, you can see their tracks in the wake on each side. I've been thinking about lowering the pressure setting on the tabs to see how they perform and that would maybe create less drag. If I can get the same benefit from the lower tension strut position it would mean more speed while using less fuel.

I just watched the video again, cruising at 30 MPH the wake looks pretty much like you expect and you can see the tab tracks. It's when the boat is WOT and near 50 MPH that wake goes into spray mode as it leave the stern.

 

[Furrylittleotter]

Thanks for the reply, I am of course, interested for selfish reasons mainly. I'd prefer to learn as much as I can about this particular boats aqua-dynamics from others rather than my own mistakes when possible. Maybe a thread has already delved into this issue in particular or I can start one? I was really surprised to see what I think is a fairly bizarre spray pattern behind yours...

Neil

 

[jbcurt00]

Maybe a thread has already delved into this issue in particular or I can start one? I was really surprised to see what I think is a fairly bizarre spray pattern behind yours...

Neil

To the best of my knowledge, there isn't a topic about it currently.

IMO, that spray behind Rob's Chief is related to pushing (passing?) 50mph in a hull not designed for that type of speed, but that certainly isn't based on any actual knowledge, experience or engineering......

W/ the tabs, there's still plenty of hull in the water, even if it's up to speed and planing. Same qualifiers to my last statement....

 

[52FordF2]

Water, was over at Yarney's thread are you going to get that itch now? :lol:

May have a little progress in a few weeks on mine. It's warming up!

 

[Watermann]

Nice warm spring day so I had to tear into my boxes of new parts for the Chief. The controls needed to be replaced badly, the side mount from the donor was not cutting it at all. So as I posted earlier in the thread I got a new top mount Uflex. There was a serious bit of trepidation as I had to install the new controls on the gunnel next to the helm chair so some cutting had to be done. I think it came out perfect, I hated that side mount, it was so low and reverse was a pain because of the helm chair.

I think these new controls are going to work out great.

I fabricated a cover plate to hide the hole from the side mount but the paint on it isn't cured yet so It's going to be a few days to finish that up.

I couldn't believe that I didn't have to even have to adjust the shifter side of things, just the throttle needed adjusted a bit. So I decided what the heck, time to bring the Chief out of winter hibernation so I fired her up and then took a little video of the event. For some reason or another the videos don't embed the player like they used to.

Thanks for stopping by :yo:

 

[jbcurt00]

awesome!

Now about the 1st splash of 2015 for the award winning Chief?

 

[GA_Boater]

The top mount looks perfectly positioned, Rob.

I inserted your video. Copied the URL of the video and pasted into the Insert Video box. We don't have to mess around with any of the sharing stuff from YouTube. Much easier this way.

Now about the 2014 SOTY winner, time for a swim?

 

[classiccat]

Lookin' and soundin' good there Agua! :thumb:

I bet you can't wait to put the hammer down on that bad boy! :madgrin:

 

[dozerII]

Sounding like she can't wait to get on the water, come on summer.

 

[Watermann]

Thanks for buzzing by my semi dry dry dock guys, yeah I can't wait to get her out later this month. I still have a porta head to get 'installed' as I need to fabricate an enclosure for it in the cabin.

I have a bunch of tune up parts showing up next week since I just used what was on the motor last year. Everything ran great but I really don't have the peace of mind knowing when it was last tuned with new plugs, wires, cap and rotor.

The only UH OH I had pulling her out of winter slumber was seeing there was small amount of PS fluid that had dripped in the bilge. Turned out to be a hose clamp going to the PS cooler that just needed a couple turns.

Any of you guys with Chiefs that may be thinking about doing away with that side mount set up don't be intimidated by anything but the cost of the new controls. :lol: It wasn't very difficult. The only thing I had to do was fabricate a 1.5" riser block so the control lever could fully manipulate.

Cut 2 pieces of scrap 3/4" ply, glued it together, sealed and wrapped with some thin AL and there ya have it.

 

[GA_Boater]

If you hadn't showed the spacer, I wouldn't have a clue you raised the remote. I looked at the pics and vid and the spacer blends and is invisible to my eyes. Nice!

 

[g0nef1sshn]

Yep, I wouldnt have known either. Looks awesome. Now I need to get a metal brake and start finding a bunch of aluminum. You guys make these custom mods look easy enough us newer guys to this stuff can do it.

 

[Gibbles]

Looks good, thats one thing i need to work on, controlls...

The Chrysler one i have is to wide for my setup, and where i mounted it in order to work is way to low.