Tigerhunter
Member
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2011
- Messages
- 19
- Reaction score
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I've been browsing this forum for a better half of a decade now. I refinished an old 14' aluminum boat back in 2012, sold it and upgraded to this 16' Starcraft I have now. I enjoy looking through the posts on here and enjoy the friendly and helpful atmosphere. I mostly fish for muskie, tiger muskie and pike but I have a little one so I may be broadening my horizons to "whatever bites".
Now to the boat- I bought this boat and trailer for $350 back in the fall of 2012, the wheels/hubs were brand new and worth about $200 alone. The floor was rotted and needed replacing, the trailer itself needed some work but the hull seemed like it was in pretty descent shape. I threw in some new plywood and carpet with the intent of gutting and refinishing the boat. I added a 50 HP Force that I had been running on my 14' boat for a few years but it would only push it about 23 mph. When I sold my 14' boat I upgraded to a 70 HP Johnson with a few bells and whistles (at least compared to my old Force that stopped running...maybe stator?). Fast-forward to last year- my intent to strip the boat was halted by the super long and cold winter we had. Fishing season was here before I could barely get the boat past snowbanks out of storage and I had to piece together the little that I had taken apart. The first weekend I had the boat in the water (during a tiger muskie tournament) the outboard stopped running. All last summer was spent on trying to get the motor back up and running as I thought there was no sense in fixing up the rest of the boat if it couldn't really function. After dumping way too much money and time into the motor, it finally was back up and running around Thanksgiving, just in time to put it away after one last trip.
Luckily this winter has been pretty mild and I have been able to get some work done to it. My main motivation was that I wanted to be able to take my little one with my and have her be comfortable and "safe" while enjoying the boat.
I will be adding more pictures later; before, during and after.
-Trevor
Now to the boat- I bought this boat and trailer for $350 back in the fall of 2012, the wheels/hubs were brand new and worth about $200 alone. The floor was rotted and needed replacing, the trailer itself needed some work but the hull seemed like it was in pretty descent shape. I threw in some new plywood and carpet with the intent of gutting and refinishing the boat. I added a 50 HP Force that I had been running on my 14' boat for a few years but it would only push it about 23 mph. When I sold my 14' boat I upgraded to a 70 HP Johnson with a few bells and whistles (at least compared to my old Force that stopped running...maybe stator?). Fast-forward to last year- my intent to strip the boat was halted by the super long and cold winter we had. Fishing season was here before I could barely get the boat past snowbanks out of storage and I had to piece together the little that I had taken apart. The first weekend I had the boat in the water (during a tiger muskie tournament) the outboard stopped running. All last summer was spent on trying to get the motor back up and running as I thought there was no sense in fixing up the rest of the boat if it couldn't really function. After dumping way too much money and time into the motor, it finally was back up and running around Thanksgiving, just in time to put it away after one last trip.
Luckily this winter has been pretty mild and I have been able to get some work done to it. My main motivation was that I wanted to be able to take my little one with my and have her be comfortable and "safe" while enjoying the boat.
I will be adding more pictures later; before, during and after.
-Trevor
