GalacticJello
Member
A little over 5 years ago, my oldest brother died unexpectedly (46, a year older than I am today), and my wife and I decided to buy his "Warrior" from his widow to keep as a kind of memento.
It is a 16' Starcraft with a split seat in the middle, and a flat floor throughout except for the bow (he put one in up there).
Here's the mods I did before (add new seats, wired it up for electronics front and back, small stuff):
It should be noted that my "fishing buddy" is my best friend,who happens to be my wife... she fishes off the very tip of the boat an only sits in the nice seat I purchased for her when we are underway.
We have had many, many good times with this boat, and have dragged all over the state, and even into Canada. It's a great boat. But...
I stay in the back ALWAYS running the old '84 Merc 25HP backtrolling most of the time, or using the trolling motor when it is calm (me and the buddy fish walleyes with live bait rigs trolling almost exclusively here in central Minnesota because no matter what lake you are on in the state, you will catch several dozen fish in a couple of hours and a few will be walleyes).
I have a small transistor radio that I use to drown out the putt-putt-sputt-sputt from the Merc, but the backbreaking bench seat sitting just kills me after a couple of hours. I fished with a buddy with a newer tiller model that just had a pedestal seat in the back, and that got me wondering... I'd love to remove this bench and put in a nice seat like I did for my fishing buddy (which she doesn't use).
So after trolling around the web a while, I kept coming back to some of the other projects that you guys undertook, and I listened and learned.
What I learned was:
It is going to be a great bit of fun to undertake
It is going to be a pain in the A**
It is going to be cheaper to just buy the boat I want with the features that I want and probably a way better power plant
What trumps it is that it is my brother's boat, and I am going to be working on it with my second oldest son, (a 15 year old, who I already bequeathed my very first boat once he gets established : 1958 14' Starcraft deep-V aluminum ).
So... here goes! First step is the demo. Ripping everything out.
It is a 16' Starcraft with a split seat in the middle, and a flat floor throughout except for the bow (he put one in up there).
Here's the mods I did before (add new seats, wired it up for electronics front and back, small stuff):
It should be noted that my "fishing buddy" is my best friend,who happens to be my wife... she fishes off the very tip of the boat an only sits in the nice seat I purchased for her when we are underway.
We have had many, many good times with this boat, and have dragged all over the state, and even into Canada. It's a great boat. But...
I stay in the back ALWAYS running the old '84 Merc 25HP backtrolling most of the time, or using the trolling motor when it is calm (me and the buddy fish walleyes with live bait rigs trolling almost exclusively here in central Minnesota because no matter what lake you are on in the state, you will catch several dozen fish in a couple of hours and a few will be walleyes).
I have a small transistor radio that I use to drown out the putt-putt-sputt-sputt from the Merc, but the backbreaking bench seat sitting just kills me after a couple of hours. I fished with a buddy with a newer tiller model that just had a pedestal seat in the back, and that got me wondering... I'd love to remove this bench and put in a nice seat like I did for my fishing buddy (which she doesn't use).
So after trolling around the web a while, I kept coming back to some of the other projects that you guys undertook, and I listened and learned.
What I learned was:
It is going to be a great bit of fun to undertake
It is going to be a pain in the A**
It is going to be cheaper to just buy the boat I want with the features that I want and probably a way better power plant
What trumps it is that it is my brother's boat, and I am going to be working on it with my second oldest son, (a 15 year old, who I already bequeathed my very first boat once he gets established : 1958 14' Starcraft deep-V aluminum ).
So... here goes! First step is the demo. Ripping everything out.