My 1973 Starcraft 14' Row Boat Project...

Well, progress has been slow until lately but I have been working on it literally all weekend (patient wife who likes to fish) long. My trailer originally had my 2004 Meyer 12' Laker and wanted to trade up in size so I sold the Meyer and bought the 14' Starcraft thinking that the trailer would be plenty long since I had extra room with the old boat. Well, wrong on that thought! In the past couple of weeks I have rebuilt the trailer with a brand new 3' longer tougue, sanded and painted the bottom of the boat green (boy I sure would like to slap the boneheads who painted this thing without doing any prep!), designed and built pedestal mount flanges that won't trap water on the wooden benches, installed short pedestals, swivels, quick release seats and came up with a simple, cheap and effective "insurance" mod to make sure that the seats don't accidently pop out of the quick release mount while travelling down the road like I have read about by adding a mini bungee cord.

Alot older than my "old boat" and showing it's years a little here and there but I am looking foward to adding a second battery, an on-board charger, a bow mounted trolling motor (which I have to build some sort of deck mod to install it on), some lights and possibly a semi mounted cooler/live well set-up.

For now it's ready for the water and I can't wait!!!

Looks good!

Cant wait to get the first reports! :beer:

Nice work! Looks great!

Looks good!

Looks good. Have you considered building some sort of removable floor sections to lay across the ribs? It makes getting around in the boat a lot easier. The ones that I have seen are not very wide sections (3 ft maybe?) of plywood with bracing on the underside (all waterproofed of course). They just layed down over the ribs to make walking easier.

I thought about the floor panels but I don't think I want to ad the extra weight that comes with it. What I am thinking about though is putting some kind of rubber mat on the floor to deaden some noise.

F_I_Sherman NY said:

What I am thinking about though is putting some kind of rubber mat on the floor to deaden some noise.

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looks good, advice on the rubber mat, a black one killed me one time, the heat that comes from black was more than a could bare

FishingBuds, Thanks for the input! I'll be looking for the lightest color possible then!

Does anyone know why this thread has been moved??? I am new here and I placed it in the boat mods section as I am "doing modifications".

F_I_Sherman NY said:

FishingBuds, Thanks for the input! I'll be looking for the lightest color possible then!

Does anyone know why this thread has been moved??? I am new here and I placed it in the boat mods section as I am "doing modifications". Did I do anything wrong?

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No not at all. I am trying to organize a bit but I'm doing a horrible job. I will put it back!

AH, I see now. Good luck straightening it out Jim!

F_I_Sherman NY said:

AH, I see now. Good luck straightening it out Jim!

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I was thinking of putting all the jon and v boat conversions in this section. And any questions about them (carpeting, wood, wiring, anything not projects in progress in the other section. What do you think?

I liked it the way it was if ya really want to know...