1980 16 ft amf crestliner fish hawk

hello to all out there in Tin boat land i have been a member for a few years now and thanks for all the great knowledge you all share it has taught me so much a bout boats and motors. I just drug home another project boat. Is a amf crestliner and i have never seen a boat built this way before. i have many questions i hope you all can answer. Here are a few pics and then i will ask the questions so you all know what i am talking about...

Man that's one heck of a ROBUST stringer/grid system! Too bad the foam got wet ...

I should change my signature to read:

"A dry bilge is a happy bilge!"

As I've seen more nice boats needing a refurb just because standing water was ALLOWED to accumulate in the bilge ...

ok so this boat is welded and has rivets, but dont seem to have much of a transom as you can see in the one pic it does have a board on the back of the boat was that original ? the foam that is in the bottom of the boat was that structural or flotation foam? and does any one no where i can get more info on this boat?

Thanks again for you input and help

yes the foam i got out so far was weighed about 300 plus pounds got 4 55 gal drums full of wet foam..and yes i never seen a boat like this my other two boats are both lone star's and i am not sure how to go about this rebuild all input is welcome PLEASE....

Hey, as mentioned already I like the x braces in the stringers. I just went through the wet foam issue. My advice is not to fill the center keel of six inches. And drill a couple 1” holes on each side of the keel. To drain from bow to stern. Happy building [emoji106]


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should i use the two part foam or can i use the sheet foam ? The stringers seem far apart to me , i will measure them next chance i get, how about the transom what you all think about that, and the big piece of wood on the back ??

FOAM - 2-part can be tricky, as if TOO much, it can 'pop' the area you put it in, as I have seen it break off frp bulkheads! The other tough part is if it rises higher than where your floor would be. If you go to cut it off ... you just ruined it's water repellency.

I haven't used sheet foam, so I can't comment, but would think it would be fine for this rebuild.

WOOD - Most of us laminate exterior plywood (do NOT use pressure treated) and coat it with epoxy or the old timers formula. It MUST be sealed, especially on the edges.

IMHO that wood added to the rear is not needed and was only added by the PO as they knew their transom was weak.

The transom is the part i can not figure out as you can see in the pic it has 3 knee braces bot no wood between then and the back of the hull, on top above the knee brace the wood is only about 8 inches deep . any body out there ever own one of these type boat or any boat where the knee brace goes straight to the aluminum... ?

This is what I did for a new transom in a 12' skiff where the knee was there. I used two pieces and one extends down below and around the knee.

I am just finishing a 93 crestliner night hawk it has very similar construction but all welded, the wood on the outside should not be there, mine had 1 3/4" plywood in between the alum on the outside and the alum on the inside,( you will have to remove the transom cap), the wood stoped just short of the knee braces from the factory and I replaced it with the same height.

I may be all wet here, but when I look at the photos something isn't computing. Looking closely at the two photos below, it looks like there is a transom cap under where the OB is mounted. You can see the OB mounting bolts right under the clamp handles. At least I think those are OB mounting bolts. Then in front of the transom is a motor/splash well.

It looks to me like those braces are on the inner transom skin. Are you sure the transom wood is not sandwiched between inner and outer transom skins?

Edit: Or, maybe the "inner" transom skin only goes down as far as the where the splash well connects to the transom?

On my night hawk the wood was sandwiched in between the iner and outer skin, and the inside skin only went down to the bottom of the splash well.

Ah, now I get it. Thanks.

thanks for the info modx do you by any chance have a few pic you could post of yours for me ??

These are the only pics I have of the build, I hope these help. The center knee brace is the only one that is bolted through the plywood.

The first pic is the original wood core in the transom.

well the transom does not look strong to me but before i tear in to that i need to fix this problem, a thru hull fitting that looks like it use to go to a live well, What is the best way to plug, patch or remove this... if i cant stop the water from coming in i am sunk........

ok the fishing is done for the year here time to start to work on the boat... I have searched all of the web i could and have only found two pictures of a boat like this....

the first pic is one that is for sell on cl, (notice the board on the back ) the other is the add for the 16 ft and the 18 ft version of it when they where new, Look real close at the new ones is that a piece of wood i see on the back of the transom ?

what you all think ?