1995 Starcraft Islander 221V

[Anode1]

Decided to document here my repairs and upgrades of 20 y.o. Starcraft Islander which I purchased 2 years ago. If you find an error or know a better way of doing something - please mention, so others will not do the same mistake, and we'll add to our common knowledge.
I'm new to the forum, so all advices will be appreciated including how to better organize such threads.

 

[Anode1]

Before:


and after:

 

[Watermann]

Your Islander looks great Anode :thumb:

 

[Anode1]

I purchased her in January, the price was fair, and there were 2 offers and 3 candidates, other guys wanted to try it in spring, so when I took the risk to take her right away without any testing, driving from another province, and taking at the guy's word that there are no leaks, the guy agreed to accept my offer. And I had to dig her from the frozen dirt, with the following 600km.

 

[Anode1]

Thanks, Watermann!

 

[Anode1]

I knew the potential problems with seams and rivets but wanted light boat with cuddy - to be able to pull it with my light truck to different locations, so Starcraft Islander was the only candidate. Before that I owned 2-stroke outboards, and didn't have any experience with I/O.
BTW here are my previous boats (Starcraft Islander seemed to be a huge ship comparing with those, I had troubles with docking the first time):

First boat:

Motors:


2nd boat:

 

[Anode1]

The first year on water showed leaks. The boat was in marina and the bilge pump was working pretty frequently. There were even though hull pinholes from galvanic corrosion.

So, I decided to repaint.

Removal decals with heatgun and xylene:










Old paint removing:

 

[Anode1]

So, I decided to seal by gluvit before painting. A few rivits were moving and I used West System G/flex epoxy for those.







Through hull

 

[Anode1]

I didn't want to make holes for transducer (the transom was rotted in that place), so I glued a plastic bar - to avoid through hull holes




Previous situation



Dent repairs by epoxy putty

 

[Anode1]

I knew that zink chromate primer was the best primer for aluminum (US bombers during WWII where yellow), so I tried to cover exposed aluminum with zink chromate. There was a competition here with gluvit since for sealing seams and rivits the epoxy should have bonded to aluminum as well, so I sealed rivits first.

 

[Anode1]

My wife asked not to repeat the design of the original 95 painting but instead to use more modern design. We found pictures of 2012 Islander and made the same slim stripes. As for waterline - as I forgot to make a line when had been in water - I used the ground level, a stick and a piece of lumber

 

[Anode1]

 

[Anode1]

Our guest

 

[Anode1]

New decals (ordered online)

 

[Anode1]

Next summer I had no leaks at all when stored her in water

 

[Anode1]

Deck was sealed and painted by anti-skid paint

 

[Anode1]

Forgot to mention the anchor. I wanted to have the weight as far as possible to the bow. I heard that Islanders have too light bow and some people even put additional weight into the bow, so my idea was to hang anchor like on big yachts and instead of useless weight to put anchor chain instead: useful weight.

Before:


After:


Additional reenforcement

 

[Anode1]

Bilge was also cleaned and primed by zink-chromate.

I put 2nd bilge pump (not relying on the old original one).



Learned how to install rivits


Replaced fish tank pump (previous one was defective and leaking)

 

[Anode1]

The ladder was broken. I found plastic in boat supplies store (we have one in Toronto!) with the proper thickness, and made new steps

 

[Anode1]

Here is the bilge before cleaning and painting with the original defective bilge pump (forgot to place these photos above, in the corresponding post)