Starcraft 18' Holiday rebuild - 1974

[jrs151]

Re: Starcraft 18' Holiday rebuild - 1974

Many Updates :

The recent Gov shutdown (more like a shut-out) affected my company's annual October contract renewal - (can we say what unlucky timing).
Well ... the gov's loss, is the Holiday's gain


Paint stripping has been tedious. A combo of the following:
liquid strippers, scraping with a putty knife, water washing with a metal brush, drill & wire-wheel.
Wash-rinse-repeat.

I focused on the waterline and up for now since the craft was still on the trailer. But I was making good progress and knew time to flip the hull was coming fast. So I started by making a couple of "carts" that the hull can ride on whilst upside-down:





Basically a set of caster wheels on 2x4 carriers. Also will serve as a support braces when actually flipping.

 

[jrs151]

Re: Starcraft 18' Holiday rebuild - 1974

I Flip for Holiday's !

So since I don't I have several hefty guys (or girls) at my disposal, I decided to build a couple of A-frame gantries. Why? Well, the design seem to offer sound structural support whilst allowing for a wide footprint for which I can slip the trailer out once hoisted in mid-air.

Here are the gantries:




These have a rope pulley and I used the cleats of the boat to tie the rope LOL !
Yeah, I know they look light-duty, but hey, it's a gutted naked hull, so 2x4's should do for now.

Oh !
... I was conflict on to pull the transom bofore or not. Well, I pulled it, so had to engineer a support for the rear:

 

[jrs151]

Re: Starcraft 18' Holiday rebuild - 1974

I Flip for Holiday's ! (continued)

Okay, so here I have the hull lined-up between the gantries:



Hull raised & trailer pulled away :



Rotate (that's my helpful neighbor in the pic):




Done - she's on the ground on the caster carts :

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: Starcraft 18' Holiday rebuild - 1974

I bet the rest of the neighbors were munching popcorn and swilling beer waiting for the inevitable. Fooled 'em! Nice flip.

 

[jrs151]

Re: Starcraft 18' Holiday rebuild - 1974

Okay ... while paint stripping the bottom, I found these weep holes. They were sealed-off by the PO, which is fine. I used a torch to break-down and remove the compound.



BUT, on a related note ... I found barnacle fragments under the recent layers of paint. So that answers the "has this craft ever been saltwater bound".
So this might be why the weep-holes were sealed - right. Some of the barnacle bases (shells) are almost 3/8", meaning she was in the water a long time at some point .

So I have a question for the community ... given that I will be using this craft in saltwater (yet not slipped), I'm correct with re-sealing the weep holes?? I'll of course seal all the seams to insure no saltwater enters (I hope) before final paint.

 

[Grandad]

Re: Starcraft 18' Holiday rebuild - 1974

So this might be why the weep-holes were sealed - right. Some of the barnacle bases (shells) are almost 3/8", meaning she was in the water a long time at some point .

So I have a question for the community ... given that I will be using this craft in saltwater (yet not slipped), I'm correct with re-sealing the weep holes?? I'll of course seal all the seams to insure no saltwater enters (I hope) before final paint.

Hi jrs. I see that no salties have responded to your question and soon you'll get the red 90 day inactive alert, so I'll bump in. I boat in fresh water, so I've kept my mouth shut, but I've been lurking all the same. My feeling is that every enclosed space should be able to drain. It's my understanding that trapped fresh water turns acidic and can cause crevice corrosion when there's no oxygen available. I expect that this would also happen with saltwater. I'm sure that water will seep in eventually, somehow. So, my opinion is to get the holes open, perhaps enough that you can even use a freshwater flush inside the strakes, which I would do ASAP. - Grandad

 

[barato2]

Re: Starcraft 18' Holiday rebuild - 1974

GD as usual has the right idea. don't forget some sort of anodic protection if you plan to leave it slipped in salt, esp at a marina.