Starcraft Trihull - Possible project?

[road kill]

I've been thinking about setting up an old trihull for fishing the river and lakes here for a while. I've been out on a buddies boat a few times and like the way they set nice and flat and don't tip when fishing.
I was told that they ride hard but don't really see that in the one my buddy has.
I was looking on CL in the surrounding areas and found a Starcraft Capri hull for sale not far from where I go to fish every fall. The boat looks decent, the transom is solid and hasn't ever even had any holes drilled in it, which I suppose is why its still solid.
The deck is good, but it needs seats and steering. The trailer its on is a bit overkill but in great shape with all new running gear and winch. It's the same model boat as my buddies but a few years older, but in far nicer shape.
I've searched all over but this is the only one of these I've found that doesn't need a transom or major fiberglass work:

http://southjersey.craigslist.org/boa/2504856895.html

I like all the room that these have up front, my plan would be to add a casting platform up front and to cover the deck with something washable, even if it's just paint. It had green Astro turf when new, someone tossed that and its down to the bare wood deck now, the factory floor is lightly covered with a thin layer of glass but not enough to be water proof. I'd go with two single seats and add a bimini top and a bunch of rod holders.
Do you think a 40hp Mercury 402 would be enough for this boat?

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Starcraft Trihull - Possible project?

If it is indeed solid, I think it would be a great platform for what you want to do with it. You can get a complete steering system for crazy cheap here: http://www.lowcostboatingstore.com/Uflex-ROTECH-Kits_c_226.html (even comes with a wheel) I kinda doubt a 40 is going to do real well on that boat, it's probably rated for like 140 or something. It might plane out with just you and a buddy though. Not sure.

My concerns are the price and the trailer. The boat itself, with no motor, really has no value. And that dual axle trailer is way overkill for it. Twice the running gear, twice the headaches for really no benefit.

 

[silveraire]

Re: Starcraft Trihull - Possible project?

I talked to the owner when I was looking for a boat. from what he describes, it is a nice hull. I have not personally looked at the boat. It has been for sale for quite some time, so beware. I would have thought that it would have sold already at that price. The trailer, if rebuilt properly, would be worth his asking price for someone with a larger boat.

Not saying stay away, but inspect it well. Starcraft made a decent fiberglass hull in the 70's and the platform would work great for you needs.

chad

 

[road kill]

Re: Starcraft Trihull - Possible project?

I actually found the boat looking at another boat for sale by another seller also stored at the same place. The deck and transom look great and the bottom of the boat doesn't even have a scratch of rub mark. It's been stored well covered for at least as long as the current owner has had it, and he says he took out the interior and removed the original motor. The trailer really isn't that heavy, it's a tandem axle but its sprung very light. It's got two large bunks that cradle the boat between the outer and main hulls. It sits pretty low to the ground and looks like a nice fit. I figure that the trailer is probably rated at about 2,000 or 2,500 lbs tops. Its an older trailer but in great shape. The seller bought the boat from a guy who moved from western PA and over in NJ they don't run gas motors in freshwater. I suppose that has a lot to do with a boat like that just sitting around there. There's probably not many places to run a trihull if your not fishing or crabbing. I already know I like that style hull, and it's in thousand times better shape than my buddies boat. The boat's Coast Guard plate reads 135hp max, but it's light, the way it sits on the trailer in the pic, I can walk the boat all over with no effort, I can even lift the tongue high enough to get the front axle off the ground with little effort. I also can lift the boat off the trailer at the stern fairly easy so it don't seem to be water logged or anything either.
My plan would be to fill in all the trim holes, mount some wood along both gunwales to attach rod holders too and to act as side step supports, and to cover the deck in something other than rough fiberglass that's there now. The only thing I don't understand about these hulls is why they didn't flatten out the floor around the front seats, the outer hull shape protrudes through the deck at your feet, if the deck was 1" higher in the hull it would be dead flat.
These are also wide hulls for being only 17' long, the beam is 82", which feels pretty wide standing in the boat. I also have a lot of faith in this hull after seeing what we put my buddies boat through. His has no deck left, the foam was dug out years ago, and he's got a loose piece of wood laying across the bottom and an old Mercury 65hp pushing it, it moves great, does about 27 or so Mph and has no problem planing out with two big guys in the boat. I figure that will all the wood and misc. junk accumulated in his boat, if it were running with half the junk he carries, this one should do fine with a 40hp. I guess what makes me even more interested is that the trailer running gear has no miles on it, he replaced everything from the springs on down with brand new. He said the one axle had a damaged spindle and he didn't like how high it rode so he had two custom axles made and flipped the axles on top of the springs and lowered the bunks and fenders to let the boat sit nice and low on the trailer.
Weight wise I'd say the boat has to be around 800 or so pounds as it sits, the trailer may be 500 or so. I do have an unused full roller trailer I could put the boat on but I doubt if I could get it to sit as nice on the roller as it does on the bunk trailer. It's also got a long tongue, meaning I won't need to back so close to the water launching it.
I agree that the trailer is where the money is at there, but I like that model boat, and the trailer is ready to go and don't need anything. I think I even have a used Teleflex system around here somewhere that would fit that too. He's also got a matching bimini top that he'll sell for $100 that looks almost new.

After seeing how the deck is laid out on my buddies boat, I'd probably cut into and raise the deck on this one down the road to make the whole rear deck level and flat all the way to the transom. I don't think it would take very much to do, and for my purposes, even just laying a layer of P/T wood over the original deck would work too, besides, wood would be far nicer to walk on than semi finished fiberglass and old carpet glue.
Has anyone else ever replaced the carpet in a Starcraft like this from that era? I take it they planned on the carpet just hiding the roughly glassed deck? On my buddies boat the cross braces under the deck were like 4' apart, meaning that the deck had no real support, I figure if I add to this deck I'd be preventing what happened to his from happening to this hull?
Especially since it'll be wet most of the time and exposed to bait and ice all the time. Not to mention stacking crab pots on the deck which are made of rough steel.

 

[reelmess]

Re: Starcraft Trihull - Possible project?

I had a 77 version of that boat years ago with a 135hp on it, it would all but sprout wings and fly.
It was one of my first boats and it got abused pretty bad but it held up.
The deck gave out crashing it through the surf with a bunch of weight in it but if I knew the deck was so light duty I'd have added some 3/4" plywood before it broke. The deck was supported only every 3 or 4 feet with what looked to be 1x3 boards, they broke and the deck broke at the seams. I tore it all out and built it up with heavier plywood and some fiberglass. I sold it to a guy that used it like a truck to haul firewood and supplies to his cabin on some lake up north. He showed me a pic of it loaded to the rub rail with firewood not long after I sold it.
I'd buy another in a minute if I found one at a good price close by. You can't beat a trihull for stability or capacity.

 

[starcraftkid]

Re: Starcraft Trihull - Possible project?

I had the exact same boat about 2 years ago, I sold it/ traded it in a deal to get my Starchief. I really hated selling it but the guy wouldn't part with the Starchief without first finding a family boat to use on the lake where he lived. Its the only trihull I've ever owned that didn't ride like the typical trihull, the ride was smooth and it took almost no power to get it up on plane. I ran a 75hp Evinrude on mine but it would have done fine with far less. I'd venture to guess you will do fine with a 40hp, those hulls are super light, mine was listed at something like 900lbs in the original manual and I've owned aluminum boats that weighed more. They also built a very similar model in a V hull, the American, but the trihull road just as good and was super stable. If I didn't already have 7 boats in the yard here and hopefully another one coming this week, I'd probably still own one. I looked at a bare hull for sale a while back while looking at another boat, if I had the room, it would have been mine. As it is now, the yard is filled, I couldn't park another one if I wanted to.

When I bought mine 7 years ago, it was a hull with a rusty trailer, a well worn Mercury 500, and no interior. I gave $500 for it and put in a pair of back to back seats, some new carpet after leveling the deck with a layer of new plywood as mentioned above, I too thought the floor was too soft or thin. I'm not even sure if mine had 1/2" plywood from the factory, so I added another layer of 1/2" and glassed over top of that. I removed all the side bolster trim and jump seat cushions on mine for ease of cleaning. I ran strips of 3/4" plywood which I stained and polyurethaned down each side and filled any unused holes. The original jump seats were too narrow with the cushions, they were only good for maybe a small child as they were, with the cushions removed the could be used by an adult. I also put a permanent bait cutting board across the front of the splashwell between the jump seats made of a salvaged piece of teak wood. It was actually the perfect fishing and crabbing machine. They are super stable in the water, it's like fishing off a dock. I also built a platform up front by making a flat plywood panel with storage both where the front seat cushions used to be and underneath between the dash halves. I mounted a single pedestal seat up front to fish from and added a bow mount trolling motor.
Its a boat that really should not have let go, I miss it every time my V hull rolls to one side landing a big fish. I like the idea of that tandem trailer, I had put mine on a newer roller trailer which sat too high, that thing looks super easy to launch and load.

 

[road kill]

Re: Starcraft Trihull - Possible project?

I like the idea of adding some strength to the deck as well as some wood to the gunwales. With the side bolster padding gone there's not a lot of support for the glass on each side as far as walking or stepping down on the gunwales at the dock.
Like I said, I've fished of my buddies Capri for years, it's a rock solid fishing boat, probably the best I've ever been on as far as balance and carrying ability. I'm sure we've overloaded his more than once. He's got a boom and winch mounted on the port side which he uses for crab pots, but we use it to raise a sunk jon boat stuck in the muck on the bottom once, he had the cable so tight that the rub rail was underwater before the jon boat broke free of the muck on the bottom. We then just hoisted it up and across the gunwales and hauled it home. I will most likely build the same type of winch and boom for mine if I get it. The fact that the hull can take that much down force on one side and not flip is what convinced me to look for one.

 

[slowleak]

Re: Starcraft Trihull - Possible project?

I talked to the owner when I was looking for a boat. from what he describes, it is a nice hull. I have not personally looked at the boat. It has been for sale for quite some time, so beware. I would have thought that it would have sold already at that price. The trailer, if rebuilt properly, would be worth his asking price for someone with a larger boat.

Not saying stay away, but inspect it well. Starcraft made a decent fiberglass hull in the 70's and the platform would work great for you needs.

chad

I looked at that boat about a year or so ago, the trailer running gear was all brand new. Everything but the frame was new. Its not a super heavy trailer, more for a 17-19' boat.
The boat really nice considering its 38 years old. The bottom is mint, and it fits that trailer super nice and has a long tongue which will make launching it a lot easier. The deck was stripped bare, down to bare glass, and all of the ugly green upholstery was gone. If you ever saw the original interior in one of those, be glad it's gone. Besides, who wants all that vinyl in a fishing boat.
When I looked at it, there was still a 50hp Mercury on it but the seller had other plans for it.
The steering in it was a solid mounted cable that would only be good for a small motor, he most likely removed it if he intended to hang a larger motor. While that boat would probably do fine with a 40hp with a light load, it would be far more fun with a 115 or so on it.
I actually had planned to buy that boat but I was in the middle of a move at the time and had no room to store it then. The part I like about those hulls is that they're basically a full V hull with two very small outer hulls which keep it stable when fishing. Most boats that size are basically flat bottom hulls at the stern, the Starcrafts were still a V hull which does wonders for it's ride and handling. The one I rode in several years ago rode like it was on rails and it didn't pound like most other trihull designs. They also had fairly high sides so they can handle bigger water if you choose your days.