70’s Starcraft 14’ Seafarer “By Golly”

sonny1 · Oct 11, 2023

I had read somewhere that California had shut it down. Guess you confirmed that. I used to fish the American River a lot around Sacramento. Was stationed there for two years working a reservist station while on active duty in the Marines. Fished Folsom Lake a lot for Bass and big Trout. The gouge below Folsom Prison was a hot spot when the let water out of the dam for massive lake trout. You had to keep a ear open because when they sounded the horn at the dam it was time to move to higher ground. Stripers were good in the Sacramento river around Discovery Park. Do not know what they call it nowadays but the delta by far was the best fishing.

LDUBS · Oct 11, 2023

sonny1 said:
I had read somewhere that California had shut it down. Guess you confirmed that. I used to fish the American River a lot around Sacramento. Was stationed there for two years working a reservist station while on active duty in the Marines. Fished Folsom Lake a lot for Bass and big Trout. The gouge below Folsom Prison was a hot spot when the let water out of the dam for massive lake trout. You had to keep a ear open because when they sounded the horn at the dam it was time to move to higher ground. Stripers were good in the Sacramento river around Discovery Park. Do not know what they call it nowadays but the delta by far was the best fishing.

Still called Discovery Park. Never launched there. Used to launch out of Martinez or Antioch for Suisun Bay and the San Joaquin River. Kept a boat at the Pittsburg Marina for a while too. Those places are not far from where I live now, but I haven't fished the Delta in years.

Makaw · Oct 12, 2023

LDUBS said:
They shut down our salmon fishing this year because of last year's drought. They want to let the population rebuild.

Looks like that salmon ate your rod holder!

Wow, I hadn't heard that about the salmon season, hopefully the rebuild is successful and a normal season resumes. Take a trip over to Michigan, the salmon here are doing great

Rob57 · Nov 26, 2023

Makaw said:
Wow, I hadn't heard that about the salmon season, hopefully the rebuild is successful and a normal season resumes. Take a trip over to Michigan, the salmon here are doing great

Great job on the boat , looks fantastic . I have just bought a 14' starcraft seafarer . And I am envious, if i do half as good a job I will be happy. I have moved the boat into my garage to work on over winter/ spring . I will be looking to fish from it occasionally its main purpose will be to transport myself and fishing / camping gear to boat in campsites. I dont have an outboard as yet so looking to get one . Any suggestions would be welcome , the plate on mine says outboard up to 40 hp . Have a bit of work to do but looking forward to creating something wothwhile . The boat appears to be sound just needs some tlc as does the trailer for $350 I am willing to invest some money and time .

Makaw · Nov 28, 2023

@Rob57 Awesome man, thanks for sharing and thanks for the kind words! If you got that boat and trailer for $350, that's a steal. Please let me know if you start a build thread so I can follow. If you have any other questions about my boat/build, don't hesitate to ask - I'm happy to share whatever knowledge I've acquired. I have yet to take my boat up as far as the Traverse area but I had my eye on some lakes up there for some time...

Rob57 · Nov 29, 2023

Makaw I will probably start a build thread in the spring . And no doubt at that time will have questions , so thanks for the advice offer . Yes there are some nice lakes up here that offer some good fishing .

Makaw · Dec 21, 2023

Well,

. That is my lower gear housing. This complicates things.

LDUBS · Dec 21, 2023

Oh boy, what happened?

LDUBS · Dec 21, 2023

Oops - duplicate.

Makaw · Dec 24, 2023

LDUBS said:
Oh boy, what happened?

I think I cracked it on my last trip out late summer when I had an unfortunate bump on a submerged rock pile. Mid summer I checked oil and everything was fine. Probably also expanded with freezing temps with the water that was in there. My fault for not checking it earlier.

This model of Johnson is very tough to find for donor parts, so I’m going to try to fix it first. If that fails, I might have to repower with something a bit newer.

beagle · Dec 25, 2023

that's the bottom half of the shell? How does the top half look?

Makaw · Dec 25, 2023

beagle said:
that's the bottom half of the shell? How does the top half look?

This is the top portion. The bottom looks fine. It’s already disassembled but I’ll show my fix for it when I get to it.

We’ve got some specialty epoxy at my work that’s (titanium?) impregnated we use to seal areas on hydraulic steering gears. Should be ideal for this. If it fails I can always clean it and try brazing or welding as a backup option.

Makaw · Mar 1, 2024

I started working on my lower unit this week. I drilled out the end of the crack to prevent it from spreading further and then notched a channel along the crack, both inside and out. It’s a little scary having a hole in the lower and being able to see daylight through the crack, but this should allow the filler to get a good bond and seal.

Going to seal the sides first, annd allow it to set while bolted together with the bottom portion of the housing. Then I’ll probably have to address the bottom sealing surface.

Makaw · Mar 5, 2024

External coat of epoxy on. I’m using a product called Devcon 10760. Expensive stuff, thankfully my employer is freely letting me use it, as we keep it stocked at work. It’s a titanium putty that we use for other hydraulic sealing applications.

Going to do the inside today.

Stand Up · Mar 5, 2024

Makaw said:
External coat of epoxy on. I’m using a product called Devcon 10760. Expensive stuff, thankfully my employer is freely letting me use it, as we keep it stocked at work. It’s a titanium putty that we use for other hydraulic sealing applications.

Going to do the inside today.

View attachment 119493

That looks like the ticket to success. I'll bet that will last longer than the outboard will. Can you sand or file it to a smooth finish?

Makaw · Mar 5, 2024

Stand Up said:
That looks like the ticket to success. I'll bet that will last longer than the outboard will. Can you sand or file it to a smooth finish?

Yes, that’s the plan. Sand it out smooth and hopefully it won’t be noticeable, because I think I’ll try and paint my lower unit while everything is apart.

David Atkins · Mar 5, 2024

Makaw said:
Yes, that’s the plan. Sand it out smooth and hopefully it won’t be noticeable, because I think I’ll try and paint my lower unit while everything is apart.

Here's to hoping you followed the Devcon 10760 instructions to the letter with material prep. and degreasing of the lower unit, with it being a porous material if it holds and grease of lower unit oils the repair will fail.

thill · Mar 6, 2024

I personally like to clean, degrease, torch it out, and degrease again. Then sand and apply the epoxy.

It looks good. It should work fine.

Makaw · Mar 9, 2024

Yes, here’s to hoping my prep job was good! I sanded out the epoxy a bit, but it’s still noticeable.

Motor is back together. New seals and gaskets on the gearcase group. I polished sealing surfaces and generally cleaned up what I could internally. Also cleaned up the gearcase exterior and painted it black as a test to see how well it does. I’d like to paint the whole motor eventually but dang, all that grease buildup is intimidating!

Makaw · Sep 11, 2024

I haven't posted in a while...the outboard fix has been working great! No leaks.

70’s Starcraft 14’ Seafarer “By Golly”

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