New to me - Starcraft 18' Mariner-V

[thill]

Thanks, guys, I guess I'll get some sheet foam and get it under there. Does not look like there has ever been pour foam under there.

 

[FuzzyGrub]

What I found on our '67 was sheets. No poured in foam.

 

[airshot]

Starcraft must have found a good buy on all that ugly green as it was used alot over that time period !! Nice find!

 

[FuzzyGrub]

My neighbor had the 16' version. He painted it white and it looked good. For myself, going to keep the ugly seafoam green. After all these years, it has grown on me. Nostalga value.

 

[thill]

What I found on our '67 was sheets. No poured in foam.

Thanks for the confirmation. I have a bunch of sheet foam, and I'm planning to not only put it under the floor, but I might replicate the floatation panels from the later models on either side of the transom.

Starcraft must have found a good buy on all that ugly green as it was used alot over that time period !! Nice find!

Thanks, Airshot, I'm pretty tickled with them both. Yeah, that green was pervasive in the 70's. Not sure why. I hated that color even back then.

My neighbor had the 16' version. He painted it white and it looked good. For myself, going to keep the ugly seafoam green. After all these years, it has grown on me. Nostalga value.

In the kitchen and bath world, they called it "Avocado Green." Believe it or not, it's starting to come back in certain spheres.

I took a couple of minutes with spray cans I had on hand and sprayed a few colors. White looks good, so that's probably what I'm going with. The Gray looked kind of dead, and I had a Teal color that just looked kind of 80's. Like someone who still listens to Cindi Lauper. So, boring old White it will be! Thanks.

 

[thill]

Well, I had a good morning today. I was able to mostly install the transom and also get the corner caps and trim back on.

Somehow, those few little things makes it look more like a boat, and not just a gutted shell

 

[LDUBS]

What I found on our '67 was sheets. No poured in foam.

If you ever have to pull the floors and remove the foam, you will be glad you used the sheet stuff. Just sayin. . .

 

[LDUBS]

My neighbor had the 16' version. He painted it white and it looked good. For myself, going to keep the ugly seafoam green. After all these years, it has grown on me. Nostalga value.

Maybe that green color attacts fish!

 

[thill]

I've decided to tackle the 16 footer first. Above is the approximate layout that comes to mind.

1. Front Deck - I was thinking 3'x5' should be pretty decent, but I'm considering making it a full 4' deep. A bit unsure. More casting space up front, or more "safe" space down on the floor?

2. Main floor - As drawn above, this boat will have a spacious 8 feet x 54" floor. The center console setup is good looking, but takes up a lot of deck space, so I'm leaning toward a side console layout, especially since I already have one. The one I have is nice and small, 2' wide x 12" deep. Fits the boat great. I need to decide where to put it. In my Princecraft, it's pretty far back, and I actually sit on the back deck when driving. In my picture, I put it about in the middle of the boat. Any thoughts?

3. Rear Deck - The rear deck in my Princecraft is 3' deep, and it conceals battery, fuel tank and great storage space. Again, I'm wondering whether I should make it a full 4' deep?

Again, it's a question of more floor space or more deck space? That is the question. Many of these little boats have huge decks, and some are completely decked, and they suffer badly in rough water. But on calm days, they have lots of room.

Any opinions on this topic?

 

[FuzzyGrub]

Here are pictures of "Phase II" of my project where I added a front deck and started a rear one: PHASE II
IMO, 3' is too short, but I'd have to measure what mine is. It is a little more than 4' because I didn't go all the way to the point of the bow, under the existing bow lid. I kept the console in the same place to reuse the motor control cables, so brought the deck back to it, and used it for some support. I reused the existing bench seats for the supports, too.

On phase three, added a bow trolling motor and moved gas tank back to rear. Extended the rear deck forward one bench seat worth, so it is probably 4' or a little more.

I'd consider adding a "balancing" passenger seat.

 

[FuzzyGrub]

Maybe that green color attacts fish!

Yea, maybe "ugly" catches the biggest fish!

 

[thill]

Very nice work, FuzzyGrub. Thanks for sharing your progress. I was going to ask you about the gas tank all the way up front, but then saw where you moved it to the back.

On my Princecraft, I put the battery and fuel tank on the port side, and it mostly balances out. I also put the console further back, so we sit on the rear deck and eliminate the need for seats. Here is a fish-eye pic that makes the boat look really fat, but you can see the layout:


Here is a shot in better perspective:



But again, my concern is having too much weight in the back. Works great on my 16 Princecraft, but it's a deeper and wider boat.

Which model do you have? How is the balance of the boat? Is it tippy? Yours looks like the 16' Mariner V that I have, but yours has bow rails? Different model? Mine looks exactly like this one:



Thanks for being helpful!

 

[FuzzyGrub]

We have the 14' model. The front rails had to be an option. My father bought it new off the lot that way. I don't find it tippy. We still have the 3/4 bench, flip-up, driver seat. It was moved back to become part of the rear deck.

You have an open slate over what I did. I'd still go for 4' front and rear decks. Less cuts in the plywood and will still have plenty of floor space.

IMO, don't move the console back toward the stern. Even with max hp motor, they like more weight forward for better planing times.

The gas tank was moved back because the group 29 battery and trolling motor was enough weight forward. It went to the port side to even out my weight over my sons.

 

[thill]

We have the 14' model. The front rails had to be an option. My father bought it new off the lot that way. I don't find it tippy. We still have the 3/4 bench, flip-up, driver seat. It was moved back to become part of the rear deck.

You have an open slate over what I did. I'd still go for 4' front and rear decks. Less cuts in the plywood and will still have plenty of floor space.

IMO, don't move the console back toward the stern. Even with max hp motor, they like more weight forward for better planing times.

The gas tank was moved back because the group 29 battery and trolling motor was enough weight forward. It went to the port side to even out my weight over my sons.

Okay, that is helpful information. The trolling motor I have for it is a 24V so it will need 2 batteries up there, which will help, but knowing they don't like a lot of stern weight puts me a step ahead.

I guess it doesn't really matter if the decks are 3' or 4', it's still going to use an extremely expensive piece of plywood. I just priced a couple of sheets, and they are $50+/sheet, yikes!!! Even horrible, 1/2" CDX is about $30/sheet.

At these prices, the plywood is going to cost more than the boat!

 

[FuzzyGrub]

Yea, I needed 4 sheets of premium T1-11 to finish work on our camp. The price hurt, but didn't want to wait another year or more.

The original floor in the Mariner, was cut from a 5' X 9' plywood., and had a small piece to finish off the bow. I used 3 sheets to do the floor.

 

[thill]

I got my bolts through the transom and everything is absolutely rock-solid. I'm very pleased with the outcome.

One issue is that the engine pad on the outside is too small for the Evinrude 48 SPL that I've been thinking of using, and this transom has never been drilled. I have a 35 HP Suzuki, a really nice engine that is clamp-on like the original 25, so I need to think it out before proceeding.

Any thoughts out there on how a 35 HP will push a 16 Mariner-V?

 

[airshot]

I got my bolts through the transom and everything is absolutely rock-solid. I'm very pleased with the outcome.

One issue is that the engine pad on the outside is too small for the Evinrude 48 SPL that I've been thinking of using, and this transom has never been drilled. I have a 35 HP Suzuki, a really nice engine that is clamp-on like the original 25, so I need to think it out before proceeding.

Any thoughts out there on how a 35 HP will push a 16 Mariner-V?

I have a Sylvan 16' side console and a 40 hp Merc. With 2 adults and 3 group 31 batteries and gear will just hit 30 mph, but the adjustable trim gives the last 3 mph

 

[thill]

Thanks for that. Maybe I should just screw the Suzuki on, rig some controls, and see how it runs? Adds quite a bit of work, but then I'll know and if it feels too slow, I can go with the bigger motor.

 

[FuzzyGrub]

My neighbor only has a 25HP on his 16' Mariner, but that is because his favorite crappie res, has a 25HP limit. Says he can plane wih two guys.

Our 14'er, originally had a 50's Evinrude 35HP. We water skied behind it. The displacement on those engines is about equal to today's 50HP. Then we had a 70's 35HP Johnson, which I believe was 30HP at prop. We still water skied and kneeboarded behind it. When we got the 40HP Nissan, and kids were only interested in tubing. Top speed with all, was about 30, but we proped for acceleration vs top-speed.

I was going to suggest trying the 35HP, if it wasn't a huge problem.

 

[thill]

Well, it sounds like 35 should do respectably. I think I'm going to put that on first. Thanks for sharing that!