Here’s a great story of a Starcraft restoration – and a bit of history of it’s predecessor, Star Tank – straight from the ACBS Rudder archives.

 

Vintage metal boats don’t get much attention in the Rudder. I wonder if many ACBS members know there are metal boats made by Starcraft much, much older than most of the boats listed in the Directory; I’m talking historic metal, not classic or antique. That’s heavy metal, dude. So after doing some research, here’s what I’ve discovered about the Star Tank and Boat Company that later became Starcraft.

There are days I’m just plain lucky. Like while driving home from a party in the backwoods of Greene County, just north of the Catskill Mountains of New York, when I spied an old aluminum boat in the woods. It had an old Johnson V4 motor and the boat had been there quite a while. I knew this because the trailer had settled into the dirt to the point you could barely see the wheels and the boat had moss growing on the decks. But as I slowed and drove by, it looked in perfect shape . . . well, it looked like a boat as far as the shape. Fast forward five months and the boat was in my shop, a first aluminum restoration project. I was excited about it.

Why, many of you may ask, would anyone be interested in restoring an aluminum boat? Well, first because I can; second, because it’s a really cool boat; third, it’s older than a lot of the wood boats listed in the ACBS Directory. The boat is a 1963 Starcraft Holiday. This was the top of the line for Starcraft’s 1963 runabout series; 18’5” long and 85” wide.

The boat is going on sixty-one years old, and with a new transom, which it desperately needed, and a new floor, which it more than desperately needed, this boat was good to go for another sixty-year run.

Starcraft models such as this Holiday have been running the St. Lawrence River since I was a little kid; my “new” Holiday was built when I was eleven years old. Aluminum, atomic number 13, is a member of the boron group which also includes gallium, indium and thallium. Aluminum is the third-most abundant element on earth after oxygen and silicon, and is the most abundant metal in the earth’s crust accounting for eight-percent of the total weight of the earth’s solid surface. Aluminium is remarkable for its low density and its ability to resist corrosion due to passivation, the creation of an oxide layer on the surface of the metal that prevents further corrosion. But aluminum is also highly reactive, and, like any metal, subject to galvanic corrosion where dissimilar metals are used and/or there are electric currents, say from
marine engines.

So this was an intriguing project for me. I didn’t have to worry about aluminum rot, unless the hull was severely pitted indicating galvanic corrosion took its toll. Nope, we were good there. But like fiberglass boats, aluminum boats rely on thick plywood transom reinforcement to support a motor, and they rely on plywood floors to provide a flat walking surface in the boat. Not so good in those departments. When I found it, the fifty-year-old plywood was totally shot both in the transom and the floor. But those were simple repairs to make on the Holiday.

Another lucky day that summer, which is what made me go buy the Holiday, was when a fellow at work who restores boats came into my office and asked me if I wanted a 1988 Johnson GT-100. I asked him how much and he replied, “Nothing. I asked if you wanted it—it’s free. But it’s in two pieces”. Of course I said yes.

A couple of days later with the GT-100 in the back of the Jeep memories of the Starcraft came to mind, and this perfect pairing was born. The GT-100 went to Fishers Landing, New York, at my friend’s outboard shop. The first good news I received was that the compression check was 130 pounds on all four cylinders and very little run time on it.

With the motor in hand, and in need of a boat to put it on, I retrieved the Holiday with a 1960 dual-axle Holsclaw trailer that had been set up for a 1956 Century Resorter. My first surprise, once I got the boat cranked onto the trailer which was no small feat, was how much of the Holiday was hanging out past the end of the trailer, even absent a motor. At this point I still didn’t know what model Starcraft I had, only that it was big. A tape measure and a quick visit to the Fiberglassics.com library located my model by matching up the boat’s dimensions to their listings. My second surprise, found under a seat amongst soda and beer cans, leaves and debris from Lord knows how long, was a beautiful chrome burgee pole which mounts on top of the vintage Atwood bow light. Likewise, the stern light was a beautiful chrome light with a great retro look to it.

While on the Fiberglassics.com web site, I found reference to Starcraft’s parent company, the Star Tank and Boat Company. The company was started in 1903 as a farm supply company in Goshen, Indiana, by Art Schrock. Some time later he thought that if his tanks could keep the water in them, they could also keep water out of them. And so, based on the business records of the company, the first metal boat was built by Star Tank in 1920, which makes these early boats historic. In the early days Star Tank built a line of fishing boats and incorporated the boat business as Starcraft in 1956. Materials used included stainless steel, galvanized steel, magnesium, and aluminum. Models continued to be added to the aluminum line including, in 1963, the Starchief cruiser which was built on the Holiday hull and the 21’ Chieftain cruiser.

Starcraft diversified and began building campers in 1964 and then started their van conversion business in 1977. The Schrock family sold the business to a conglomerate in 1969. In 1988 the Starcraft line of boats was sold to Brunswick Corporation. A search of Google produced a nice YouTube video of a fellow running a restored 1951 Johnson on none other than a 1949 Star Tank and Boat. Somewhere out there are some very old metal boats made by Star Tank and Boat Company.

With the Holiday home, the first task was to spray the topsides heavily with Tilex. I have used this product on wood, fiberglass and now aluminum to kill moss and eliminate mold and other organisms that grow in moist environments. Letting the Tilex work for ten minutes, I then used warm soapy water and a light scrub brush to clean the decks. After rinsing it with the garden hose I was treated to an anodized aluminum surface in generally beautiful condition and the color of coffee, heavy on the cream. I was, frankly, astounded that this sorry looking boat had been so transfigured in just about thirty minutes.

Moving along over the next few weeks I started removing debris from the boat. I found a nice anchor, the burgee pole, life jackets, and the sliding rear hatch doors. I unbolted the totally shot seats from the floor, packed up the old foam and cut up the aluminum seat frames. Next, I scooped out plywood floor by hand; it had the consistency of compressed peat moss. Under the plywood was the obligatory mouse or squirrel nest. Once the floor was out there was a mess of closed cell foam floatation tightly fitted in all the under floor space.

Looking at the transom, I removed the gunwale end caps and the aluminum transom cap. Instantly the ease of transom replacement was evident. The boat was built first with all the aluminum riveted together. The transom reinforcement was slid into a slot and through-bolted with thirty or so bolts, many of them connecting with very heavy transom knees for rigidity.

Transom removal was as simple as removing the thirty-plus nuts, the bolts, the transom handles, and then using the Sawz-all to cut about sixty corroded screws connecting the splash well to the transom. With the hardware out I grabbed hold of the plywood to pull it out of the slot, and it disintegrated in my hands.

To continue work on the boat over the winter, I used some come alongs and was able to just get the boat through the shop door. Once inside I lifted it up and slid the trailer out from under it, then lowered the boat onto a work rack that allows me to tilt it to either side for bottom work, or V-brace it for working inside it.

There was a lot of work to do on the Holiday, including converting the steering to Teleflex for the GT-100, building and installing the transom before overlaying with fiberglass prior to installing. Deep cleaning the interior hull, reinstalling floatation, installing a new floor and then carpet, and finally new seating all needed to be done.

I added the power back to the boat and tested the vintage lighting and very cool horn. We’ll see you on the water in the spring! I’ll be the one in the big aluminum boat with a big smile on his face!

 

Written by Brian J. Lawson. Originally printed in Winter 2014 issue of ACBS Rudder. 

7 Comments

  1. I spent a lot of time in our 16’ fiberglass StarCraft with a 75 ho Johnson as a teenager on the Seneca River in NY. I think the boat was from the 1960’s. Man did it love gas. I think those hull lines were taken from a Lyman. I’m a wooden boat guy now, but always admired the lines of those early StarCraft aluminum boats. Great article!

  2. I have a StarCraft aluminum center console with a Merc on it that was a family ski boat in Indiana most of its life. Now residing in Alabama! A great boat! So well built.

  3. Thanks for the history!

    I learned to ski behind our brand new 1974 18′ Starcraft with 115hp Merc. Waxing the aluminum hull was supposedly a trick for added speed/fuel economy. Not sure if there’s any facts there, but we did it religiously. 😂

  4. Over the past 50 years I have restored 4 StarCrafts one of which was a 1965 Holiday. We used this boat with its 100 hp Merc for 15 years. Great boat. Two were 16 ft bow riders that I converted to center consoles. Two of my sons have the 16 footers. Your right they are easy to restore, light easy to tow, and needs less hp to perform well. Nice article.

  5. I live in Elkhart, IN which is right next to Goshen, IN, where Starcrafts were originally made, so aluminum Starcrafts are all over around here. They are great boats and have excellent durability. I personally grew up having a 9’ Starcraft pram and later, a 15’ Starcraft and both of them performed very good and were heavily used with zero problems. Not sure that Starcraft still makes aluminum boats anymore, but they still make boats – in fiberglass, so the aluminum ones aren’t seen as much anymore. This was a good story of restoration.

  6. Very enjoyable article, I’ve never had much respect for aluminum boats but you’ve moved my thinking about them, thanks.
    Two suggestions:
    1. More photos
    2. Bring back 1937 boat prices!

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