Hello, everyone!
I've been reading this forum for quite some time. Love all the projects! I picked up a 16' BlueStar boat from one of my sister's friends last year who "just wanted it out of his barn" for $350, trailer included. As you can see, the trailer is GIGANTIC, and much too large for the boat. It looks like one of those universal Shoreland'r trailers that are adjustable, but I think you could put a small yacht on this thing. I'm going to get a different trailer, but this'll haul it around for now.
My 13 and 11 year old nephews are ridiculously excited to help on this project and finally have a fishing boat to take out on the lake.
He used it on a farm pond, but thankfully it's titled and registered so I can get it out on public waters. I'm excited to begin my build/mod and looking forward to your feedback.
I had it out on the water last year on a farm pond for an entire day, and absolutely no leaks of any kind. Got lucky with that one.
I'm wanting to put a casting deck in the front and some storage for rods and stuff as well. No plans for a livewell yet, but I may get that far in v2. Here are some pics of the original boat/progress so far:
Original condition on the trailer:
Original inside:
Upside down on the trailer and ready to take the paint off:
Paint is reeeeeeeeally rough and old:
First round of paint stripped. First progress on the build!!
Outside all stripped and ready for prep/paint:
Stripping the inside. For some reason, the stripper worked fine on the outside, but the inside paint just turned to goop. Lots of scraping, wiping, and re-stripping:
Ideally, what I'd like to do is remove the middle bench and make a completely flat floor between the first and third benches. I'm slightly worried about doing this for two reasons: 1) Will it effect the structural integrity of the boat too much and, 2) It looks like it's riveted through the bottom of the boat and I'd hate to cause a leak by removing it when there are none now.
I've already taken out the transom pieces, both inner and outer, because at some point in this boat's life it got a raw MDF transom on both sides held on with regular hardware. That, of course, rusted and caused all sorts of fun surface problems. They also had all these weird steel loops and hooks mounted to the outside, again causing rust problems, but I can just fill those with rivets since they're all above the water line.
Before I get started on laying out the interior, I thought I'd ask for experience from the rest of the members here since you guys have loads of good advice. So my questions are:
1) Any thoughts on taking the middle bench out? Structural problems, potentially causing leaks, etc?
2) What's a good length for the casting deck? I'm a bigger guy (6'1" 250#) and I'd like a bit of space to walk around.
3) Thoughts on rod storage solutions? I've seen several of you build enclosed rod lockers, but I've also seen a couple of mods with the clip-in rod holders as well.
Gonna put some more work in on the boat over the holiday here. We've got a fishing trip coming up to Minnesota the first week in August so I'd like to have it seaworthy before then, at least with the basics.
Thanks for the feedback, guys, and thanks for the tips from all your builds!
I've been reading this forum for quite some time. Love all the projects! I picked up a 16' BlueStar boat from one of my sister's friends last year who "just wanted it out of his barn" for $350, trailer included. As you can see, the trailer is GIGANTIC, and much too large for the boat. It looks like one of those universal Shoreland'r trailers that are adjustable, but I think you could put a small yacht on this thing. I'm going to get a different trailer, but this'll haul it around for now.
My 13 and 11 year old nephews are ridiculously excited to help on this project and finally have a fishing boat to take out on the lake.
He used it on a farm pond, but thankfully it's titled and registered so I can get it out on public waters. I'm excited to begin my build/mod and looking forward to your feedback.
I had it out on the water last year on a farm pond for an entire day, and absolutely no leaks of any kind. Got lucky with that one.
I'm wanting to put a casting deck in the front and some storage for rods and stuff as well. No plans for a livewell yet, but I may get that far in v2. Here are some pics of the original boat/progress so far:
Original condition on the trailer:
Original inside:
Upside down on the trailer and ready to take the paint off:
Paint is reeeeeeeeally rough and old:
First round of paint stripped. First progress on the build!!
Outside all stripped and ready for prep/paint:
Stripping the inside. For some reason, the stripper worked fine on the outside, but the inside paint just turned to goop. Lots of scraping, wiping, and re-stripping:
Ideally, what I'd like to do is remove the middle bench and make a completely flat floor between the first and third benches. I'm slightly worried about doing this for two reasons: 1) Will it effect the structural integrity of the boat too much and, 2) It looks like it's riveted through the bottom of the boat and I'd hate to cause a leak by removing it when there are none now.
I've already taken out the transom pieces, both inner and outer, because at some point in this boat's life it got a raw MDF transom on both sides held on with regular hardware. That, of course, rusted and caused all sorts of fun surface problems. They also had all these weird steel loops and hooks mounted to the outside, again causing rust problems, but I can just fill those with rivets since they're all above the water line.
Before I get started on laying out the interior, I thought I'd ask for experience from the rest of the members here since you guys have loads of good advice. So my questions are:
1) Any thoughts on taking the middle bench out? Structural problems, potentially causing leaks, etc?
2) What's a good length for the casting deck? I'm a bigger guy (6'1" 250#) and I'd like a bit of space to walk around.
3) Thoughts on rod storage solutions? I've seen several of you build enclosed rod lockers, but I've also seen a couple of mods with the clip-in rod holders as well.
Gonna put some more work in on the boat over the holiday here. We've got a fishing trip coming up to Minnesota the first week in August so I'd like to have it seaworthy before then, at least with the basics.
Thanks for the feedback, guys, and thanks for the tips from all your builds!
