TOPIC: 1955 14’ starcraft

Hello. I picked one of these boats up this week. The metal is good but the wood was replaced with pine I think. The transom is spine board and the gunwales are rot. The job was anything but right. I am guessing that the gunwales were white oak and the transom was also. Can anyone shed any light or pictures on how the gunwales and transom were constructed on these boats. Thank you for your help.

When I looked at Starcraft under the Library tab for Aluminum boats, I found the brochure for 1953 and then 1956. I couldn’t tell if the gunnels on the 1953 in the picture, but looks like they could be. I have my Dad’s 1956 14 foot Super Duty. Though you can find pictures of the 1956, I noticed a nice picture on the bottom of page 11 brochure of the 1958 Super Duty in blue on the bottom of that page. You can zoom in and see the simple shape of that wood. Likely to save wood material, it is not cut straight across at the bottom. You can install what you like. I believe ours was mahogany. I have installed the boats third transom. I think original may have been 1.5 inches think. I decided to go with 2” thick mahogany and made it go down to the knee brace and cut straight across, but now it doesn’t look stock. I also bent some 1/8” thick Aluminum and capped the wood so I wouldn’t damage it with the motor. It is so strong now, it could handle a motor big enough to sink the boat. It was rated 15hp. You could see it flex with the 1955 Evinrude 15. We retired the 15 and I now use my 20hp with no flex. If I owned a newer 15 or 10. I might have cut the transom to match original... but at that time, My jig saw was broken, so I just used the straight cut on the piece I bought. Good luck on yours. I would think if the gunnels were surrounded with wood on both sides, maybe other boat pictures could show it better. Sometimes I just use google and click on images and then search for what I am looking for... often you can find helpful pictures after scrolling through many pictures. Wish I had your exact boat to be more help. I always check the Library and watch for others who are more helpful than me.