Summary
(please click on any of the pictures for a larger one - use the BACK button to come back)
Starboard ranks right up there with PVC pipe in terms of the "fun to work with" and "quick and dirty" categories.
I have used Starboard just about anywhere that I would have used teak to save on maintenance. In addition, it makes a great material for making shims for fitting things that otherwise don't fit quite right.
Here are some of the places I used Starboard.
The bow rail on the boat had really poor end fittings that really were not very stable. I wanted something wider to sit on the edge and provide a little more stability. I cut the welded ends off of the rail and put on some stainless base fittings. The amazing thing was that the 60 degree fittings were EXACTLY the right angle for the pre-formed, welded, bow rail!
Well, as usual, there were problems. The toe rail takes up part of the space needed to put down a proper fitting (hence the problem with the original "feet"). So I made some shims to fit under the rail fittings that were the same thickness as the toe rail.
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These are the shims. I cut a slot in them to drain water since the tube and rail base were open.
I use the bandsaw to slice some thin pieces, a hole cutter on the drill of the right diameter, and the belt sander to "fine-tune" the thicknes. |
This is a riser for the hydraulic steering RAM. The previous one was teak and was falling apart. I had to stack quite a few pieces to get the height the same!
I put the slot in the bottom to help drain water.
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Well my motor well locker lid was not quite lining up correctly. It was the back wall of the cockpit! No, really!
I had to make some shims to take up the angle of the back wall (yeah, right). |
This is a face plate I made for the new "ebay special" throttle controls I bought.
Don't ask me how hideous the previous ones were......
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Again, giving in to my "fiberglass-on-fiberglass" obsessive disorder, I put some rails on the edges of the lazarette lids so that they didn't eat away at the fiberglass on the seat edges.
I did these pretty much the same as the doghouse hatch. I just routed a channel in the starboard strip that was the same width as the fiberglass edge. Then some (really) small screws to hold it on.
Don't know if they'll hold up for long, but it was cheap and easy..... |
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I also replaced the teak boards that hold the mizzen mast in its slot. Some other Starboard pieces of the mizzen mast holder are here.
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Here's a small piece I used as a bumper for the pivoting tiller.
You can see more on this an some other tiller modifications here. |
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Part of improving the stability of the pilothouse brow section was to support it a little better in the middle. I did this by making some shims to go under the mast tabernacle straps and bolting it through with some good backing underneath.
More on the pilothouse brow improvements here. |
Lessons Learned
There's not a lot you CAN'T make out of Starboard.
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