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starflite front foam removal

supergenius74

supergenius74

Member
Ok here it is, i spent the last 3 days doing what everyone suggested I do. I removed the front wall and flotation foam from my 88 starflite. I like others seemed to be too nose heavy, I tried adding setback and it helped but not enough and I am still having to use to much trim to get the bow to lift and loosen up. On monday I crawled up into the nose and started pushing on the front wall and it felt soft, then I drilled a small hole in it and what came out on the drill bit was wet foam so I decided it need done. With clawhammer in hand I began ripping out the wall and it came out surprisingly easy. Here is a picture after i began removing it.
1.jpg
 
Here is a shot after the whole wall was removed, you can see that the darker colored foam, that is basically mold from the water and as it turns out all the foam up to about half way up was full of water.
4.jpg
 
Now came the fun part, hacking out all the foam, it took me 2 - 1/2 evenings to do it and it did suck, but I am glad i did it. Here is a picture after it was all removed, I didn't take any pics while removing the foam it was just too messy to get get my camera in there.
5.jpg
 
Ok here is the last picture, I have decided not to put the wall back in, it was not a support wall for the deck and now that it is out it opened up a lot of room up there and I like it, Also i can monitor any water leakage and seal it up. I removed about 10 garbage bags bags of foam and wood, about half of them were rather heavy from water. Afterwords I tried lifting up the front of my trailer and to my surprise I could, this is something I could not do before and now I can so It must have removed some weight. If the weather is good this weekend I may take the boat out and see what difference it made. I hope you all enjoyed my little picture show here -shane
6.jpg
 
Nice job there! It sure does look like alot of work! I thought about doing that to my 86 starliner, when i open the front hatch in the bow area there is only a few inches of room before the bulkhead wall. But there is a drain hole ( Dont know who drilled it out) but when i stuck my finger in the foam felt quite dry so i figured I would leave it. However now that i look at yours. There's so much room in there that i could utilize to store life jackets etc. So I might just go ahead and remove the foam anyways.
 
NICE WORK!!! You won't believe the difference!!!

Now you'll need a sweet PROP to take advantage of it...:devil:

Hmmm... I wonder WHO has a few of those???:thumb: Jim
 
wow, I never would have thought there was so much foam up there...Do you have any Idea how much it all weighed??
I am thinking about removing all the foam from under the floor in my sportfire but Im not sure if its worth it if its only like 50-75lbs...
 
It's hard to say how much it weighed, out of the 10 trash bags i would say at least 2 of them were rather heavy like 30 lbs heavy, the rest maybe 10 lbs or so, I would guess it all weighed at least 100 lbs maybe more. I definitley think it's worth it, if not for performance, for the simple fact that your boat has rotting, stinky, moldy foam in it, After taking it out I am not sure it would do much good in there anyways. The wall was completely rotted out and falling apart behind the carpet, I just gained about 5 feet of extra storage space too if i need it.
 
You did a good job cleaning that up, I was thinking of repairing the bulkhead but now I think I might remove it totally and install black carpet to have the extra space.
 
Well seeing your pics i decided today will be the day my foam comes out. The guy i bought the boat from neglected it something fierce so i assume if everyone seems to be having water in there mine more then likely has it to. Ill put pics up hopefully later today or tommorow.Im replacing the antique looking cuddy lights that are in there first so i can see. Aaron
 
I think you are right jim, I'd almost rather come up to your place and try a few out to determine what is best. The marina's around here don't like to do that! P.S. how did you end up with so many props? -shane
 
Ok got some numbers this past week, at 7000 RPM with a 22p chopper and my prop shaft about even with the bottom of the boat, 13.25" of setback and a 2.4 BP EFI 240 hp I hit 68.5 mph on GPS with me (240 lbs) my wife (160 lbs) my dog (12 lbs) an anchor (15 lbs) and a 1/2 tank of gas (100 lbs). Removing the foam not only gained me 1.5 mph but also did bring the bow up abit so the boat rides better with less trim. It also planes off better I think and I still need a little to much trim to the bow to loosen up, it's better but I just think my engine is a bit to light. I don't plan to add any more setback or lift to the engine, the transom is under enough strain now. I also believe 70 will not be a problem with just me in the boat. I do not regret pulling out the foam, it helped performance but I also think it will give me more room up front, I plan on mounting a net that can hold stuff and carpeting the whole area. -shane
 
Yeah, us guys seem to get the most satisfaction from the messiest jobs!!! Great work! I'm sure the boat will handle much better and you get the benefit of more room in the bow.....to handle those other messy jobs!!!
 
Put a little more prop and you'll surpass the 70 mark with the load you had. Your motor should be able to swing a 26or28 to 6500 no problem and you'll probably see all the bow lift you want and more.
 
Props...

The 2.4L Bridgeport likes props with less blade surface or less pitch.. The bridge's were high RPM motors but not high torque. You should be able to swing a 24p for sure, maybe a 26. I also have a TRICK Spinelli 4-blade 23p Chopper that would be a great all around beast and get you well into the 70's
 
We had one on a 20 ft Charger that spun a 30 with no problems. I know checkies are a little heavier but should be be able to spin bigger than a 24-26
 
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