12' 1966 sea king restoration. HAVE QUESTIONS! new to boatin

tanner14 · Aug 24, 2010

i have a 12' 1966 sea king v bottom boat that a friend gave me, and i was wanting to restore it. im very new to boating and dont know anything about them. could everyone give me some ideas, (and how to do them, haha) about what i should do to the boat. i want a fishing deck. but i didnt know if it was gunna be too unstable... would you guys please tell me what u guys think! thanks! heres the picture..

BaitCaster · Aug 24, 2010

tanner14 said:
i have a 12' 1966 sea king v bottom boat that a friend gave me, and i was wanting to restore it. im very new to boating and dont know anything about them. could everyone give me some ideas, (and how to do them, haha) about what i should do to the boat. i want a fishing deck. but i didnt know if it was gunna be too unstable... would you guys please tell me what u guys think! thanks! heres the picture..

Welcome to the site. Nice boat. You might want to put a little flat deck up front, but not too high as that boat is probably tippy.

jackinok · Aug 24, 2010

I have basically the same boat ,but mine is a 59 model.heres what ive done so far.removed the front seat,lowered the middle and back seats to where groove(for lack of better description) is in sides.this leaves the seats way too low but I intend to add a 12" pedestal on back bench and leave middle low for my smallest 2 and 4 year old granddaughters to use (they cant sit still for 3 minutes).I decked mine about three inches or so high from in front of back seat to bow,and added a larger plate out of 1/4" aluminum on front for trolling motor to mount on.the deck in front of the middle seat is high enough for decent casting( flipping may be a problem) and its really way more stable than my longer boats.I kind of got side tracked this summer having to build on the house but eventually I will add a pedestal on front deck also,for now I use a ice chest.sorry for no pictures I dont have a camera.

tanner14 · Aug 24, 2010

thanks. i just took out the front seat. im also gunna take the middle seat and slide it up as far as it goes and put a deck prbly 2-3 inches down from the edge of the boat, hoping that will help with tipsyness..and have a very low deck in the middle,l and then a deck in the back with a swivel seat in back and front.
how does that sound? tell my your ideas!!
thanks!

jackinok · Aug 24, 2010

I wouldn't suggest putting a deck three inches down from the top,if that is what you are planning.I think you would be getting way too high there for safety.mine is about three inches off the bottom,I just scribed 2x4s to lay across bottom every other rib and laid 1/2" ply on that.I just noticed that your seats have larger flotation compartments under them than mine does so you may not be able to lower yours as much as I did without modifying them.try this,put it in the water and try standing on seats middle and front,if its stable enough to suit you ,you might just put a deck across them.That would be quite simple to do, but I wouldnt go much higher. In my opinion you would be getting unsafe even at that hieght for all around stability in the wind and waves. of course I'm old and always was a klutz..LOL! I use a hand control trolling motor on the front of mine and with the low deck and the motor control at heigth of bow it really is pretty comfortable to fish from.like I say though you may have some trouble if you do a lot of flipping around docks and stumps for bass.but its not too bad.

tanner14 · Aug 24, 2010

jackinok said:
I wouldn't suggest putting a deck three inches down from the top,if that is what you are planning.I think you would be getting way too high there for safety.mine is about three inches off the bottom,I just scribed 2x4s to lay across bottom every other rib and laid 1/2" ply on that.I just noticed that your seats have larger flotation compartments under them than mine does so you may not be able to lower yours as much as I did without modifying them.try this,put it in the water and try standing on seats middle and front,if its stable enough to suit you ,you might just put a deck across them.That would be quite simple to do, but I wouldnt go much higher. In my opinion you would be getting unsafe even at that hieght for all around stability in the wind and waves. of course I'm old and always was a klutz..LOL! I use a hand control trolling motor on the front of mine and with the low deck and the motor control at heigth of bow it really is pretty comfortable to fish from.like I say though you may have some trouble if you do a lot of flipping around docks and stumps for bass.but its not too bad.

thanks ill try that out!

Mr. Mom · Aug 24, 2010

I had the same boat and it is very tippy. You can stand in the middle on the floor but I wouldn't want to stand on a seat and fish. Nevermind 2 or 3 inches from the gunwhale. Good luck with your plans but I'd keep the floor low.