A new breath of life to a '64 Sea King semi-v

nsnutter · May 28, 2012

Hey all - new to the site, what a GOLDMINE this place is!!! Here is a simple build (if you can even call it that) to my first boat ... cheers!

I purchased my first boat, a 1964 Sea King semi-v (14') last May. I was looking for something semi wide and stable to get me (and a rider or two) off the banks of the MN River to chase some big flathead and channel cats ... being a newlywed, my budget was limited, and I settled on this boat, complete with a nice trailer and 20 hp Johnson tiller for $500.

^This is how she looked the day I brought her home. The previous owner claimed the '68 Johnson had run like a champ up until 3 years prior, when he parked the boat, along with a 1/2 full gas tank, and gassed-up carb (with no fuel stabilizer I may add...). I never got that poor motor to run ...

After battling with record floodwater in 2011, and being a newlywed, this boat pretty much sat in my garage forlorn and forgotten for a year ...

Fast forward to 2012. With the river looking less formidable and a bit more inviting for my little boat I figured it was time to buckle down and throw a little TLC her way ...

I started by removing that middle bench seat ... having a nice open space in the middle of a cat boat is desirable ... it makes for a nice spot for a bait bucket, camp chair, small grill, or (if the river gods oblige) a 50# flathead!

Looks a little better ...

Next, I had to address that awful chipping, brush-painted robin's egg blue paint ... The MN river is a muddy mess, so no sparkles and gelcoat for this guy ... just a simple primer followed by a Krylon camo-black rattlecan job. Looks much better, the only thing missing is a MN river mudline!

nsnutter · May 28, 2012

After giving the exterior a simple, albeit much needed makeover, I turned my attention to the interior. The bucket seats, and benches they resided on were in good enough shape ... so I opted to leave them be for now. However, the floor was an oxidized mess and needed ... i don't know, something. I opted for a temporary solution, and applied a truck bedliner coating to the floor, which gives a nice non-skid surface, as well as helped seal up any leaky rivets that may or may not have been there.

nsnutter · May 28, 2012

The bedliner coating definitely attracts sunlight during the daytime, but truth be told - 90% of my fishing occurs after the sun sets, so I could care less lol.

After doing some minor cosmetic work (patching old screw holes in the hull from the previous owner etc) I purchased a running replacement for my tired Johnson 20 ... a "newer" '76 evinrude 25 hp (from a member here actually) ... and after swapping a few parts around from my now-defunct Johnson, I managed to have a solid running motor ... more than enough to even deal with flood stage water on the MN.

Already looking like a new boat ... one of the quintessential components to a serious cattin' boat is rod holders. Running a clicker/baitfeeder rig for flatheads may not neccessitate a stout rod holder, but when you tight-line with circles for big channels, you'd better have some solid rod holders, or plan on sacrificing a nice rod'n reel to the river ... I ponied up and installed four driftmasters on the boat, as well as 6 bases, to allow me to shuffle the holders around as needed.

Now we're getting somewhere!

After purchasing a good deep cycle battery to power my trolling motor (for emergency use only haha) and my Humminbird 535 ... I decided to toss on a set of cheapo offroad lights for night nav. The MN can be a very dangerous river at night, and changes almost daily ... deadheads and floaters can creep up on you in a hurry at night at 25 mph ...

At this point, I had taken the boat out for a few trips, and managed to boat a few photoworthy fish ...

^the first river fish boated ... dirty a-hole stole a hunk of cut sucker ... but still deserved a picture

A few hrs later managed to boat a "real" fish ... decent channel in near flood-stage on my first night trip.

At this point, I have run the boat a good dozen or so times on the riv, and have thrown on some random b.s. (cup holders, 12vDC power socket, etc) but the one issue I'm having is the lights ... I'm planning on either retrofitting some 35W HID's into my existing lights, or swapping those puppies out for some internal ballast 35W HID lights ... with the river behaving like it has the past few weeks, I have grown to fully adopt the "bigger is better" mentality toward lighting ...

I'm still viewing my boat as a "work in progress" and have plans to lay a bit of plywood/carpet on the bottom to really flatten things out ... I may relocate my fuel tank to the front as well to help even out weight a bit ... however, I have to say I'm pleased with how the old gal has performed for me thus far.

Stay tuned for more - and criticism/suggestions are more than welcome. Thanks all!

Nick

DVeasey · May 28, 2012

Looking great! As someone else on a budget, it's good to see such success despite that fact! Don't need to be rich to own a nice rig!

Dale

Gators5220 · May 29, 2012

Nice boat man, I too am on a budget and working on the boat "As I fish" so to speak, but I've found that this has yielded better layouts of our boats. As we fish them we have a tendency to come up with new ideas don't you think?

How was that herculiner to put down on the bottom of your boat? Did you do much prep work?

nsnutter · May 30, 2012

Thanks for the kind words guys!

Gators ... I couldn't agree more with you about fishing out of the boat to get a feel for what comes next ... I have seen some really cool transformations done on this site as well that are giving me some wicked ideas ... Kind of a small canvas to play with, but I think I may look into removing all the benches, putting in a low flat floor (and floatation foam under it), reinforcing the sides to compensate for the removed benches, and set up a simple seating arrangement.

The bedliner was simple ... I actually just got the spray on stuff - in hindsight the roll on would have been cheaper and would have went on a bit thicker ... as far as prep is concerned, I just cleaned the heck out of the floor and sprayed her in ... no priming, acetone baths, or anything along those lines ... it adhered nicely and I have no fear of it coming off.

Took my boat out onto Pool 2 of the Mississippi River on MOnday for some catfishing. What a rush ... totally different than the small MN River I'm used to ... here's a quick vid of me running her upriver. I felt like I was in a raft compared to some of the rigs that came flying by haha.

[youtube]EVJbX2BMoGY?hd=1[/youtube]

JMichael · May 31, 2012

I like what you're doing with your project. I'm also trying to do my project as a budget minded build. And I've been fishing out of mine this spring and making changes to my earlier plans as the spring has progressed. I think it's a very good idea to try different things in your boat before you make them permanent. That way you're more likely to be happy with the finished product. On a parting note, if that vid was on the Mississippi, then it's a far cry from the rolling, boiling mass of water we know as the Mississippi. I guess the added water volume and speed it picks up by the time it gets this far south is bound to make it a little different. :lol: