Sea King 16'

[reelfishin]

Found a freebie this afternoon, it's a mid 60's Sea King.
It looks an awful lot like an MFG hull, lapstrake sides, all glass stringers and ribs, and no flotation at all. Its got early teleflex type steering, the floor has been removed but the lower hull is perfect. The original floor is there but cut out, it looks to have been still in good shape, so I don't know why they removed it. They cut all around the perimeter leaving about 4" on all sides. The floor is textured just like the MFG Edinboro I found.
The windshield is plastic. The boat looks a lot like a 1965 MFG Niagra but a bit longer. The top is blue, the bottom is white.

I did a search online and found none that look like this one.
I'll be picking it up one night this week, I'll get some pics then.

Any idea who was making lapstrake hulls for Sea King or Ward's back then?

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Sea King 16'

it very well could be a mfg variation. heck they all were copying each other back then.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Sea King 16'

After a good cleaning out of the boat from all the dirt, leaves and other debris, I can see better how this was made. I am ruling out MFG since this has a full one piece upper cap and splashwell, a 15" transom, and a single one solid piece of white Styrofoam flotation glued up under the bow deck. Both of my MFG boats have no flotation, have removable splash wells, and non wood floors. This boat was built with a removable floor, the floor sits in a stepped section of the hull and screws down. There is no wood below the deck and the stringers and ribs all all glass tunnels. The ribs and stringers are only about 4" apart the whole way. The hull is lapstrake style, with a white lower and a bright lime green upper cap.
I am not sure now who may have molded this hull since I've never seen one built like this before, especially a boat this early.
I'll get some pics of it soon.

 

[CATransplant]

Re: Sea King 16'

Sounds like it'll be an easy one to restore. If you go to www.fiberglassics.com, they have some brochures but they end at 1960. There are some photos of some 1964 models in the Still in Use section of the Sea King area.

I don't know who built those for Wards. Starcraft built their aluminum boats during the 1960s.

The site also has a forum, so you might ask some questions there.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Sea King 16'

The first 1964 listed looks most like mine but the pics are small.
http://www.fiberglassics.com/forms/forum818/ShowProfile.asp?mode=public&uname=seaking64

It has a small splashwell, only about 18' in all and it's part of the upper cap. The 1965 15' pictured has a longer splashwell.

It will be a pretty simple restoration, I see only one ding in the gel coat that I'll have to fix and the transom and floor are pretty straight forward. I do like the way they notched or stepped the hull to accept the floor but I suppose it's what led to the wood rotting from the edged first. The floor panel which appeared original, was plain wood, no glass mat. Only a coating of Nautolex to match the interior. The seats were single position vinyl padded seats with possibly having a back pair of seats at one point. The plywood had threaded anchor plates mounted on the underside to which the seats were attached. If it wasn't factory, someone went to great efforts to position and attach the seats in the past. Each seat bolt attached to a 2" x 4" steel plate with a welded nut beneath a drilled hole in the floor. They also had a short collar the extended upwards to the surface of the floor which was crimped over much like a grommet. Each plate was screwed to the floor from below with 6 short screws. The front seats were ripped out, and the rear seats were just missing. I removed what remained of the floor with a shovel and shop vac.
I suppose the transom will be about the same, but once the cap is off, it should be pretty basic. The transom does not appear to go all the way to the bottom, there's a rib or stringer which forms a shelf so to speak at the point where the bottom meets the transom fiberglass. The transom wood is only about 10" or so deep and 1 1/2" thick. The wing areas also do no appear to have been part of the transom, the rear tie down eye bolts are mounted to only the outer layer of glass with thick steel plates, the bolts aren't long enough to have gone through a wood transom and the upper cap doesn't appear to have the clearance in the wing areas to accept wood if I were to make the transom extend all the way up to those corners.
I don't see any signs of it having a windshield, there are no mounting holes and no signs of hole being filled from below either. I may or may not do a custom windshield from polycarbonate.