??? Wards Sea King ???

[jgriffhusker]

I just bought a 12ft Wards Sea king. It's 48 inches in the middle of it at it's widdest. I have a few questions about it.
Does anyone have any idea what year it might be? It didn't come with a motor or a nameplate.
What do you guys think my Max H.P and Weight loaded might be? I think I have access to a 5 HP and I think that should be fine. I'd say we are usually weighing about 5 to 6 hundred when we are fishing.
Also I'm thinking I may put in a storage/deck on the front. Just something to put life jackets and the such in. If I do this can I get away with just taking out the seat since I will be making it stronger up front?
Last but not least for right now, Can I take the foam out of the middle seat and make it into a livewell? I'm also thinking of moving the seats so we can make more room.
Any and all comments are welcome.
Thanks

 

[5150abf]

Re: ??? Wards Sea King ???

The seats in that are what give the boat its strength, if you remove them it will flop like a peice of spaghetti.

The 5 horse will be fine.normally thoise boats are rated for 10 so that should do fine.

If you leave the seat you could pull the foam for a livewell btu that will add more weight as will your front deck.

You should be good with 2 guys and normal gear in that, 12' is not alot of boat.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: ??? Wards Sea King ???

All of the 12' Sea King aluminum boats I've had were rated at about 530lbs and 7.5hp, they were made by various companies from what I was told.
The seats are a definite structural item and moving them or modifying them in anyway would take some re-engineering of the hull. Keep in mind also that in a 12' boat, making a livewell that holds maybe 10 gallons will seriously reduce your weight capacity as well as make a small motor feel pretty lame. Keep the weight down, float your bait overboard or use a fish basket for your catch. Keep the boat simple and it won't feel as small. I have a 12' Duranautic V hull I use for small ponds, I run it with a 10hp motor, the max its rated for, but stay with a simple manual start motor, and carry only a small alarm battery to power my fish finder. When I run with a trolling motor I run two group 24 deep cycle batteries and a medium power trolling motor and it does just fine with two guys.

 

[jgriffhusker]

Re: ??? Wards Sea King ???

Thanks for the help fellas. I've kinda rednecktified it for the rest of this year. The I'm going to put it in the garage and refurbish it. I've been reading other post about these boats and the livewell is out. I found a handcrank winch up at our family cabin and I think I'm going to try and rig up a anchor system so I don't have to keep going to the front when I go solo next time.