Montgomery Wards Sea King Boat

[Canon71]

Montgomery Wards Sea King, 14' by 50", no ID so motor hp and max weight unknown. From pics online, I'm guessing it's mid to late 70's. Any info on who made these and are they decent boats? Comments? I put a 15HP on. Pretty light and shallow, in great shape.

 

[Texasmark]

Sea King engines were a spin off of Outboard Marine Corp AKA Johnson and Evinrude and were like Gale, a sideline business for big box stores of the time......1950's era. So I would expect the boat was of that era too. That engine looks to be 70's issue or so.

Aluminum boats almost never wear out....transom and seat wood is it. Sometimes you had a rivet leak or if you boated in rocky areas you could have some rock dings but the hull usually retained water tightness as compared to wooden boats of the day. 10 hp on a 14' tin lizzie and a couple of folks could send you along at 18-20 MPH and make for a nice ride.

I just saw on the Smithsonian Channel that after WWII aircraft manufacturers had a lot of surplus aluminum....high grade aluminum...5052 T6 or better. So they looked for ways to get rid of it......enter the era of the aluminum boat. Super deal. One of the finest boats of that era was Alumacraft which had a different hull design and was extremely sturdy. Starcraft were very popular too....still are. Lone Star was built in my area and there were a lot of them and to this day you see one pop up on boating forums.

 

[Canon71]

Wow Texasmark, thanks for the detailed info! With your knowledge, do you know anything about this old Alumacraft I have, it's a '59 flying D however it was stripped down prior to me. I have tried both the Sea King boat and the Alumacraft out on the water with the 15 Johnson. The alumacraft is much heavier and did ok, except the way the seat positions are, the sea king boat was more "comfortable" with the tiller. However, if this alumacraft is a MUCH more sturdy and durable boat, I may use it. I fish small lakes and also get on bigger river waters. Do you know much about this boat, how would it compare with the sea king, and with it being designed as a flying D, is there are design reason why it couldnt be a good fishing boat? I appreciate your detail. When you stated the aluminum of the alumacraft it got my interest. I sold my alumacraft classic deluxe so looking for basic fishin boat.

 

[Texasmark]

I had 2 of those and never got into model numbers so I can't help you there. Mine were bought used 12 and 14' and a friend had a 14' with a side mounted console (with steering wheel and remote controls) at the rear (facing forward) seat and ran a 33 hp Johnson on his....sucker would fly. You can see by looking at it, the way its built that it is a superior design for a strong hull. When the family would go camping back in the day, I had a family boat and had the 12' with a 4 hp Mercury....matched my Mercury 850 on the family boat. They had a blast.

Back in the day they had "stick steering". It appears that your boat is setup for such with the front seat where it is and side bracket for mounting the remote engine controls. Steering would be a vertical stick on the opposite side, with cables and pulleys running down that Port side back to the engine for control. Pulling up pictures of 1950's boats will show you how the transom pulley-cable was arranged and if you look up early pictures of bass boats, like in late 1968-69 time line, Skeeter, Kingfisher, Ranger and Quachita or something like that made in Arkansas will show you some more stick steering arrangements.

Stick was made for narrow boats primarily which were the original BBs with Skeeter Mosquito I think it was called....specifically made for getting back into Bass havens, had a very pointed Bow.....

It was a solution for single occupants to enable you to sit toward the bow and get better visibility and to solve the problem of bow high operation with single occupant using tiller steering. Point of concern is that you needed to learn how to handle big water as in bit water you want the Bow out of the water and sitting up there did tend to keep the bow down......not a show stopper, just needed to learn how to handle the throttle to keep the bow up.

 

[Canon71]

THanks!, yeah this boat originally had the bow cover, windshield, steering etc. I bought as is. My question is, the way it is set up now, is this boat superior to the Montgomery Wards boat (as fishing boat) or are they in the same ballpark. The D is much heavier, 2" wider and a bit deeper. My opinion is on bigger water, the D is more efficient but similar experience on small lakes. If I decide to use the sea king, I may put D on a site for alumacraft enthusiasts who may have parts to make the boat back to original. Seems the fying D has a following. But my "fear" is, I use the sea king when I have a much superior boat (alumacraft) sitting in the weeds. I know a lot of this is personal preference, but I don't know much about the sea king "worth", if it was a lund or something then I would know its preference between the 2.

 

[southkogs]

Not so much about worth - tin cans like that aren't going to hold a buncha' value. Even with a full restore to pristine condition, they're not going to be worth much. BUT, either can be a good boat. The two things that matter: does it fit what you want? And is it in decent condition? That's really all that matters.

One of our neighbors had a boat not unlike the Monkey Ward, and they used that thing for over 40 years. No reason that one can't suit you (in terms of original build quality).

 

[Canon71]

Thanks, so in your opinion, is the alumacraft "better build" or are they similar for the purpose? Like is the alumacraft twice the quality of the sea king. I appreciate your info in all of this. I tend to try both a couple times, but ultimately I need to license one.

 

[southkogs]

I don't think it matters much. For me, I like the layout of the Sea King better - especially because I do like to use the oars from time to time. So, I would lean that way without hesitation if they both floated and didn't take on any water.

 

[DeepCMark58A]

The Flying D you could put a 40hp motor on. The Alumacraft is a superior boat, just look at the transom. I might be a little biased about old Alumacrafts but it is true.

 

[Texasmark]

The Flying D you could put a 40hp motor on. The Alumacraft is a superior boat, just look at the transom. I might be a little biased about old Alumacrafts but it is true.

Biased......me too. Grin

 

[Canon71]

DeepC, I get what you are saying, it is a much heavier, little deeper and wider and seems very well built. But with a 15hp and using as is, the sea king is set up for "fishing" with seat configuration ect. But, I don't want to just send this D to the weeds either, could, as you say, put a larger motor on and even build a floor if desired, or sell to someone who has parts to restore. But, for anyone to reply, if I went out on the St. Croix, (big water), will the D handle better than the Sea King?