# Sea Ark 1652 Build



## JGrund85 (Jun 18, 2012)

So I finally was able to pick up my boat from Tennessee. It is pictured below (sorry for the poor quality pictures). It is a 2000 Sea Ark 1652 Modified V Flat Bottom with a 40 hp Evinrude 4 stroke electronic fuel ignition, live well, and Johnson trolling motor. I bought it for $3K off of my uncle with a trailer. He just had a new water pump and fuel pump put in after it had sat for two years without being run. It run's ok now. Anyway I have reconstructing this boat. I have already stripped the boat down to just the boat. I removed the decking front, rear, flooring and all the unnecessary wiring as I plan on reconfiguring everthing. I sanded it down and have the first coat of paint on already. I primarily plan on using this boat for duck hunting and want to also use it for fishing. I bought Parker's oil based "Duck Boat Paint" from Cabelas yesterday and have already been hard at work. I bought a new Camo Max 4 seat from Cabelas, anchor, anchor line, Johnson 400 GPH bilge pump, fuse board with ground bar. I plan on redoing the decking with 1/2 inch pressure treated wood that I just bought on Tuesday. I think I am going to order Cabelas Non-Skid Tuff coat to put on the floor unless someone has a cheaper suggestion other than carpet. Anyway, I plan on mounting 3 seat mounts in the back to allow people to sit 3 deep in the stern, and then 2 down the middle so you can change your position as to where you want to hunt/fish, and then one up front where the old one used to be. I am open to any suggestion anyone may have about anything. I will need help soon and this is why I started this thread. Hope you enjoy reading.

This is the boat before anything had been done to it (where she sat for the past 2 years):





Finally in home in my shop!




The old bow and front decking, Not sure how I want to redo this quite yet. Something similar, just not sure what yet.




The stern:




Scraping and sanding this took a lot of work. I used spray bomb self etching primer to cover all bare metal before spraying my first coat of paint, as well as a heavy pressure washing.












Next, I suspended the boat using pulleys, webbing from my climbing gear, parachute cord, and my bow line. The handle in the transom made a great place to tie to and of course the front hook.
First coat of paint (still wet)
















Color looks funny in this one:




Question: I was thinking about how I'm going to run all my electrical, and was wondering if I drilled holes through the ribs big enough to put a 1 inch pvc pipe through to act as conduit, am I going to weaken the strength of my boat? I plan on creating a similar set-up for my boat, as it was prior to tearing it apart. I would like to change battery position though, and move it up under where old bow decking used to be with a second battery for trolling as well. Any suggestions on anything would be greatly appreciated.


----------



## moberg12 (Jun 18, 2012)

I wouldn't drill any holes into the ribs. Looks like you have plenty of room to run wires under the ribs and even down both sides of the boat the way it is.


----------



## JGrund85 (Jun 19, 2012)

It is a lot less room than it looks. I would like to place conduit to protect my wires and I would not even be able to get 3/4 inch PVC in it. I have seen one or 2 builds where people have done their wiring and drilled through the ribs, I just didn't know if this was a good idea or not. Anyway, I think I am going to give the Dupli-Color bed armor a shot for my decking. I wish I could afford the cabelas stuff, but the duplicolor is much less. Off to the store for some camo spray cans. The Parker duck boat hunter green has now been applied with 2 coats.


----------



## Recon (Jun 19, 2012)

Just don't use pressure treated wood. It doesn't play nice with aluminum.


----------



## JGrund85 (Jun 19, 2012)

No pressure treated wood??? CRAP! that's what I bought and just started mocking up! Why do you say no to pressure treated??? I just spent 90 bucks on pressure treated wood. I thought since it is going to be wet regularly pressure treated would be best? Anyway, I just got everything mocked up for the floor (with pressure treated 1/2inch wood. I decided in the bow I am going to build an 11 inch box back from the front deck, make it a dry storage box and put my two batteries up front. I found a piece of vinyl in the shop that will be perfect for the top of the box as well as serve as my access point to the batteries. It will be just a small amount of dry storage. I also got the painting finished. Camo and all. I decided how and where all the electrical is going to be run. I do need some suggestions on how I should lengthen (with what connections) my main battery wire. I put the outboard motor back on. Things are looking good. I am super excited to get it all finished.

I didn't take pictures after it was back on the trailer but here are the pictures after the camo:


----------



## JGrund85 (Jun 20, 2012)

I googled and did the research. I'm going to scrap the PT-wood and buy the outdoor plywood and just seal it with Non-Skid Tuff coat from cabelas. Bummer. Wish I would have read that first. a bunch of wasted time!


----------



## JGrund85 (Jun 23, 2012)

Ok, so I have been trying to figure out a way to still use my PT-wood and I may have come up with a solution. What about coating both sides with tuff coat? Would that work? Also I discovered a product called "Deck Restore." Has anyone heard of it or used it? Was thinking about using this product instead of tuff coat??


----------



## thetinman (Jun 24, 2012)

There are not a lot of good things said on this board about Cabelas tuff coat product on this forum. A lot of people have problems with it peeling. That said, I'm guessing it would wear quickly against the aluminum until the wood was in direct contact. I would bet this would happen with most of the 'liner' products. No way I would risk it on my duck boat. Do it right, do it once, and you'll never have to worry about it.


----------



## JGrund85 (Jun 24, 2012)

Thanks for the advice. So I will most likely just buy the right stuff and do right and be done, but I still need to coat the plywood with something, and carpet is out of the question. What would be your suggestions if I am not going to use tuff coat or carpet for a good non-slip, less heat, more warm surface covering? I am still contemplating using the Deck Restore product. Has anyone used it??


----------



## Howard (Jun 24, 2012)

Really like your boat, similar to mine. I would frame everything with aluminum and absolutely use aluminum for your floor. If push came to shove use plywood coated with spur urethane for some of your top decking. Build it and install wood only where if it goes bad you will be able to pop it out and replace it easily. I used some in my mod, I keep my boat in the garage and fish in the rain only about twice a year. For a duck hunter I would imagine water will not be your friend if using too much wood. I also would not cut holes in my ribs. [-X Use marine grade wire that is water and oil resistant and you should be fine.


----------



## novaman (Jun 24, 2012)

Really Very Nice looking =D> =D> Love the camo paint, and the way You've cleaned everything up. 8) To give You an idea, on the wiring, I used black plastic burial water line pushed behind the ribs in the sides. It worked great and that stuff lets wiring slide thru so easy, it'll flatten out or bow to go thru places. I used a heat gun on mine in a couple of places to flatten it a bit, but there's still room for (4) sets of 16awg to go thru. I used an old garage door cable as a "fish tape". That way all wires run down the sides and not under the ribs or floor. You could run 1/2" waterline down ea. side and get (6) sets of wires from bow to stern. I only ran mine down (1) side so I used 3/4". Just something to ponder , :idea: .


----------



## Tinbasser (Jun 24, 2012)

Cool camo job! Did you make the stencils yourself or buy a kit? Gonna have to break down and camo mine one day. Looking forward to seeing the rest of your build.

Jason


----------



## JGrund85 (Jun 25, 2012)

A buddy of mine actually made those stencils. He did an awesome job, and is way more artistic and creative then me. I appreciate all the compliments. I am very happy with how it is all turning out. I actually bought some 1/2 inch pex water tubing to do all my electrical with as a conduit. It is very flexible and should be perfect. As soon as I am back from vacation I plan on finishing it all up. Many more pictures will be posted. I am trying to decide on a switch panel, any suggestions. Want a cheap good quality one and need 5-6 switches. I have a fuse board with bus bar built in with 6 fuses.


----------



## JGrund85 (Jun 26, 2012)

Any suggestions on a switch panel??


----------



## Jonboat Jerry (Jun 28, 2012)

I can't recommend MarPac, the nuts used to mount the switches are not stainless and are rusting.  
Blue Sea makes a better panel and has a 6 circuit available at West Marine for $50. 
https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/248/21700/1d/content.westmarine.com/images/catalog/large/11861556.jpg
There may be others out there, but don't go cheap like I did. I'll probably replace it in the future.
Jerry


----------



## JGrund85 (Jun 28, 2012)

Yeah the one I want is about 80. But 50 sounds better.


----------



## JGrund85 (Jun 28, 2012)

Yeah the one I want is about 80. But 50 sounds better.


----------



## JGrund85 (Jun 29, 2012)

Gonna try and get it finished today and tomorrow, as long as I don't pass out from heat exhaustion! Gotta go shopping though...will see how the wife responds to how much I spend. Decided for now to use cheap switches wired off of fuse block. Does anyone typically use a fuse block as well as a circuited panel??


----------



## JGrund85 (Jun 30, 2012)

Well I spent a whole lot of time getting stuff done. I ended up buying new plywood (non-PT), spar-urethane, pex tubing, 4 -gauge black wire, a 60amp reset-able circuit breaker, 10 gauge wire, bilge pump tubing, some cheap switches (until I can afford better ones), and I decided to give the deck restore product a wing. I have heard so many good things about it and it's longevity, that I figured for 40 bucks I probably cannot go wrong. So I remeasured and recut all the new plywood to make it fit real nice, mocked up all the locations for wire holes, ran my pex tubing, ran all the electrical lines under the ribs (that was hard to do without help), rewired a bunch of engine wiring harness (some of the plugs would not fit under ribs), heat shrunk all my wiring, ran the battery line to the circuit breaker and up to the battery box, started building my battery box, plumbed the supply line to the live well, mounted the live well bilge pump, and put two coats of spar-urethane on my floor boards for the side you will not see to protect the wood as suggested by someone else. I am thoroughly exhausted and still probably have a good 8 -15 hours more of work to complete. Anyway, I took pictures:





Two coats of the urethane, stinks!


We shall see how this product works.


Live well pump plumbed...getting it through there was a bear.


Battery circuit breaker


Battery box bottom, using a piece of decking vinyl for the top, it will be hinged for access/dry storage. Two batteries will be stored: trolling and starting.




All wiring will come up here and run into compartment 


My $60 mistake



One new chair!
Hoping to get deck-restore laid down tomorrow before work. Hope everyone has enjoyed build so far. I sure have. If anyone has suggestions about anything, I am open to almost anything.


----------



## JGrund85 (Jun 30, 2012)

For the first coat of deck restore on my floor boards. It seems to be a great product. Although 3-4 weeks to completely cure


----------



## DaveInGA (Jun 30, 2012)

The only thing to remember about deck restore is it absolutely does not work on aluminum according to the manufacturer. So while it works well on wood, it does NOT work on aluminum decking. In the case of this build, where you're using wood for decking, you're good to go.


----------



## JGrund85 (Jun 30, 2012)

Yeah, that's what I read. I just did not want carpet! Looks good though!


----------



## FishinsMyLife (Jul 2, 2012)

Howard said:


> Really like your boat, similar to mine. I would frame everything with aluminum and absolutely use aluminum for your floor. ...For a duck hunter I would imagine water will not be your friend if using too much wood...



I'm the same way. It looks like you already went with the wood, but a lot of the duck boat builds around hear go with aluminum and hydroturf over wood and carpet.


----------



## JGrund85 (Jul 5, 2012)

Got a lot more done, almost finished. Still need to fab the remaining battery box, the floor is in and steering counsel is in. All electrical is in functioning order, just need to pretty it all up and tuck it away. Need to put the trolling motor back on and mount the front seat. The decking turned out great! Very happy with it.


----------

