Sea Ark?

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tacoma_2002

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Hey guys!

I've been a member here for a little while and have read tons of great information (thanks!) but haven't posted a whole lot.

I have an opportunity to buy a boat and I figured I'd come here and ask for advice (very undecided).

A friend of mines father bought a boat new and passed away before having too much time to use it...

The boat is a 1998(ish going to look at it closely this week) Sea Ark 18/60 side console with a 120 Force outboard. It has been sitting in a garage for the last 7 years covered.

I know going into this I'll need to clean the carbs and fuel tanks as well as replace the water pump impeller, spark plugs etc.

My question is what's a descent price for this thing?

Is it worth messing with? (I don't know a lot about force motors)?

He's asking 5,000 but I'm sure 4,500 would buy it. I know the original purchase price was right at 19k...

Any help appreciated.
 
I have a 1860 Seaark but it is very bare bones. No storage, wells, or anything like that. Do you have any pics? I Love mine.

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I don't yet. I will take some this coming week.

This one is set up similar to a bass boat. It has large casting decks, live wells and carpeted interior.

I fish a lot in the rivers and large reservoir type lakes so I'm looking did something wide and deep. I will be taking my son along in the next couple of years also...so I would like to have something good and ironed out by then.
 
Pay him an extra hundred just to keep the force motor and save yourself the headache. Lol I've never had anything but problems w them and parts are impossible. At one point around me mechanics were buying them all up as parts motors Bc they break so much and then they could bend you over On the price Bc you have no other option.

That being said could be a very nice boat I'd just be weary of the motor.


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That's what I'm afraid of.

I don't particularly want to have to repower the boat for cost sake. I'm thinking 5k is probably too much to have in just the hull? The cowling decal says Force by Mercury Marine but I'm guessing they're not the same as a Merc?
 
at one point (near the end) Merc bought Force motors from US Marine (I think it was) who had bought them from Chrysler. But it was NOT a Merc motor... (I think OMC was involved in there someplace but I could be wrong) Or maybe it was OMC bought US Marine? I cant recall LOL

I had a old Chrysler Force 105 hp, it was ok, I now have a Sears Gamefisher (1996) 9.9 hp Force motor and its been great. From what I understand it was the best of the Gamefisher motors.

so there is quite a history behind Force.

If the motor runs good and is in good shape I wouldn't worry about it too much. If something bad was to go wrong with it it probably would have by now. common parts are still available to my knowledge
 
Here is the history of Force motors. I ran across this a while ago and bookmarked it since I thought it was interesting for some reason.

"Chrysler Corp. purchased West Bend's outboard manufacturing in January, 1965. This first year they were known as a Chrysler/West Bend outboard. Chrysler stern drives were sold to Bayliner Boats in 1983 and the outboard division was sold to the Force Outboards division of U.S. Marine - an affiliate of Bayliner - in 1984. Bayliner wanted to start packaging their boats, and the Capri line was introduced to the buying public with "Force" engines on the transom. At first, they were just Chrysler's with Force stickers. They later came out with their own cowlings and paint scheme to match the Bayliner branding. When Brunswick purchased Bayliner, they inherited the these Force outboards, probably unwanted, and mostly obsolete, engines came with the deal. However Mercury took advantage of the opportunity and ended up with low cost Force engines to factory rig their boats, perhaps an idea of ahead of it's time.


Mercury decided to spruce them up and improve them, with Mercury gear cases/props, CD ignition systems, etc., and market them as 2nd tier engines. I understand, they were actually pretty good, but not really hot performers and with a second tier, "cheapout" image for the owners. The situation spooked Yamaha and OMC enough that they downgraded their own lines, removing oil injection and other items, so they, too, would have a second tier line. OMC called them the "Special" engines, with odd ball HP number to set them apart. Yamaha had a designation for theirs also. As clean technology became mandated, this engine had to die, so Mercury dumped it in favor of putting Merc engines on Bayliners, and all their other brands also. The Force name later turned into the Mariner brand outboards which was introduced in Australia sometime in the early 70's and in the United States in 1976 "

original website quote was taken from- https://www.leeroysramblings.com/chrysler_force_gamefisher_15.html
 
Good info on the Force motors, though on Leroy's deal I don't agree with some of it based on what I know of Yamaha. I could be wrong. Or maybe we're all wrong but who cares. The point is still that Force=junk. If it's running, pray that it stays running. If it's in need of repair, pull it off, pull the steel parts off and junk them, then sell the aluminum for scrap. Even Aluminum is down right now but it's still better than steel.

The boat, sounds like a well setup boat. I don't know if it's $5,000 nice but SeArk boats are tougher than hammered hell. They're not race boats at all, but they are extremely tough, well built boats made for work. At one point I owned an 1872 SeArk that had a Johnson 88 on it, which I hated, but it moved the boat along the Arkansas river many times. Used it for bowfishing mostly. It was a big ol' flatbottom. In wake and rough waters it let you know that it was still just an overgrown jon but it was big, heavy, tough, and got us there-and back-many, many times. Sometimes with a 4 wheeler in it, that we'd use to ride around on an island.

With that old Force on it, it's probably actually decreasing it's value a little. If it had almost any other motor on it, yeah $5k would probably be decent assuming it's not all beat up and nasty. I sold my 1872 with the Johnny on it, for $7500 and the buyer thought he stole it. Bare boat, I kept the fishing deck, but let 2 batteries go. Side console.
 

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