New to boating-restoration of 1956 Seaswril

[dennisthe12c]

Hi all, Originally looking for a 12-14 aluminum fishing boat I came across this little (14') runabout at which time I forgot about fishing and was captivated by the lines and history of a nearly 50 yr old craft. It took some time id'ing the boat as the registration says builder-P14, which I found to be a seaswril model#. Anyway the 2 bench-rowboat type seats are rotten (only thing on boat that is) and it leads me to believe that somewhere along the line they were added. They are almost sitting against the sides with a thin layor of glass holding them. I am wondering if they are needed to hold the hull's shape? All the pics of this type of runabout show bucket type or back to back bucket seats. Either way they will have to be replaced... Any input would be appreciated.
Thanks dennis in pasadena

[Corpus Skipper]

The seats do add some support to the hull sides wether it's needed or not. You could remove them and the boat will still float right side up, but the sides may flex a bit more. Probably won't hurt anything, but you could glass in some stiffeners made of say 1/2" plywood 4" wide running vertically from the deck to the top of the hull, fiberglass them to the hull.