livewell/fishbox? water drainage 84 Center console w O/D
 

Has anyone tried to keep water from draining off the deck and going into the fishbox behind the seats, it then drains into the bilge along with dirt/debris ( or the one up front ,at least that drains overboard). Can you seal the hatch so water won't seep in?

good question, surprised nobody has responded yet...I do know what your talking about...I get the fishbox nice and clean and the next thing you know its full of dirt again after a few rains....not sure what you can do about it other than maybe installing some kind of gasket around the lip. Might not want to lay flat with gasket though.

Welcome to the site by the way!! you better post pics before you get yelled at.

Need some pics....not sure what the 84 cc looks like. I have an 84 regular version i/o and my deck drains into the bilge under the motor...horrible setup...always get debris down there and no way to get it out....

fishbox drains into bilge
 

thats just what i'm talking about. the dirt and every thing else winds up in the fish box and then if i don't clean it out , it goes right onto my bilge where its a real PIA to get to and clean out. Never mind when its layed up for the wintertime how much fun that is to clean, sometimes the drain becomes clogged and then it fills with water and freezes solid. This is also not good for the fiberglass when rain water freezes in the fishbox.

Any body have a good idea other than to try and cover the boat up completely to prevent water from going in there in the winter. Summer time it still get into the bilge unless i use the plug and drain it by a bucket.

That is a problem!! Mine was like that and with all thed water splashing in there it rotted out my oil pan :cen:

Nothing i could do to fix, just make sure when adding a bildge you mount like 3 inches off the floor up on the stringer, or get ready to replace pumps all the time as they get burned out from all the sand and other crap!

I've got a '92 C/C and my rear fishbox is the same way. I don't have a bad time with dirt getting IN the box, but rather it gets around the rim some kinda bad. Either way it's a big pain and it looks bad, the only thing I can see to do to keep it out of the box would be to get some door or window gasket from Lowes or HD. Something kinda soft so the lid closes properly.

this is still a pain with all the dirt getting in there. i keep a piece of carpet on top which seems to keep the dirt out. Has anyone ever cut out the aft baitwell and used that space for something else? batteries? its the most wasted space on my center console.

Hook the drain up to a macerator and just pump it clean, debris and all. Worked for me during my brief ownership of a CC.

Alright, being an ACE guy Im gonna pretend I didn't see that:bat:

But yes, we sell a closed cell window insulation that is 1/2" x 3/8". I have it sittin with my "boat stuff" that I intend to rim my fishbox with. With the lid up I can see where the interior rim sits so I will just trace it with the foam. It is a heavy duty foam strip so it should last as long as the glue holds. Oh it will compress down to about 1/4" standing straight up.

Pancake, here is what I did with mine. Removed the well and cut out the bottom to save the top as a hatch that fits, well, perfectly. I use it to house my though-hull bait pump and salth20 wash. Its down an out of the way so no jackass steps on, breaks and floods my boat

Did away with the liner portion of the fishbox. Used the space to install a high speed water pickup for the livewell/leaning post, mounted the raw water pump, livewell pump and have good access to the bilge pumps through there. My boat is not a self bailer due to the modifications from original. The trailer queen gets a vacuum every now and then when sand gets too deep.Attachment 3452 The PVC pipe is my rigging tube, moved it inboard of the stringers.

Ridge- did you cut through the stringer to pass that pipe? Im curious cause I wanted to do the same thing in order to bolt my lean post down. As of right now I can access the front three screws (bolts now) of the adapter from the aft-console access but not the back ones. Stupid design.......

PVC pipe passes through two of the the bulkheads. Wellcraft notched the stringer so they could run the rigging tube outside of the stringers and then they cut two of the sister stringers down the starboard side to get it to the stern. Patched up/replaced all that when the liner was out. Still required one notch in the top of the stringer to run the fuel fill and vent hoses. At least I sealed the exposed wood while I was there, Wellcraft never did.

I like the idea of cutting the livewell/bilge flooder out. Every time i used it, it would flood the bilge. (I don't mean like two inches of water either! Once i had water almost over my batteries!) I cut a hole in mine to clean out the drain holes in the bulkhead under the gas tank. I might go ahead and cut the entire livewell out. That would make it easier hooking up my bait pump and soon to be washdown rather than working through a 8" access plate. Maybe i could also put another gas tank in it? Whats the biggest tank i can get in there?

Maybe a 25??????? Just keep in mind you would be puttin almost another 200lbs in the stern.

Mine also doubles as wet storage for light items. Thats the main problem with the CC is storage, dry or wet. Everytime I get inside my helm I think what a waste of space this is.......

I forgot to mention my V20 is a cuddy cabinet. The livewell is forward of the gas tank. So that would put more weight in the exact middle of the boat. Opening is 16" x33 1/2". Not sure about the depth. It will be determined if it ever quits raining here.
Also i have never used the livewell after it flooded my bilge. I think the only other thing i have ever used it for was thawing bait.

ridge runner tell us how you cut the aft fishbox/well out on your center console. i think i will do the same soon. is there any structural issues if the bottom is removed? does it need to be beefed up so you can walk on/near that area if its cutout? what did you use to cut it with and where did you cut it. were you able to remove the tub part as one piece or did you have to cut it into smaller peices. is there any importtant boat stuff if i start cutting with a grinder about 1" from the bottom of the lip under the lid? Would it be a be a good place for batteries?

You can jig it out. I removed mine because there are some trick angles towards the back of it. But I just drilled a starter hole and ran the jig saw through it and yes it is strong enough to walk on and even jump on.

After a good washdown I have water in there so if you were gonna keep batteries in there I would build them up off the floor

Sorry for the late reply. I had my liner out and flipped when I cut off the one piece tub. I left it flush with the bottom of the core in that area, it is not that strong on mine but I had anticipated having to cut that hatch down as I had a flip-flop cooler seat that I was planning on using. It was going to take up 4" of the lid. On the 1983 center console there is a bulkhead just fore and aft of the livewell. The foremost bulkhead has a V shape notch and you can see the top of the fuel tank. So instead of the liner resting on the top of the bulkhead it is forced to span about 22". You probably won't have the same setup with the cuddy.

i finally cut the bottom of the rear fishbox out on my 1984 20' fisherman center console prompted by the fuel tank needing repair. Wasn't difficult to cut out and am considering moving batteries and oil tank there. not sure why the pvc pipe was broke inside . found a lot of dirt inside , how did wellcraft think it would ever get cleaned out without access to that area ?

Wellcraft is not alone...seems all boat mfgrs are only concerned with water flow/control and have no idea that the real world deals w/dirt/debris...had a buddy w/a 19' dual console Grady back in '86...although a "top tier" boat, it was no better at addressing this issue...

Bottom line is if you have a boat, you have a DIRT MAGNET!!...and unless you are among the fortunate folks who enjoy inside storage(and you know who you are...lol!!), you're gonna be cleaning that puppy out from time to time...

Ok. I wound up removing the fish box liner or tub with a jigsaw. I cleaned up the area and mounted my battery and remote oil tank inside. I know water drained to the back bilge area but now wonder if I should have opened it up with a larger drainhole? The rain water just drains very slowly into the bilge pump area from the old live well . Worried that a large rainstorm might fill that area faster than it drains off into the bilge pump area and short out the battery or get water into my oil tank.

Mine does the same. There is actually a little ridge on mine so that area never really dries. But I also haven't had it fill up to much and certainly to overflow. I just made sure the water had a nice clean path to run to the bilge once the boat got up on an angle

Hello, Im new to the forum, but have been watching for some time. I have the 1988 center console and all the fish box liners are permanently glassed in. I guess wellcraft realized there was a problem with the design because the box you are speaking of is only a hatch with no liner in it on my boat. I thought it was wasted space too, but its great access to wash out the bilge and I also plan to use that space to mount a livewell pump and saltwater washdown pump. Also on my list of things to do is to drain the fish box you are talking about directly through the hull, so it doesn't drain into the bilge. I spend alot of time rinsing that bilge afer fish juice is draining into it all day. On the topic of fishboxes, would anyone happen to have a cover for the front fish box for an 88 cc? I attached a pic, its the more aft and longer cover. My buddy's rear end went through it in some rough seas. Been looking for another one for a while now and would gladly pay cash or trade one of the fingers from my left hand.

I rebuilt mine out of 3/8" starboard with marine Ply backing glassed-in. Works great......

Ssiredfish,
I thought about that, but wasn't sure how I could do the lip that goes into the grooves. Would love to see a pic if you have one. I like the lines of the way the bow is now. I do have all the pieces and am friendly with a professional glass guy that says it can be glassed back together but it will take us quite a bit of time and $. And I have to wait on him since he's a busy guy. Im a little worried how I can do the radius corners with the starboard. Id hate to put the work and money in and end up glassing it back together anyway. Starboard ain't cheap! But I do feel more comfortale working with that than glass

Well for mine it was 3/4" from the goove to the top of the deck. The plywood with the starboard on top made the perfect height. As for the corners, trail and error and lots of it. I originally rounded the corners with a jig saw and then went back and fine-tuned it with a sander. Once it fit snugly, I did all my finishing work, resin, hinges and paint.

My fish box just has a 1/2" lip that goes around the length of the box, different than that of the dry storage up in the front that has the hump and then the lip. Not sure if yours is the same.

I think you can say i love starboard! here is my gallery: http://www.wellcraftv20.com/gallery/album94 i used a stuff called Seaboard, it is made for the restaurant and stores, same stuff but cheaper!. But since then has gone up in price. not sure if you can find in your area i am in Mass.