Baitwell drains out...why?

[bluefishbones]

I just added a timer, that way you always have fresh water in the bait well with out overflowing.
Tom

[red herring]

all great info, Now here's another related issue maybe someone can comment on. Fishing at anchor in my '06 215, live well full and happy and running (until it got clogged - more on that in a minute). Anyway, after an hour or two, I'm standing in water in the back of the boat! Bilge is not full of water but the fish box that I was standing on most of that time was full! What the heck. . .? So I bail out the fishbox, get on my hands and knees to find out where this water has come from. Apparently, the weight of the water in the live well plus me at 180 lbs was enough to depress the stern of the boat just enough so that the water line was just above the level of the the ping pong valves and little flapper valve do-dads and the water backed into the boat through the channels in the floor and over to where I was standing and then seeped into that fishbox at the hinge where there is no gasket coverage! Every time the boat lurched, water dribbled into the fish box from the floor channel. I din't notice it because only when the fish box became full did water start to accumulate on the deck proper.

It seems hard to believe that the livewell and one person's weight is enough to cause this engineering shortcoming? I sure hope not - I hope that something else is going on (otherwise reminds me of a car I had once years ago where you had to unbolt the engine mounts and jack the engine up a couple of inches in order to change out two of the spark plugs!! Doh!

As to the happy livewell, later on - not so happy. seaweed invaded and clogged up the pump at the impeller. Upon inspection, there is no screen on the hull protecting the through hull fitting from sucking up debris - it is just wide open. This normal?

Thanks for your input.

[PileDriver]

As for the livewell, yes it is normal for it to be wide open hole. Stay out of the seaweed!

As for the fishbox, it is a combination of things. First and foremost the drain that allows it to drain into the bilge area must be plugged. I personally keep a little weedeater string in the boat for clearing out clogs. If the drain is open and flowing properly you shouldnt have an issue.

However, I am also guessing your splash wells are full of water. This adds to weight in the rear and helps allow water to re-enter the boat through the scuppers. Triumph is working on developing a fix for this issue (water in the splash wells).

As an added safety factor, should you loose your bilge pump, you can get boat plugs to fit cockpit drain holes. This will stop the water from entering the cockpit and filling the fishboxes.

Hope this helps
PD

[cagrove]

Originally Posted by PileDriver

As for the livewell, yes it is normal for it to be wide open hole. Stay out of the seaweed!

Really? My livewell pick up has a screen over it...I fish in weeds a lot and have never had a problem.

[red herring]

I'll pull the splashwell covers to inspect for water.

I have installed thru hull drains in each box and ruled in the original drains going to the bilge so boxes don't drain when I'm on the water. Done at the suggestion of several contributors to this site, including Dick M. Maybe I should ream out the rule in the drains to the bilge - just don't like getting fish gunk in there causing huge black mold build up! Trial and error, I guess.

[PileDriver]

Originally Posted by cagrove

Really? My livewell pick up has a screen over it...I fish in weeds a lot and have never had a problem.

I believe on the 210/215 models they do not put on there as we have a water pick-up design on the thru-hull fitting and we also (if the boat is equiped) pull the water for our raw water washdown from the same thru-hull.

[PileDriver]

Originally Posted by red herring

I'll pull the splashwell covers to inspect for water.

I have installed thru hull drains in each box and ruled in the original drains going to the bilge so boxes don't drain when I'm on the water. Done at the suggestion of several contributors to this site, including Dick M. Maybe I should ream out the rule in the drains to the bilge - just don't like getting fish gunk in there causing huge black mold build up! Trial and error, I guess.

I personally would ream out the rule! These bilge drains were put in so that it would resolve this self-swamping issue found on the earlier models, just as you have desribed here. The thru-hull drains you put in are an added bonus for cleaning out the fish boxes at the end of the day.

[cagrove]

I learned something new today...thanks! It does seem odd to me (that's nothing new, though) that whenever you have water coming into your boat and into a pump that you would want it screened. Who knows what you may suck up into that opening. But, hey, what do I know. I don't build boats for a living, I just use them. Thanks again.

[PileDriver]

I have actually got junk up in there before too, since the raw water pump pulls from below the livewell pump, I just turn on the raw water pump and and it will clear it out (most of the time).

[k9reno]

I put the thru hull drains in my floor boxes too. they caused me a water intrusion problem because the kiss off separated and underway water forced its way into the inner hull. Merritt drill them larger for me. welded them shut and remounted the drains. they also put a inner hull drain on the transome and drained out the water from my hull. no water problems now. I also had them put stainless clam shells over the drain holes to help deflect the water from forcing its way up in the holes. The clam shells also enable me to drain the floor boxes while my boat is under way. I did not have my original drains sealed, but two of them are plugged anyway and wont drain. I could not clear them either.