Re: Bowrider conversion
Depending on how crazy you want to get with it, you can create your inlet hole to act as an overflow and drain hole too, with 3 one way valves, and a stopper plug for the bottom of the livewells.
What you do basically is take your piping from the transom ( area you will draw and drain water to/from ) and install a 3 way diverting pipe. You install the one way valve in the middle to allow water to flow towards the livewell, but not back, and then you would mount your pump in front of that ( you have to mount this diverter and pump where it would sit the lowest in your boat so that the pump will be primed by the water pushing its way into the boat through your through hull fitting. )
Then the other two lines get one way valves installed with the flow going to the back of the boat. You take one of those lines, and hook it to your drain, the other one goes to a fitting at where you want your water level to be at. The idea being that you cannot overfill the live well.
The only thing that will defeat this is if the pump can shoot in more water than the over fill can drain...if you fill into a pipe with holes that spray into the tank to help aerate the water, then you can adjust the amount of flow your pump is pushing.
This way enough water can drain from "overfill" and the pump cannot suck up what is being drained along with the water that would be coming in to the pump.
To avoid this issue, you would need to eliminate that hose from the diverter and run it out next to the transom inlet, or...have it expel overflow out the side of the hull, which is more common.
Obviously it all depends on what kind of access you will have under your floor, how much room in your bilge area or shortly ahead of the bilge to mount your plumbing, and how willing you are to start cutting holes into your hull.
