Splat
Lieutenant
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2008
- Messages
- 1,366
My deck is trashed, so it's time to rebuild it, and modify! I want to add a livewell to my little tinny, the best option for my deck is to do a simple cooler and pipe it in, as it will double as a additional seat as well.
This will be a raw water style setup, I don't believe in recirculation systems, as I believe they to be far less effective at keeping your catch, or bail fresh. The intake is easy.
The drain I will be using will be located in the bottom of the cooler. I plan on using a stand pipe to control the water level in the cooler, it can simply be pulled to drain the livewell completely.
Now the problem.
With the way my deck is on my boat, the very bottom of the cooler will be sitting approx 4" or 5" depending how I plumb it, below the water line. Now hydrodynamics 101 (i think) tells me this will cause 2 things to happen... If the stand pipe is not in place the cooler will automatically fill to the same level as the water line outside of the boat, not a major problem. And 2 as I pump fresh water into the cooler, the water above the top of the stand pipe, AS LONG as it's above the water level outside of the boat will drain, tho at a possible slower rate. Is anyone smarter than me able to tell me at what rate it will drain if the drain is 4" below the water line? If it's even a problem to consider?
My alternative is to simply allow the cooler to drain into the bilge and let the bilge pump evacuate it from the boat. Not a major issue to me, but not the ideal way I want to do it.
Any ideas? I have included a cross section sketch, both plumbing options are shown. The green dashed line shows the approximate water line when fully loaded.
I plan on placing the livewell on the lower deck, directly over the forward seat.
This will be a raw water style setup, I don't believe in recirculation systems, as I believe they to be far less effective at keeping your catch, or bail fresh. The intake is easy.
The drain I will be using will be located in the bottom of the cooler. I plan on using a stand pipe to control the water level in the cooler, it can simply be pulled to drain the livewell completely.
Now the problem.
With the way my deck is on my boat, the very bottom of the cooler will be sitting approx 4" or 5" depending how I plumb it, below the water line. Now hydrodynamics 101 (i think) tells me this will cause 2 things to happen... If the stand pipe is not in place the cooler will automatically fill to the same level as the water line outside of the boat, not a major problem. And 2 as I pump fresh water into the cooler, the water above the top of the stand pipe, AS LONG as it's above the water level outside of the boat will drain, tho at a possible slower rate. Is anyone smarter than me able to tell me at what rate it will drain if the drain is 4" below the water line? If it's even a problem to consider?
My alternative is to simply allow the cooler to drain into the bilge and let the bilge pump evacuate it from the boat. Not a major issue to me, but not the ideal way I want to do it.
Any ideas? I have included a cross section sketch, both plumbing options are shown. The green dashed line shows the approximate water line when fully loaded.
I plan on placing the livewell on the lower deck, directly over the forward seat.
