Live Well in Quintrex Dory

[simmo2001]

Hi Guys,

I'm about to fit a custom live well in my Dory, and would like to run the plans past those here first as I really hate cutting holes in her at the best of times!!

TANK
I'm recessing a 65 litre butchers tub in the front bench seat to act as the tank, to do this will require cutting of the top sheet of the bench seat to fit, removing the bouyancy foam (will be replaced under the tank) and slotting the tub in.

INFLOW
I'm then fitting 500gph pump on a s/s pickup on the rear of the transom, fitted to 3/4" high pressure hose to an on/off valve just inside the rear of the boat to control water in/out. From there, 3/4" hose continued under the floor to the top of the tank, where an elbow directs the flow into the bottom for better circulation of water, with a couple of holes to aerate and prevent reverse siphoning.

OUTFLOW
A 1.5" hose is connected on the opposite side of the tank, leading directly to a skin fitting in the hull where the overflow will exit. This 'hole' is always above the water line by at least 250mm, usually much more.

DRAINAGE
A 3/4" bung in the bottom of the tank is connected to a hose which runs towards the stern along the length of the boat under the floor, connecting to one of the existing bungs in the transom so I don't get stench through the hull when flushing.

Any thoughts on this plan are more than welcomed, weight won't be an issue as the nose likes to sit up a bit anyway so I'm looking forward to bit more weight up front especially at low speed.

Looking forward to your thoughts.

Simmo

[Chimo]

Hi Simmo

Obviously you have a lid to go over this set up but didn't mention it?

Outflow
There may be times when you dont want or need the live well to be full to the brim, I find this to be the case in mine; so heres how i do mine for your info.

Instead of outflowing only out of the full outlet I slide a black plastic irrigation pipe into the drainage hole in the bottom and can adjust the depth of water in the live well by pushing it further in. ( you may simply have a few bits of pipe ie short, medium and long and simply push the top "tee" onto whatever pipe you use)

To make the outlet (black plastic) work the best it can, install a "tee" fitting at the top and cut the ends of the two short inlet pipes inlets at 45 degrees with the long side at the top. This makes a "hooded entry" and so reduces air flow (vortex) disruption of water into the outlet flow and you can run a full pipe of water to your skin fitting outlet.

Hope this makes sense, it certainly works well in my well.

Cheers
Chimo

[Kleyny]

please post finished product photos i would love to see them.

neil

[simmo2001]

Thanks Chimo,
Yeah, the tank will have a lid being the padded foam cushion that runs the length of the bench seat. It will have a ply base on hinges attached to it so that should form an adequate lid for the tank?

The partial drainage sounds like a great idea as often times you wouldn't want the tank completely full, the only problem being the drainage point would be below the water line as I planned to use the existing bung at the rear of the transom for this? Does that make sense or have I misread this?

No problems with the pics Honky, will post up as soon as done.

[Chimo]

Hi Simmo

Three issues I wonder about.

1 Having the well fwd in the boat means its going to really move about a lot, slosh a lot of water about, give the bait a hard time and spill into the boat.
They really do work better at the rear of the boat in a softer riding location. Thats why batteries are located in the back and usually wells too.

2 IMHO you do need to be able to operate it at less than full level and so how do you intend to empty the well? Thru the bung hole?
Where you originally going to feed the hose out the bung hole only when on the trailer after the bung was removed because if that was the case the varying level idea won't work, sorry.

3 You need to have the drainge outlet thru another skin fitting. This works safely if the well is above outside water level such as in the rear transom as on a Seafarer.

I think IMHO I'd do a trial with your bin sitting full and adjacent to where your thinking of installing it and go for a run and see how much movement of water in the bin is affected by its proposed position before cutting too many holes.

Cheers
Chimo