Help with Fish Hold on 1995 2320

[sabalo]

My boat has a fish hold just aft of cabin door. Its drain is tied to thru hull with a ball valve (seacock), I guess with the intent of this being a livewell? I never open this valve at sea and the box seems kind of useless to me. Has anyone modified this hold to add a macerator pump? I presume I would reroute discharge to a new thru hull above waterline. Anybody else do anything with this box? Thanks. Craig.

 

[Capt. Ronnie]

I'll try to post some pics of mine.
My 2320 had the shallow factory container with the lid,
after I discovered there was so much more room below it, I cut out the container, brushed on gelcaot and installed a Bowman stainless/aluminum hatch,
I thought about making it a below deck live well, and it would be HUGE,
But between no getting around to doing it, and the fact that it would take 1 or even 2 pumps running to pump it out, I havent done it, besides, my 40 gal barrel off the engine bracket on the port side with the 3400 gph pump works awesome and the boat stays dry with all the water outside the boat!
I've got 3 large water tight bins down there now!

 

[sabalo]

http://www.classicparker.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=174

Thanks Ronnie. I found this old post. I take it you have not modified it since. I was thinking about cutting out box and making one that is deeper. Lots of wasted space there for sure. Craig.

 

[Capt. Ronnie]

yes it's a lot of wasted space, and the small factory container thats about 8 - 10 inches deep was useless!

 

[SBH2OMan]

Reviving an old thread - just stumbled upon it searching for answers to my question "What is this box supposed to be for, anyway...?").

Mine is plumbed with a Jabasco "water puppy" pump, mounted with the impeller above the motor. There is a clear vinyl hose to a bronze strainer laying in the bottom of this hold, and the exhaust is routed up under the deck, under the pilot house (through the "galley" cabinet) and out a through-hull above the water line on the starboard side.

http://www.hodgesmarine.com/Jabsco-Comm ... 0-0123.htm

It picks up debris and fish scales and blows them out with no problem, but the pump itself loves to freeze up and then just constantly blow fuses. I have to pull it apart and turn the motor spindle with a pair of vice grips if the boat is not used over a couple of weeks.

The PO also installed a high-speed fairing block and transducer in this spot. There is a "plug" you can see in the pictures. Below this plug on the outside of the hull is a strainer. This makes me assume that at one point this was set up as a live well, with discharge over the starboard side.

 

[miky2884]

I got that box in my deck as well, i was actually looking at it the other it is rather shallow, but here is the weird part i popped the deck plate directly in front of it off and there is two drains for this box the top drain (overflow i assume) is piped to a through hull fitting out the side, the drain at the bottom of the box drains into the bilge does this make sense??? I will take some pictures to better describe. To me both drains should be set up to drain out a through hull

 

[SBH2OMan]

Deck plate directly in front of it? Ah.. You have an SC and not an EC. My doorway to the pilothouse is immediately forward of this box. Inside the door I have a small floor drain that goes straight down to the bilge - probably the same location as your deck plate.

There is a bilge space below this "fish box" and I have heard of others who have this box and it is set up to drain straight to the bilge - sounds like that might be your setup.

When I was shopping for boats, I was surprised at the number of boats I looked at that had in-deck fish boxes that drained into the bilge! (yeck!)

That being said, my bilge is filthy from 2-stroke oil spilling when filling the remote tank inside the transom - its a PITA to get to!

 

[miky2884]

Yes thats correct, that is the difference in the 2 boats . I wont ever use this box as a fish box i fall into that megabyte category i am an extreme neat freak and cant handle dust in the bilge never mind having fish $hit in there :lol:

I do feel this drainage situation is a poor design by Parker and one of the only ones I have found. Anytime a holding box drains into my bilge doesn't make me feel to comfortable

 

[auntrita]

on my '99 the fish box drain is attached to a strainer mounted backward so you can open when on plane to empty the box good luck!

 

[SBH2OMan]

Its a pretty good sized compartment, but an odd shape. Honestly, what we use it for is storing the fenders, 32" fillet table, and misc cleaning supplies. If I ever have a good enough day when my fish won't all fit in the 160 qt Igloo, I'll probably stick them in here with some ice over the top.

 

[gundog]

Yeah. Mine has the same set up.

When my buddy saw it he was insisting it was meant as a livewell.

I use mine to store lines.

 

[SBH2OMan]

One thought (obvious to most, probably but it just occurred to me) is that if its to be used as a live well, the pump has to be submersible (unlike the Jabasco "water puppy" that I have in there now...). Having that pump hanging there really limits the amount of water that can be in the hold. Also, having the sea cock in the actual hold makes for a weird setup, too.

The factory deck hatch leaks water very badly, even with a gasket all around it. After a good hosing down of the deck, there will be several gallons of water in that box. with a water-tight deck hatch that was easy to open, it would probably make a great "damp but not wet" storage area for cleaning supplies, fenders, lines, etc. Mine has a couple of brackets installed that appear to have at one time supported two vertical "baffles" which divided the space into three compartments.

I have a feeling that forward of this box is a large void that would make for good storage. Aft of it, the entire under-deck space is taken up by fuel tank, I believe.

 

[miky2884]

iM NOT SURE ABOUT YOUR BOAT, BUT MINE THE FUEL TANK IS LOCATED ALL THE WAY AT THE BACK OF THE BOAT SO I ACTUALLY HAVE QUITE A BIT OF BILGE ROOM FROM THE END OF THE TANK UP TO THE START OF THE PILOT HOUSE, I ALSO HAVE A TON OF ROOM UNDER THE PILOT HOUSE FLOOR BUT RIGHT NOW THE ONLY ACCESS I HAVE TO IT IS A LITTLE DECK PLATE AND THAT'S WHERE THE FORWARD BILGE IS LOCATED, ONE DAY THATS WHERE ID LIKE TO PUT A FRESH WATER TANK.


Sorry for the caps i type with my head down :lol: