Baitwell Baffles?

[daniel123]

The baitwell built into the the front of the steering console of my 200 Osprey sloshes water onto the deck when the boat rocks. I can cut the standpipe overflow drain shorter but don't want to lose that much more depth/volume from the smallish well if I can help it. Is a baffle an option for controlling such fluid contents? I also considered installing a rubber gasket around the perimeter/top of the baitwell, but am not sure the flip-up seat that serves as a lid/cover would be adequate, weight-, shape- and angle-wise to make that work.     

[boatnamesue]

I think the water sloshing is secondary to the baitwells lid not providing a water tight seal.  Hence, install baffles and you'll still encounter the same issue.  How you seal the lid depends on the wells configuration.  Post a few pics of what your working with and im sure suggestions will follow. 

[daniel123]

Thanks for the reply, and you may be right. And perhaps I am just filling it too high for its design.

The tank compartment has a flat top that matches a flat bottom of the underside of the seat/lid, with no accommodation for a gasket. If I installed one, simply cementing one around the underside of the seat in a shape a little larger than the diameter of the tank opening, I might have to adjust the hinges, raising them to accommodate the height of the gasket so I don't spring them. I welcome thoughts.

[Capt. Bob]

Your problem is one often seen on this Forum (and I'd guess others as well).  What is needed is a "lid" for your well similar to a leaning post live well. Since molding one in that would be flush with the top of the well (bottom of seat cushion) would be an interesting glass project, you might consider something like this.

Instead of a gasket on top of the well, how about one wide enough mounted inside the mouth of the well. The gasket could be attached to the inner wall (looks to be about an inch+/- wide) and used to support a cover. Depending on the gasket (I'm thinking rubber/neoprene) size, location of the mount would allow a "lid" to set inside the opening and rest on the gasket. Clear plexiglass would be nice but a piece of Starboard would work too. Once in place, downward pressure from the cushion would seal it against the gasket.

Maybe not the best or easiest idea but I'm thinking you'll end up with a lot less water on the deck.

EDIT: If the lid was lower than the cushion, you may find some form of hardware to secure it snug to the gasket support. If not, mounting some form of "blocks" to the bottom of the cushion that would then apply pressure to the lid when the cushion was down could possibly work too. With the lid recessed, any water that seeped passed the gasket might remain between the lid and cushion.

Good luck.  

[Levi]

2 steps to fix this problem
Step #1 Get some of that rubber 3m adhesive backed weather stripping and stick it to the inner rim on the top of the baitwell so that when the lid is shut the lip of the weather strip resides between the bottom of the cushion and the top of the baitwell. This will seal the water in.
Step #2 close off your over flow so that less water flows out.
You can either lengthen the tube to where it almost touches the bottom of the cushion or put a valve in the middle of the overflow tube to control how much water goes out.
This will stop the sloshing because if the livewell is FULL it cannot slosh. And no sloshing = happy bait
You need a way to latch the seat down so that you have a good seal or you'll get a wet hind-end but this will work if you do it right. This is how the pro live bait guys do it.

[daniel123]

Great ideas both, guys. I may try the simpler gasket one first, and move to a flush Plexi lid if that doesn't do the trick. I'll keep you posted. Thanks!