Wooden Boat People

By McKenzieDriftBoat.com

Drain system

Planning to drain my foot well with 1 1/4" tubing running through my side boxs. Just had a few questions before I drill into the side of the boat. My foot well is only part self bailing, then the rest ill just manualy bail out. I was going to do the whole elevated floor thing, but I like my leg room, and I really like to stand and row.

Is 8" from the bottom of the boat high enough for the sides, 9.5" in the foot well? This boat design has a large flat serface so im thinking it will sit a little higher in the water, but it will be heavy with all the decking and everything.

One side or two? D you think I need to drain it out of both sides or just one, keeping in mind I plan on using 1 1/4" tubing?

As always thanks for the advise!

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Permalink Reply by lhedrick on April 19, 2011 at 7:11am

Ben,

I will check the height of my floor when I get to my shop. From memory I think I made it high enough for beer storage but I don't remember if it was 12 or 16 oz cans. Some drain out by hose right though the floor of the boat. Somehow I don't like having a through hull fitting cut into the bottom where we will be dragging it over rocks. I have always put them on the sides of the boat. I can tell you this. I have filled my foot well to the top more then once. You need to keep the out flow hole on the side as low as possible. If the inflow and outflow are close to the same level it will drain slowly. Another point to consider is the run of the pipe/hose. If the hose has a dip in the middle it will collect sand slowing down the flow even more. It helps to keep the hose pitched down to the output through hull fitting so it doesn't collect sand and mud. Ice will clog it also. Keep you floor up as high as possible and before drilling the hole in the side you could take the boat to a lake and give it a float and see where you water line is.

8 inches sounds fairly high. I think that's about what I have. I am 6 foot 4 and stand and row also.

You may want a hose on each side.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Kittell on April 19, 2011 at 7:58am

So is a differance of 1.5" enough? I am putting the hose as high as I can in the foot well, but I guess I could lower it on the hull if need be.

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Permalink Reply by lhedrick on April 19, 2011 at 8:06am

I, I think that's close to what I have. If I Have time I will dump a few buckets of water into the well and see how long it takes for them to drain out. As the level starts to go down the flow drops. I will post a few photos.

The input on my system is in the bottom of the floor not the side.

Pumps are also and option you know.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Kittell on April 19, 2011 at 8:20am

I plan on using a manual pump for the front and back, as well as the bottom of my foot well. At least for this boat I dont want to haul a batterie and pump. Maybe on the next one!

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Permalink Reply by justin nicola on April 19, 2011 at 1:14pm

that is one of the things i would water test before drilling. see where she sits, even mark it w/ wax or light pencil. dont forget to add sandbags or extra people if thats what you will be running it with. also, im not hugely familiar w/ drift boats, but as a rule, i would think sides are better than bottom, and symmetry is better than asymmetry (sp?). thats a pretty boat, you only want to do it once. i plan to finish my entire boat, then build seat separately and fasten it after the fact. the less holes, the better.

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Permalink Reply by lhedrick on April 19, 2011 at 2:58pm

This morning I filled the foot well with about 20 gallons of water. 1/2 drained out in 1 minutes. The second half drained out in 1:45. Almost 3 minutes to drain out 20 gallons.

The foot well is 13 inches deep and the floor is 7 1/2 inches above the boat bottom. The out flow is about 1 inch below the floor. I should have been 2 inches as there is a slight rise in the hose due to the angle of the fitting.