Yachtfish livewell

[Yachtsmyth]

I would like to see if anyone has come up with a useful purpose other than as a livewell in the cockpit. I use to sailfish semi-professional in sailfish tournaments with live bait. Do not plan to do that with this boat, however it has crossed my mind.... But has anyone removed the in deck livewell or converted it to something more useful?
Thank you.

 

[johnjen50]

My 1980 Yachtfish does not have a live well. There is a fuel tank and a water tank under the cockpit on my year.

 

[Yachtsmyth]

Thank you- mine and all that I have seen its between the water (along transom) and fuel. Its deep, but it blocks the storage between the two hatches and never completely drains......

 

[Glory]

If the hatch was a little bigger I would store fenders in there. But now it is just another spot to clean.

 

[rsmith]

I glassed mine in. It was worthless as a live well. Square corners doesn’t fare well for bait fish. Plus kneeling on the deck trying to get bait out of a deep dark well is a PITA. I store lines in mine. I’ve got a poly tank that mounts under the fighting chair/ rocket launcher. It’s round and keeps the very expensive goggle eye alive

 

[whoover]

Hello,

I rebraced my cockpit sole and cut the live well out of my 42c. It really opened up the area for storage, cleaning and maintenance. If you take this route be prepared, my tank was over an inch thick solid glass down near the bottom. I used many sawzall blades, zip cut where out of the question because of dust.

Walt Hoover

 

[Guy Walters]

I cut mine out last weekend on my 1984 55' convertible. The three best purchases I made to prepare for this was a thick yoga mat, a 4.5" diamond blade for a right angle grinder and a Tyvek full coverage suit. This was very intimidating for me, being in that confined space with a diamond blade spinning at 30,000 RPMs. I was shocked at how easy it was. The first thing I did was cut a large square section out of the side. That made it easy to reach inside to cut the other side so I did not have to crawl out and move to the other hatch. It only took about one hour to completely cut the tub out. Mine was not beaded into epoxy but was tabbed along the bottom edges. The glass is pretty thick there so cutting and cleaning that took most of the time. I just cut the top out as close to the hatch drain as possible and sanded that edge down. It took more time cleaning up the pumps, hoses and electrical wiring. It is a messy job! I wore the Tyvek bunny suit, a respirator and full goggles. It was totally worth it, the area is huge and much more usable with the tub out. I purchased 2 of the diamond blade but never even dulled the first one. I was prepared with a sawzall and a vibrasaw but the right angle grinder is the ticket. Be careful.
Guy

 

[Wiredup62]

I saw on here or facebook, someone turned theirs into a hot tub.