Way out ballast idea

[Dave K]

I am quite impressed with the Johnson 2 way pump, and although it is more expensive than the traditional Tsunami's, it impresses me for a couple of reason. The main reasons is the fact it will self prime, and there are multiple options for mounting locations rather than down to the bottom of the boat under below water level.

The intergrated sac for underneath the bow seat will only hold so much water and certainly not to 100% of it potential. By its self it is not enough weight. If I had 12 people in my boat ALL the time it would be easy to weight and balance boat. But that is never the case all the time. So we need more ballast in the front.

Hears my idea,

I want 2 sacs in the bow which will allow me flexibility to control the bow weight better. 1st sac will be a permenant intergrated sac under the seats, and the second will be a 16x16x42 that will fit under the middle cushion insert. The intregrated sac shouldn't be anything special to plumb, but I want to plumb the 2nd bow sac in a way that when its not inuse theres no hoses visible.

Ok so tell me what you think of this:

Bring 1 fill line from a pump at the back under the floor to just inside the drivers console wall right beside the walkway. From there I want a control value to divert the water from one sac to the other. (might even have to be 2 gate value and a "Y". On one of the lines out I want to take the hose to a flush mount quick disconnect type of fitting. When we need to use the second sac in the walk way everything its there. When we dont need it it can be stowed, and not ugly pipes will be visible. Probably have to go to the local farm parts store. I might just even just take advantage of using the access door.



We've only had the boat on the water less than a half dozen times last fall because we picked it up pretty later in the season. We borrowed a 1000# triangle sac and sat it on the front seats...but I just hate to waste the bow with a sac sitting up there.

Your thoughts, and ideas would be appreciated.

[kasey200]

I'm interested to see what you come up with. Right now i have the integrated sac under the seat and use a 16x16x42 under the bow filler cushion as you are discribing. I have an extra 10ft hose off off the pump that fills the bow sac with a valve so i can direct water to either the bow sac or the hose. the reason i did it this way is so when we surf i put the 16x16x42 sac on the port seat and the hose will still reach it.

[Timmy!]

Have you used the fly high quick connects? I'm thinking that you could almost just drill a hole in the fiberglass and thread a female adapter into the glass and then secure the fill hose on the backside of it and then when it's not in use, put the cap on it. When you need to use it, you have a piece of hose that has a male on each end so you can hook the hose up to the bag and to the pump. Looks like you might need a few more threads on the end, but you get the idea.

[Dave K]

I'm interested to see what you come up with. Right now i have the integrated sac under the seat and use a 16x16x42 under the bow filler cushion as you are discribing. I have an extra 10ft hose off off the pump that fills the bow sac with a valve so i can direct water to either the bow sac or the hose. the reason i did it this way is so when we surf i put the 16x16x42 sac on the port seat and the hose will still reach it.

Thats a great idea on the extra length of hose to fill the sac at the back for surfing.

[chpthril]

Have you used the fly high quick connects? I'm thinking that you could almost just drill a hole in the fiberglass and thread a female adapter into the glass and then secure the fill hose on the backside of it and then when it's not in use, put the cap on it. When you need to use it, you have a piece of hose that has a male on each end so you can hook the hose up to the bag and to the pump. Looks like you might need a few more threads on the end, but you get the idea.

This was a thought I had when I did JLoflin's ballast, but using a different fitting. I have some that are hose barb x Male quick-conn (mates with the Fly High female quick-conn) but feared they would be toe grabbers and ankle biters because they would stick out of the walk-way wall. The wash-down quick-conns are nice, because they are flush, but they tend to be pricy. I got one a month ago for a MC owners whos cracked and it was $50 for the two parts and it was smaller then the original.

[Timmy!]

Hey Dave, do you have cupholders near where you are thinking of putting that? You could put it all under the cupholder and just remove the cupholder and pull the hose out when you want to fill!

[jason@wakemakers.com]

Not that far out there, we do this quite regularly on direct drive boats. The Jabsco washdown port is the best option we've found for flush mount connections that actually work. The other option is to cut a hole and install a tim panel that the hoses just sit behind.

[Dave K]

Not that far out there, we do this quite regularly on direct drive boats. The Jabsco washdown port is the best option we've found for flush mount connections that actually work. The other option is to cut a hole and install a tim panel that the hoses just sit behind.

do you have a pic of that port ...I think I will need one of those!