2000 260DA Bilge and Cabin Sink Cabinet Storage

[Nehalennia]

For our trip tomorrow I needed some more storage room for my spare props, inflatable raft, prop wrench, emergency flares, wedge cones and mallet plus other items I may need but don't want "in the way". So I made a shelf for the front side of the engine in the bilge.
She sits in a unused area and with 6 screws(attached to the bulkhead behind the gas tank) I can remove it easily.
I have some nice furniture grade 1 1/4" plywood I cut to size and notched for the discharge hose.

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Here's the bilge empty

Mighty Mo painted it for me


I then attached the Rubbermaid tub to the plywood with some stainless latches.

All of the spares go in here; oil, wood plugs, spare props and starter, some wire, jumper cables and rags, etc.



Then the uneven floor under the cabin sink poses a tough storage dilemma because anything you want to stow there won't stack well.

So we bought some kitchen wire rack(I think usually used for mugs or plates or something in a kitchen cupboard.

Well since those legs are the same length, they would just tilt as well so I bought some aluminum 3/8" tubing and cut it to whatever length so that they stay level for a shelf.

 

[Dave S]

Very nice Todd and some clever ideas.:thumbsup:

I know you probably thought of this, but make sure everything in the engine room can't move. I'd hate to see any of that gear get tangled up with moving pulleys or belts or roasted on the engine. :wow::smt009

 

[Skip]

Todd,
Just looking at the through hull in that very clean bilge....
FWIW, I secure wooden bungs to every through hull fitting with a tie wrap in the 420ER. If I hit something and tear a fitting loose (see my exhaust adventures post of a couple years ago) or on the off chance that a through hull fails I can hammer the bung in with the rubber mallet I keep in the ER and stop they leak.
Cheap insurance. And I don't even boat in water 700 feet deep!

Nice job on the storage. 02 260DA was our first Sea Ray. Loved it.

Skip

 

[dsteele1]

Nice job, Todd. Talk about maximizing use of your bilge! I like it!

 

[sebagoman007]

Outstanding work, Todd! My list of planned improvements just got longer.........

Cheers,

Bill

 

[Nehalennia]

Todd,
Just looking at the through hull in that very clean bilge....
FWIW, I secure wooden bungs to every through hull fitting with a tie wrap in the 420ER. If I hit something and tear a fitting loose (see my exhaust adventures post of a couple years ago) or on the off chance that a through hull fails I can hammer the bung in with the rubber mallet I keep in the ER and stop they leak.
Cheap insurance. And I don't even boat in water 700 feet deep!

Nice job on the storage. 02 260DA was our first Sea Ray. Loved it.

Skip

Thanks guys. Yes everythings is strapped or screwed down.

Skip, I like that idea of having the plugs strapped to the hose of the through hulls. In the box you see are two different size cone plugs and a mallot. I plan to replace the through hulls with stainless over the winter.

Whether in 30' or 700' I'd rather not sink.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Todd,

As I was reading through your post about the shelf, my first thought was "boy, I bet that took a little trial and error to measure the legs, then cut each one down a certain amount". Good idea with adding the tubing - that's a much better idea than the way I was thinking!:smt001

 

[Stray Cat]

Nice work there! Measure twice, cut once? :grin: Rubbermaid normally makes a good fit on their lids, as added assurance to keep it on, I'd maybe add a bungie cord or something to keep the lid on just incase......Is the handle to your seacock easily accessible? Wasn't certain what it went to.....

 

[Nehalennia]

Todd,

As I was reading through your post about the shelf, my first thought was "boy, I bet that took a little trial and error to measure the legs, then cut each one down a certain amount". Good idea with adding the tubing - that's a much better idea than the way I was thinking!:smt001

Measuring was easy. All I had to do was hold the shelf level at the height I wanted and measure to the floor at the base of the shelving wire top. Cut it to fit, measure the next one. The tubing does work well, but the shelving does shift slightly while underway so the next plan it to secure them to the forward bulkhead.

Nice work there! Measure twice, cut once? :grin: Rubbermaid normally makes a good fit on their lids, as added assurance to keep it on, I'd maybe add a bungie cord or something to keep the lid on just incase......Is the handle to your seacock easily accessible? Wasn't certain what it went to.....

Thank you. The Rubbermaid tub is very snug fit and actually is secured very well. I haven't had it even budge. The shelf itself currently doesn't allow access to open the secock on the holding tank. I can only use that in certain parts of Canada. In the original install I used some zinc angle brackets because I just needed to secure it for our big trip last summer. I've since replaced them with some nice hatch hinges like this for easy removal.

I will also cut the hole around the seacock bigger so I can lift it straight up. This storage has worked out very well for the items I want to have on board but don't need to access them often.

The Grill stowed next to the water tank also makes it out of sight and in an otherwise unused space.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Measuring was easy. All I had to do was hold the shelf level at the height I wanted and measure to the floor at the base of the shelving wire top. Cut it to fit, measure the next one. The tubing does work well, but the shelving does shift slightly while underway so the next plan it to secure them to the forward bulkhead.

I totally agree with you - you did it the better way. The way I was thinking of was trying to cut the actual legs down.

What if you zip-tied the two shelves together? That may make it more stable. Maybe also wrap the shelf's leg in tape, to take up the space (in diameter) between the leg's OD and the tubing's ID? Many way to skin a cat, though.:smt001

In my old 215, I cut regular white wire shelving (the kind with a 2" front "lip") to fit - and then attached L-brackets where I could to mount it. If I wasn't able to use screws, I used 5200. I just zip-tied the shelving to the brackets.

Those are nice looking hinges! I bet if you did it right, you could make the whole container and platform (all as one piece) hinge out of the way (to port or stbd) when you needed to access underneath.

 

[Nehalennia]

I totally agree with you - you did it the better way. The way I was thinking of was trying to cut the actual legs down.

What if you zip-tied the two shelves together? That may make it more stable. Maybe also wrap the shelf's leg in tape, to take up the space (in diameter) between the leg's OD and the tubing's ID? Many way to skin a cat, though.:smt001

In my old 215, I cut regular white wire shelving (the kind with a 2" front "lip") to fit - and then attached L-brackets where I could to mount it. If I wasn't able to use screws, I used 5200. I just zip-tied the shelving to the brackets.

You got it. I am still playing with ideas to stablilize it.

Those are nice looking hinges! I bet if you did it right, you could make the whole container and platform (all as one piece) hinge out of the way (to port or stbd) when you needed to access underneath.

Yes, I want to be able to pull the hinge pins and lift the entire bin with shelf up and out. I'm just not sure if I have the clearance with the hatch. Also, I'm looking into some quickrelease fasteners to release the bin from the shelf.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Hmmmm... how 'bout a gas strut or two somewhere in the mix?:grin::grin:

 

[ultratiger89]

two questions

1. how did you get your bilge so clean?
2. doesn't look like you have room to open that sea cock.

 

[Nehalennia]

Hmmmm... how 'bout a gas strut or two somewhere in the mix?:grin::grin:

Are you thinking elevator?

 

[Lazy Daze]

No, although an elevator would help to get in and out of the bilge.:smt001

I was thinking that you could keep the hinges (for sake of argument) on the port side of the bilge only, then attach the strut underneath the wood - and to the hull bottom. When you wanted access to under the wood, lift up on the wood and the strut would do the rest. Sort of like the engine hatch. As long as the container is attached well and has the lid on, it'd just go along for the ride.

You may not be able to lift the wood totally vertical (depending on how soon the container contacted something else), but it would definitely give you easier access to the stuff under the wood.

Maybe, maybe not:huh:

 

[Nehalennia]

two questions

1. how did you get your bilge so clean?

Simple green, a wheel washing brush and elbow grease.

2. doesn't look like you have room to open that sea cock.

Not the way it's cut now. Like I mentioned earlier, I've never used it yet. Also I can only use it in certain areas of Canada so it hasn't been too big of a deal.

 

[Moose]

Everything sounds intriguing. But I'm not putting anything in the bilge that not belong there. Especially plastic!

 

[Nehalennia]

Everything sounds intriguing. But I'm not putting anything in the bilge that not belong there. Especially plastic!

You have lots of plastic in your engine bay. This is well in front of the engine, and I've run it for over a year now. If I couldn't tell you with 100% certainty that it's secure I would not have done it. It hasn't buged a fraction of an inch and I've been in some pretty good sized water since I originally installed it.

 

[Nehalennia]

Ok so I spent today modifying my bilge storage. There is so much room in front of the engine I wanted to use the space for storage. In the bin is spare bravo III props, flares, jumper cables, dead blow hammer, some wire, wood plugs, engine oil, rags, silicone, etc. I've replace the "L" brackets that I orginally installed. They worked but I had to get them installed quickly before a 2 week trip. They were pretty cheesy.
Here's the original bilge after it was cleaned.

Here's the original build.

You can see that I had the cut out for the seacock for the holding tank discharge. Well I discovered in Canada there are places there are no pump outs and it is legal to discharge in open waters. I had the base and tub in there during our trip and needed to discharge. This made me realize that I needed to make easier and quicker to remove. Another downside was I had screwed the tub down to the shelf from the inside which meant I had to remove everything out of it to remove the tub.


So I bought some nice stainless hardware. I mounted 2 of the beefy hinge with release pins to hold the shelf down and swivel locks for the tub to the attach to the shelf.

I recut the shelf so I can reach the seacock, but need to cut it a bit larger.

You can see the hardware here pretty good.

All ready to repack full of stuff.

 

[Nehalennia]

Sorry for the big pics. I'll try to resize them.