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How to Keep Water Out of the In-Floor Storage Area

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Armstrong610

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I have a 22 SFX APC Tri Toon  with In-Floor Storage being delivered next week and wanted to get some ideas as to how best keep rain water or wash down water out of the in-floor storage areas since the hatch is cleary not going to keep water out as you can see from the photo.  The hatch is about 33" Ling X 15" Wide.  

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Put your playpen cover on!!! 


As far as wash down water is concerned put something over it before rinsing or   wipe the area with a towel when done. 


I don't have in floor storage. Don't they have bilge pumps in them?!?
 
You're going to get water in there from time to time.   Before I go out I look to see if any water and if yes run the bilge.  When I put the boat away with the cover on the last thing I do is open that door. It gets hot under the cover when the suns out so most times any water in there will just evaporate. I've only had a lot of water a couple of times when we had several days in a row with significant rain. 
 
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BigKahuna, yes, it is has a bilge pump.


royal4, good suggestions, thanks.  I was thinking of perhaps buying a rubber floor mat and cover the hatch up when washing the deck down...not a perfect solution but it it should work in keeping most or the water out.  I also want to be able to seal that hatch to keep water out in case we get caught in a Florida summer thunder storm with lots of blowing rain coming down and in the boat and rough seas.  I always stay off the water when bad weather is predicted but in Tampa Bay in the summer you can have a thunder storm build up right over the top of you with very little warning time. In those conditions a rubber floormate would likely blow off unless fastened/snapped down to the hatch itself or the deck.
 
Might sound dumb but bring a box or Saran Wrap and wrap the door if it's raining.
 
cwag911, not dumb all.  Great idea for a temporary fix if I can't find a permanent one. The KISS principal many times is the best (least expensive and least complicated) approach!  Thanks......Bill
 
We have in floor storage but our boat came with a piece of sea grass snapped over top. I actually removed all the snaps and the cover. You'll have more issues keep the moisture out of it rather than any worry of water getting in. The bilge switch has a manual and auto mode if you leave it in the water. We've been thru some pretty heavy weather and water over the front once and no issues. We've just fought keeping the skis and wake board from growing anything when we leave them in there all the time. Hope this makes sense!! 
 
I agree, biggest issue is making sure to leave the access open when in storage.  We've not had to run our bilge much; however, I've opened the door to some major stinkage. (I caused that by throwing wet floats and life jackets in and forgetting about them.)   By simply leaving the door open when stored, those smell issues have gone away.  


One other bit of advice, when I first got my boat, I threw a bunch of the cheap life jackets in the in-toon storage and left the paper manuals on the life jackets. Eventually they got damp and the paper disintegrated below the plastic floor covering.  It coated the inside of the toon with fragments of paper and clogged the bilge.  It was ZERO fun getting my adult body in there to scrape and clean all those paper fragments out.  I hope this is one lesson you don't have to learn!


Other than that, the in-toon storage is worth it's weight in gold to us!  Enjoy your new Benni!    
 
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Armstrong610 said:
I have a 22 SFX APC Tri Toon with In-Floor Storage being delivered next week and wanted to get some ideas as to how best keep rain water or wash down water out of the in-floor storage areas since the hatch is cleary not going to keep water out as you can see from the photo. The hatch is about 33" Ling X 15" Wide.
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"being delivered next week" Just enjoy your new Bennington don't start knit picking on something that might be wrong !
 
azray007 said:
I agree, biggest issue is making sure to leave the access open when in storage. We've not had to run our bilge much; however, I've opened the door to some major stinkage. (I caused that by throwing wet floats and life jackets in and forgetting about them.) By simply leaving the door open when stored, those smell issues have gone away.


One other bit of advice, when I first got my boat, I threw a bunch of the cheap life jackets in the in-toon storage and left the paper manuals on the life jackets. Eventually they got damp and the paper disintegrated below the plastic floor covering. It coated the inside of the toon with fragments of paper and clogged the bilge. It was ZERO fun getting my adult body in there to scrape and clean all those paper fragments out. I hope this is one lesson you don't have to learn!


Other than that, the in-toon storage is worth it's weight in gold to us! Enjoy your new Benni!
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I threw 2 packages of life vests in mine, but they are in a plastic bag with handles. I Hope they don't get wet inside the bag. Thanks for the helpful info.
 
Ive taken the life lessons on this thread and applied them to prevent issues.

As much as of the confusion between why some boats get a solid storage cover and some vented, im very glad I have the vents, because it seems water isnt the issue, but air circulation is...have to have it . I leave all seats up and the center storage up when leaving for the weekend.

I purchased a deck box and drilled it to the dock. All life jackets are stored in the box. Once someone gets off the boat, they take their jacket and leave it to dry on the dock or put in the deck box. When boarding the boat, everyone grabs their jacket and brings it on. This helps me ensure we have the correct number of vests per passenger, and not worrying about getting checked by a cop and not having the correct amount.

My lake gets very humid so im trying to establish "rules of the water" now to prevent some of the issues ive read about.
 
We got a nice little lawn cart from tractor supply that we keep our life vests in. Each day I pull it out of the garage and put it dockside. If anyone is going in the boat, they must grab the right fitting life vest. This way our nicer life vests (in a wide range of sizes) are always accessible, and well aired out.

When people exit the boat, they just put them away in the cart. Also makes them accessible for lakeside/dockside swimming and kayaking. This is from a few years ago, so we have actually added life vests to the cart, but you get the idea:A2C98266-19F2-4D40-859F-ED4F3E8123F8.jpeg


070FC84B-1720-44F0-A775-6C3D189FC463.jpeg

I also have 2 packages of old fashioned orange vests as emergency backup that we keep under the swing back seat for whatever might arise (this area stays fairly well aired out so no mold issues on the vests).
 
Vikingstaff said:
We got a nice little lawn cart from tractor supply that we keep our life vests in. Each day I pull it out of the garage and put it dockside. If anyone is going in the boat, they must grab the right fitting life vest. This way our nicer life vests (in a wide range of sizes) are always accessible, and well aired out.

When people exit the boat, they just put them away in the cart. Also makes them accessible for lakeside/dockside swimming and kayaking. This is from a few years ago, so we have actually added life vests to the cart, but you get the idea:View attachment 29615


View attachment 29616

I also have 2 packages of old fashioned orange vests as emergency backup that we keep under the swing back seat for whatever might arise (this area stays fairly well aired out so no mold issues on the vests).
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LOVE.THAT.LAKEHOUSE. SETUP!
 
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