Mystery plastic tray--pics attached

[Emerald-coast-Grady]

When the boat was purchased the hatch between the two helm seats were not screwed down. i lifted up the panel and found this plastic tray below it. Under the plastic tray is the aux. tank and oil tanks. I am going to remove this tray so i can screw down and caulk it down. I bought the boat at a boat yard and asked the guy what it was for and he said the previous owner had it in there when he got it. Is this something Grady put in there is is this just something i can toss. Oh and excuse the messy/dirty looking floor trying to get everything back up to speed. Got a new fuel fill hose installed last night. With two people it took about 2 hrs. It wasn't as hard as i thought it would be. The original piece that was removed was a fuel spill waiting to happen.I could literally push my finger through the hose it was so rotted. If you have an old boat this should be on the top of the list of things to do. Anyway here is the plastic tray should i toss it?
The deck floor

The tray

The oil and fuel tank under it

 

[gw204]

That's definitely not factory.

However, if you can somehow keep water from getting down into the bilge from around the hatch and the tray (which would negate the self bailing design of the boat) it would make a nice big storage area. If you can keep it dry though, seal the hatch.

 

[GT]

I've seen similar. Some guys try to take advantage of every inch and think space like that would be decent for storage. Turns out most of these ideas do nothing but collect water, get mildew build up on anything put into it and turn into a problem (water that seeps into the tray from an unsealed hatch will work its way ontothe tanks).
Take the tray out and seal the hatch well after you've done the work needed on the tanks.

 

[Bokat]

Emerald,

That tray does not look factory to me. It looks like it was made to catch any water that dripped in around the unsealed floor piece. I'll bet it was done that way to make it easier to fill the oil tanks. All he had to do was pull up the floor piece and then the tray and there is better access to the oil tanks.

I had a similar situation on my boat. It was hard to fill the oil tanks through a 6 in. hole without spilling oil. I cut a larger hole in my floor and installed a hatch over the oil tanks.

I'd recommend that you remove the tray, install the hatch in the floor piece and then screw it back down and reseal it.

There are some photos and a description of the hatch project on here somewhere. If I can find them I'll post it.

 

[Bokat]

Emerald,

Search under "Gulfstream floor hatch" in the Tips, modification section and you will find the pics of the floor hatch. There are three pages of info but page 2 has the most pertinent info and pics. Good luck.

 

[Emerald-coast-Grady]

I guess I am gonna just throw the crappy tray away and seal the floor like it is suppose to be done. I just wanted to make sure that wasn't something i was suppose to have in there.. Oh another question what size tanks are in the boat. its a 87 seafarer with the aux tank. just curious what size is the main and aux. tank. I was told it would hold over 120 gallons and thats the best he could do..

 

[Bokat]

The owner's manual says an 87' 226/228 holds 95 gals. in your main tank and 55 gals. in your aux. tank

 

[uncljohn]

looks like an in-floor fish box. Kinda cool, but its probably not good in terms of collecting water. mildew, etc. If it was plumbed to a thruhull, it would be pretty sweet. Maybe you should drill in a drain and route it to the floor drain thruhull by either seat.

 

[Emerald-coast-Grady]

It's yard art now. :lol: Got the floor sealed up don't think i could stand a loose hatch vibrating and slamming with the waves.. May put it in the basement and keep it though. :wink: