Clearing up cockpit space

[Miles Offshore]

So the big boat I co-captain doesnt have a built in fish box and we have been using large SSI, large Yeti (250) and large icey tek coolers for the last 3 seasons that we have fished the boat. Nothing worse than climbing over coolers when there is a wham going off and chinese fire drill , directing traffic etc. So we came up with an idea, why cant we make a soft sided cooler to go in the bilge, we have a large access between the transom and the fighting chair that would hold a lot of fish. So bam, we bought a couple of cheap fish bags to use for the insulation and i made a removable waterproof inner liner so it would be easily removable and cleanable. Also a removable top, also insulated and we had an aluminum "sleeve" made to sit in the hatch and the opening in the top of the cooler. Materials cost me about 600$ and it took me about a week to make, ( im retired so I work at my own pace, lol). Anyway this thing worked out great , it held at one point  18 large yellowfins 40-65 lbs, 10 large mahis, and a few albacores on one trip and still had room for a few more. Including a lot of ice. We are pretty proud of and Im thinking of making a few custom here and there. What yall think?

[Keta]

Nice. 

WPS built soft "coolers" and custom insolated fish box liners across from my shop for years. I helped layout and cut the material and stuffed the insolation in them.  I know how much work it takes and respect you for doing this.

[David Hall]

Now that is getting creative and making the most of your deck space. 

[Fishy247]

Very nice!

[swill88]

Great build! What material did you use fo the inner liner?

Steve

[gstours]

  Saw somebody laying on the deck, does somebody hafe to dig these out of the hole there?   Just wondering?

[Miles Offshore]

Thanks everyone! Steve, the inner waterproof removable liner is Heavy Stamoid 12.5 oz, outer cover is marine acrylic/sunbrella. 4" Webbing was picked up at a local crane rigging supply and I built in loops for 2" diameter rod pole that can is used to support the bag in the bilge. Also use only tenera pfte thread so when cleaning it , bleach , detergents etc wont rot or otherwise affect the stiching. GS, yes you do in fact have to lay down and reach in the hole to remove the fish at the end of the day. Mnor convienance and ill usually make the younger guys do that! Note on the removable top i made it so it can close up as wellwhile the cooler is still in the hole although we never really have had a need to do so yet. Figure we have had 1200/1500 lbs of fish + ice in it a couple of times with room for more fish so it really works out great.

[Donnyboat]

Good work Craig, interesting, thank for posting, cheers Don.

[Miles Offshore]

Thanks Don!

[Keta]

WPS used blue truck tarp for the inside and white for the outside for kill bags with 3/4" closed cell foam for insolation.  The fishbox liners were all blue.  We built 10-15 large liners for the Bristol Bay gillnet fleet and 75+ killbags for sportfishermen a year.

[swill88]

My question about the material was to make a liner inside a low cost soda cooler bag to use for rockfish. Protection from spined poking through.

Thanks guys... Steve

[Miles Offshore]

Hey Steve, any double coated , nylon reinforced material should be great. Truck tarps are typically made from herculite type material, 18 to 32 oz(pr sq yard). I used stamoid , which is a fairly expensive boat top/ enclosure type Material and its lighter at 12.5 oz per sq yard. For totally pucnture proof material i would suggest a polyether polyurethane material. Im thinking we might not be talking about the same rockfish, we call striped bass rockfish here and any of the materials I listed are fine.