Clear Livewell Lids
Andrew 00:08
So this is a pretty cool prototype that we were looking at I intercepted it downstairs and
thought we could talk about it for a little bit so it's a clear livewell lids. I know you've done a ton
of those as far as your upgrades for people that maybe have a Starboard, which is opaque livewell
lids, what are some of the pros and cons I think about.
Matt 00:20
Pros and cons of an acrylic level and so I mean obviously the first pro is you can see through
it you can see how your baits doing see if it's a release well you can see if your catches doing all
right.
Jared 00:33
The aesthetics as well.
Matt 00:34
The aesthetics is definitely a pro.
Jared 00:36
We’ve got a laser engraver now the ability to put someone's logo on it or brand or you know
style of boat that they fish makes it stand out which is nice. Also at night a lot of these livewells
are lit nowadays and so you know, it just adds to that ambiance on the boat right?
Matt 00:51
It's almost like you're just wanting to turn it on even though you got nothing in there.
Andrew 00:56
It really I guess a Starboard probably Starboard lid probably isn't even the best comparison
because I think on higher end fishing boats you really don't, it might be fiberglass right. You
know…
Jared 01:08
I think one of the advantages of Starboard you know, I wouldn't recommend this for a lot of
customers but a lot of customers will Starboard we've seen you know, periodically where they'll
cut bait for sure on top of the Starboard you can do that with this you can't do it as much right.
Matt 01:19
You can do it with this it's just it's not going to look as good. Not that Starboard with a bunch
of cuts in it is going to look great either but if the intention is to be able to see through it, you don't
want to have a bunch of cuts in it and that's potentially a drawback for acrylic as well if you clean
it with anything the type of ammonia cleaner Windex or anything like that which don't use it'll
cause it to craze quicker it'll make it harder to see through look cloudy.
Andrew 01:43
So it's a good point. I mean, we sell acrylic lava wood so like you know we're not completely
unbiased, right we're saying right but if I was going to say your disadvantages is it's probably not
as durable both from a look at can crack. Right you know, if you're dropping there's someone
throws a gigantic lead weight, you know, maybe you get a chip or something like that whereas
that's obscene.
Jared 02:02
And so what's left it up and they've trim their motors up as well. That has definitely
happened.
Andrew 02:07
That can happen with any lead though. Yeah, you know, but then also the crazy like you say,
so maybe not quite as durable what about what about any different considerations you would have
if it was like a pressurized livewell or
Matt 02:20
Yeah, I mean the benefit to having a clear lid and pressurized well is that you can see it's
working you can see the waters right up against the back of the lid. You can obviously you can
see the water draining out the back if it was designed to be a pressurized live lid but that's definitely
a major pro you can see that your baits doing good while the boats running. You know you can
It's a quick and easy glance back. Oh yeah, the pumps are running the wells full everything's good.
Versus I got to my fishing spot. I just opened the Bible and for the first time and everything and
its dead because the well-drained and the pump failed, whatever it may be…
Jared 02:51
Is there any advantage to the acrylic from like a ceiling standpoint? You know, if this lid was
made out of Starboard versus acrylic would it seal as well?
Matt 02:59
That's a good question. Yeah, I would imagine that the acrylic would probably have a slightly
better seal it's more rigid so it's less likely to take on a warp. Starboard has a texture to it, but it I
really haven't had trouble with Starboard sealing I could see what more water getting through
Starboard but I don't see it being like a…
Andrew 03:21
Dramatic just the glossy texture you kind of like intuitively think it must but probably
negligibly different than the talk about the process of replacing so someone wants to replace a
livewell, like you know, obviously if it's a single panel, whether it's you know, maybe had acrylic
and it was broken or crazed. Someone did wash it with something or you know, if it was a
Starboard panel, those are really easy. They send it in we digitize it we send it out right it's a little
more complicated sometimes when it's fiberglass lit Absolutely yeah. Do you want to talk about
that super quickly?
Matt 03:57
Yeah, there's just a lot more tooling involved with fiberglass you might have more you might
have a gutter that's built in that you have to account for the seal may be built into the lid or into
the fiberglass.
Andrew 04:07
Lip on the lid on the how that right fits into the gutter.
Matt 04:11
The difference in the height, you know that you have to make up might require two pieces of
material or a mill on the underside of the acrylic or Starboard that wouldn't necessarily be nice,
particularly on the acrylic because then it's something that you're going to see when it's in the
closed position.
Andrew 04:26
What do we do for hiring your builders like that? Have you seen where we've I know we've
done some taping, like on hinge sides to hide the hinge holes. Specifically when it's a piano hinge
like in this case, the one that we're looking at the it's but hinges so you don't have any visibility of
a fastener coming into the ingrain or, you know if it was a piano hinge, a lot of times we would
glue or our sides of me Yeah, paint or tape or tape. But…
Matt 04:55
The paint is really what we would do. We've had some level IDs we've done for the boat
builders. That will make a paint template for lack of a better term that just kind of sits over the
section of the acrylic that's intended to be clear. And then we paint around that perimeter, it hides whatever Mills or channels we put in for seal for tooling, whatever it may be, and then you still
have your clear portion of the lead in the center.
Jared 05:20
Yeah, I think one of the interesting things to bring up from a replacement standpoint as well,
is that, you know, on these, we make a lot of these lids for a lot of the different builders and one
that we had really good success with was Key West for a number of years, we were making a
Starboard, one, and a customer reached out to us and we made that part out of acrylics. I think
that's something important to note as well. Yeah, somebody that we might have your pattern we
already have really good one for one we're planning it in from a digitizing standpoint, we're able
to just go yep, it's the same lid, but make it out three quarter inch clear, acrylic versus Starboard.
So definitely something to consider.
Matt 05:54
Yeah, and this is a unique application in itself. And that, you know, we cut this out of a piece
of one and Starboard, the entire lid and frame is all one piece. And it's intended to sit on top of
something, not necessarily into something.
Andrew 06:05
Yeah, that's pretty unique. Typically, this is tooled into the boat. And this is almost like we
made it for this conversation, which we didn't like it. It typically the recess would be in the
fiberglass and that would sit in.
Matt 06:17
Yeah, this is actually the, I think this particular lid is going on an aluminum boat, which all
of that that tooling is built into the edge. It makes it a lot easier for them from a manufacturing
standpoint to just have that edge rollover. And this sits right on top.
Andrew 06:32
Got you. Yeah. As long as you're okay with the aesthetics of it sitting proud off of the…
Matt 06:36
Yeah, right. And the nice thing is the inside edge is what lines up with the opening. You
actually don't lose any of your password you mentioned when this is installed.
Andrew 06:44
So that's pretty much on there. That's cool. Awesome.