cutting board/bait station ideas

[drbatts]

Hi all, I'm looking for ideas for mounting a cutting board/bait table on a 305 express. The question would apply to any of the larger grady models with the large aft fish box. Has anybody mounted a cutting board or bait table on the lid of the aft fish box? I want to try and avoid using a rod holder mounted table if I could. On my last boat(265) the magma table mounted with 2 small legs on the transom gait which worked perfectly. However the new boat is set up a little different so I'm looking to see what everybody else has done. I'm pretty handy so I'm not opposed to making one myself, just looking for some good ideas first. In a perfect world I would want something that is removable too.

 

[journeyman]

My original idea was to mount a board on the fish box lid but when I started measuring it would have hit my engines if they were up and I opened the fish box as I wanted to overhang the board so any blood etc would drain off the back. I came up with this. It tilts and extends over the edge and drains, no mess. It is near the wash down, easy clean up, It is removable to access compartment underneath using Magma locking grill mount kit. It doubles as a place to use my Kenyon portable grill!!!

 

[drbatts]

Exactly what I was looking to do. I just need to check what is underneath there on my boat. Did you use the legs that attach into the sockets in the deck? That was what I had on the old boat which was nice, because I had the extension legs for those days when there is a lot of filleting to do.

 

[journeyman]

I used these. Thought about adding a third leg but it's stable without it. The left leg is screwed the the lid and the right to the gunnel. Not sure if adding the leg extensions would make it wobble to much for me. I did build up the height on the right but not too much as I wanted it to drain through the holes on that side. Ruler is routed and glued into the board so it is flush.

 

[ROBERTH]

I have toyed around a bit and first went with a V-lock system and found a cutting board that would mount and fit like I wanted. I did some mod's to it.
It was ok and had the flexibility to mount overhanging the fish box, or turn around and hang into the cockpit which was nice on most days. But over time, I wanted something better. When over fish box, could only access fish box on one end and there were times we needed to get into both ends.

So, decided to make my own and mount to the fish box lid, like Grady does, but with some sides and larger with ability to drain over back of transom. Also would help to insulate, which I found made a huge difference holding ice just with one lid having starboard mounted flush.
Both my son-in-law and I have both found this latest one to be just perfect. Never in the way, easy to use and clean. Benefit of insulation.

What I did not want was a cutting board mounted and looking like crap with lots of knife cuts turning black, etc. So, I added a single thin piece of lexan as the cutting surface. It slides in just under 4 snap studs that are loosely screwed in to allow them to rotate. This also keeps the lexan in place so it can't blow out, yet easy to remove and clean up.
I sanded the surface of the lexan with 320 grit sandpaper with dual action sander to help it blend in. Hard to tell when it is installed.

Pics of before and after added.....was a fun project and have to say again, was way worth it!

Sorry, was not able to post the Vlock pic. Tried to redo it in jpg format and it for some reason will not work.

 

[journeyman]

What I did not want was a cutting board mounted and looking like crap with lots of knife cuts turning black, etc. So, I added a single thin piece of lexan as the cutting surface. It slides in just under 4 snap studs that are loosely screwed in to allow them to rotate. This also keeps the lexan in place so it can't blow out, yet easy to remove and clean up.

My thought was to just make a new one when it got beat up but I like this idea!
:goodjob