Hindsight is 20/20... What I would have done different

Actually there is very little I would have done different. I have made 2 small modifications from the original design.

The first is I lengthened the aux fill hose in the port observer compartment. I needed it to reach all the way to the front of the bow for filling the bow sac. I may actually hard plumb in this sac under the port bow seat and add a overflow/vent line to it to make things even more simple.

The second one I have already talked about in the vent line install section. I had to install a ball valve in the vent line to keep from loosing water out of the custom sac as the boat would start and stop. I originally thought the spring loaded one way valve would keep enough pressure to keep the water from free flowing out. And for the most part it keeps it from free flowing but the surging of the water during boat starting and stopping pushes water out and you loose a fair amount of water out of the top of the sac after an hour or so.

Installing the ball valve fixed that problem. I actually leave the ball valve closed most of the time now. I am careful to watch the sacs as they are filling so I don't overfill them because I have the overflow shut off essentially. I only really open the ball valve when I need to burp some air out of the top of the sac.  However on my next ballast system I will run the vent/overflow line to the opposite side of the boat.  This will completely eliminate the water getting pushed out of the sac with the boat surging and it will allow the overflow and vent to work without having to use a manual ball valve.

The only other problem was the initial low pressure in the aux fill lines that I mentioned in the results section. I discussed in there how I worked around this problem and I am very happy with the solution and results.

One other modification I have make lately is that I replaced my older Fly High sac that had the older water bed style connectors with a new Fly High Pro X series sac that has the good quick connects.  I also replace the old Launch Pad sac with a new Fly High Pro X sac.  So I took the end connectors off of the aux fill lines (one was water bed style and the other one was for the launch pad link system) and replaced them with Flying High part W738 (MALE QUICK CONNECT - 1 1/8" BARBED TSUNAMI PUMP HOSE END) ....  http://shop.maxwake.com/product.sc?productId=48&categoryId=12   I had to really heat up the end of the 1" hose to fit over the 1 1/8 inch barb filling but it worked good.  Now I can fill my two new FH Pro X 400# sacs from the aux fill lines.  These FH Pro X sacs are so much nicer then the other brands of sacs.  More durable and much better connectors!