A portable system becomes permanent
Issue 101 : Mar/Apr 2015
Bath time on our 35-foot sloop has taken many forms in 30-some years of living aboard. The easiest and most fun was jumping overboard in the Bahamas with a bottle of Joy dishwashing liquid and letting its magic salt-loving bubbles scrub away. With the increased population in harbors everywhere, “overboard” is no longer a reasonable option. And while most 35-foot sailboats have an arrangement of some kind for onboard showering, our Chris-Craft did not. We assume she was originally a weekend-at-the-marina boat.
Our solutions were many and varied. We liked to move around a lot, anchoring whenever possible, so a marina shower was only an occasional treat. Sponge baths in the head were OK for occasional necessity, but not the best of ideas relative to the rinse water. If our gray water drained to the bilge, we’d get dirty all over again cleaning the bilge. (We did not have success with a small sump we installed.)
A solar shower worked well. The center cockpit on our boat is sheltered from view, particularly when the bather is seated on the cockpit sole. The sun heated the water nicely and the gravity-fed warm water provided a decent rinse. Better yet, the water exited via the cockpit drains — no more soapy water in the bilge.
Our next improvement was to use a small garden sprayer made for killing bugs or weeds. I exchanged the unit’s spray wand for a kitchen-sink sprayer. We filled the container with water and pumped up the spray mechanism, giving us pressure water with on/off control at the sprayer. This required heating the water, but the sun can take care of that, too, with enough preplanning. Water kept in a dark blue jerry jug will heat sufficiently if placed in the sun for a few hours. Water in a white bottle can be encouraged to heat the same way by wrapping the bottle in a black trash bag or some dark fabric before setting it in the sun. On cloudy days, there’s always the stovetop.
Of course, the pumping mechanism couldn’t last forever when used regularly. When our pump quit, I came up with what became a favorite “Why didn’t I think of this before?” idea.
Electric upgrade
The new, improved bath sprayer uses the same bug sprayer container, but I replaced the broken manual pump with a small 12-volt water pump that delivers consistent water pressure. The on/off sink sprayer is still functional, so the showerer can control the forced water stream.
I used our 2-gallon bug sprayer and a 1-gallon-per-minute Shurflo 12-volt manual-demand pump with 3⁄8-inch inlet and outlet barbs. To this, I added an on/off toggle switch. I removed the broken pump from the bug-sprayer tank, then tapped the side of the tank near the bottom to accept a 3⁄8-inch barb.
On our boat, the head compartment is located directly forward of the center cockpit, so we can leave the tank inside and run tubing through the bulkhead out to the cockpit, where we shower. I built a small shelf in the head compartment to hold the tank and attached the pump to the bulkhead underneath the shelf.
I wired the pump to the boat’s 12-volt system, using standard 14-gauge wire, and wired the toggle switch onto the pump.
Using 3⁄8-inch (ID) reinforced clear tubing, I ran one section from the tank to the pump intake and another section from the pump’s outflow fitting, through the bulkhead, and into the cockpit to connect to the hand-held spray nozzle that controls the water spray. (Depending on the make of the nozzle, it may be necessary to use a reducing barb for this connection.)
Anyone who installs a system along these lines has an excellent reason to heat up some water and test it — to clean up after all that hard work.
David Aiken and his wife, Zora, are the authors of several books about boating and camping. Their seventh children’s book illustrated by David, Chesapeake Play Day, is due out by April. Their movable studio, office, and home is Atelier, a good old, now classic, 1963 35-foot Chris-Craft sloop. See examples of David’s work at davidaikenart.com.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
