Deckwash Pump

When I first cruised to Scotland in 2001 in my yacht Ariadne, I watched with envy those people who were able to clean their anchors and chain with a deckwash pump. (Also great for general deck cleaning and removing bird muck).The next winter one was fitted, and has done sterling service since. So when we swapped to our Hardy 36 Commodore, Teal,I was disappointed ( but not surprised) to find there was no deckwash.
Like so many motorboats, Teal had really been built for going between marina berths, plugging into shore power. A generator was installed as soon as we accepted delivery as the space allocated in the original design had not been compromised. But the deckwash had to wait until the winter just gone.
The new system for the 2017 season was based on a Jabsco 50psi deckwash pump, sourcing its water from a tee from the forward toilet inlet with a crossover valve. The pump is installed in the space behind the bow thruster space, and a circuit breaker/switch has been installed just inside the port door to the lower helm position. The hose goes up through the wardrobe in forward cabin, then along the hull through the overhead lockers to the chain locker. There it emerges just under the anchor winch to a hoselock self closing connector – i.e. the water is shut off until a hose is plugged in.
I chose a standard ‘curly’ garden hose, (but used the hose gun supplied by Jabsco) . This will (in theory) extend to 100 feet, which is a bit long. I was slightly concerned that pressure drop from this narrow hose would be too great, but I did not want to cut the hose as it was moulded into the end connectors. In the end, the pump has enough ‘wellie’ to overcome the length. The advantage of the hose is that is will just stow in an old flarebox (which can easily be stowed below when not in use). By packing it from the middle, both ends are accessible, and very little hose has to be pulled out of the box when only the anchor needs cleaning as can be seen in the photograph. .
It is a neat installation, and works well. Very pleased to have it back!