Water Circulation Woes...

As you may know we have been working on an engine room redesign/refit.  The start of this project was driven by the need to remove a rotted subfloor and add holding tanks.  To access all of this, essentially everything but the engine had to come out of the engine room and then start the process of rebuilding.

So the good news is we are really close and as we have been doing down this path, I have been planning how I would mount all of the pumps and strainers back in the engine room to make them easy to service.

The plan was to mount the water intake strainer for the engine and air conditioners on the side of the subfloor with easy access just sitting inside the doorway of the engine room.  I planned on using a single strainer for the air conditioner circulation pumps, so essentially water would come into the water strainer and then on the outbound side, I installed a tee fitting with one line going to the salon where the forward air conditioner water circulation pump is mounted.  The other side of the tee went to the rear air conditioner water circulation pump which was mounted in the engine room.

In the diagram below, Pump1 is mounted in the engine room and is a 1000 gallon per hour pump and runs water circulation for the owners state room air conditioner.  Pump2 is mounted in the Galley and is a 500 gallon per hour pump and runs the water circulation for the main salon Reverse cycle Air Conditioner/Heat pump

When we connected everything and ensured no leaks, we turned on the Air Conditioning in the main salon fed by pump2.  When the compressor kicked on, the pump did also and began circulating water and we had good discharge out the boat, I was feeling pretty good.  When we turned on the owner's state room air conditioner fed by pump 1, it would stop the feed of water through pump2.  I suspect this is due to being closer to the water strainer and also the fact that the pump is a higher capacity pump.  I really do not want to put another through hull in the boat so have at least come up with my next plan of action.

In the morning, I am going to remove Pump2, and just connect the lines together where the pump was.  I will then re-plumb the sea strainer to only feed to pump1, out of pump 1, I will locate a tee and feed water through both air conditioners.  The down side of this is that I need to either install a relay so that the pump kicks on when either Air Conditioner compressor runs, or I can connect Pump1 to it's own 110v breaker and just ensure that when either air conditioner is on, that breaker is on and the pump is running all of the time.

I do believe I may add valves to each output side from the pump so if I want to, I can turn off the water flow to either air conditioner if I need to service one without having to turn the other off.

I will be a little nervous wiring in the 110 volt pump to the breaker panel.  The good news is I can pull the shore power cord so I know that we will have no power coming into the boat while I am in there working on the back side of the distribution panel.  It should be a short cable run for the pump given it's proximity to the panel.  I will also need to disconnect the power to pump 2 from the inside of the Webasto Control unit in the forward salon.

Sadly, it looks like some more time in the engine room.  I don't mind it so much except after a few hours of being contorted into whatever position was required for the given job, I seem to end up with quite a few stiff muscles a few hours later.

All the while I was working on this today, Deb was sorting every single stainless steel screw, nut and bolt that I have managed to gather over the last 2 years of work.  She organized them all by size and put them in small waterproof containers.  She also sorted and organized all of the varied electronic, electric and plumbing spares and parts that we have on board.
In the last 2 weeks she has painted all of the bilges and storage behind the settees and the V-berth.  She started to organize and put the navigation station back together (we had relocated all of the items to another location when we rebuilt that).  She also cleared and organized the Galley and Tool storage.

June 2, 2013 - Update
The plumbing has been re-arranged and working as described above and outlined in the second illustration.  I opted for a seacock under the galley sink for the forward air conditioner rather than at the actual pump location.

Engine Room (Side of subfloor wall) | Left strainer for A/C and right strainer for Engine | Pump with split outputs

Plumbing Project Continued (Joining it all together)

In the last post we talked about the new plumbing project that we were undertaking but could only take that project so far until the engine room was ready to connect it all together.

Part of the work that was going on in the engine room (and in a different post detailing that project) was to install holding tanks for waste water.  To do this, the old floors and platforms that had some rot in them had to be replaced.  A new floor was built, frame for the tanks, tanks installed and a new subfloor on top of those was created providing a new platform to mount the batteries, pumps hot water, heater, etc.

Early on during this project we wanted to make sure we had a way to filter water for use in our boat.  We have seen other boats that would put a canister style filter in the galley on the main sink cold water supply to ensure drinking and cooking water is filtered.

We decided to to create a 2 stage filter that will filter all water whether it has come in from a dockside pressure line or water from either of our two water holding tanks on board.  (We store 115 gallons of potable water on board in 2 tanks)  Because there may be times that we take rain water into the tanks, we wanted to be sure that we can filter it completely.    The first stage filter is a 5 micron sediment filter and the second stage is a 2 micron carbon block filter.  This not only filters the water from impurities, but the carbon block will remove any bleach that we may add to the tanks to purify any suspect water we may take in.



With the engine room complete enough to get back in there, we have been able to put the fresh water pressure pump in, the hot water heater, and start to combine all of the water lines that are replacing all of the old PVC flexible hosing that was starting to break down.

The picture on the right shows a small shelf I installed to mount the new fresh water pump to.  This pump is a variable speed pump that eliminates the need for an accumulator tank.  Above the shelf there is a wooden plate mounted over the soundproofing material (1-1.5" thick soundproofing covers all walls in the engine room)  This wooden panel will be the place to mount the manifolds to distribute the lines to the different portions of the boat.

I was able to find these extendable diffuser connections.  Basically it looks like a tee with PEX connectors on 2 sides and the 3rd side fits into one of the other tees.  The more you push together the more connection points there are, and it would be real easy to add an additional port for a future expansion.

One of the things we liked about PEX was that all lines can be color coded making the designation between hot and cold obvious.  In the picture on the left, I had connected cold water supplies to both the Galley/Front Head and also the Rear Head.  On the left side the hot water connections are made to also go to the Galley/Front Head and also the Rear Head.

I started with these lines mainly because when we ran the pex, I had left quite a bit of extra in the engine room and it was rather cluttered with every one of those lines having an additional 4-5 feet of line in the way.  I knew I bought more than I needed so I was ok wasting a bit to make sure we had plenty in there until we knew exactly where we were mounting it all.

You can see a bit of the finished connection points in the photo to the right.

Before this project there were flexible hoses and hose clamps and tees all over the place and it looked like a real mess.  I am glad to see this organized like it is in the picture on the right. Now with that said, I can tell you that as I have been planning and imaging this project, I had envisioned all of these really straight lines all mounted flush right up along each bulkhead and corner.  That would have been great, but as it was I think we spent about $250 on tees and 90 degree connections.  If we had done this the way I envisioned we could have easily tripled that, so I am satisfied with this and it looks MUCH better than before.

I also started to remove the connections from the old hot water heater and noticed that it had a horrible oder in the water inside the tank.  It smelled like sulfur and we had noticed this prior to starting this project as well.  In the end, we decided that if we were going to look at replacing the hot water heater now was the time.  We considered an on-demand style but after doing the calculations quickly realized that even the smallest load required would be 20amps at 120 volts.  This would translate to no less than 2400 amp hours and more than I would be able to supply with the current inverter and I like the idea of being able to make hot water in a bind by running the engine for 10 minutes or so.  We have mounted the hot water heater and ran the cold and hot water lines to this location.  This model does come with the ability to circulate the engine coolant water through the hot water heater to generate hot water without electricity, but sadly the hot water lines from the engine won't reach this new location for the hot water heater so will need to be replaced with longer ones.

New Plumbing Lines installed

It appears back in 1978 when the boat was built, some of the water lines that were run were 1/4 copper tubing. At some point in the past one of the previous owners replaced that copper plumbing with reinforced hose. The down side is that there had been many places where it was run in small runs and then joined together or sections replaced and joined to the old.

 The results were a spaghetti twined mess in most cases with plastic Tee's and hose clamps. In the engine room there were 3 or 4 Tee's as things were added over the years and it just appeared to be a bit unmanageable. While cleaning in the engine room we decided to scrub the hoses and as we did noticed they were "gummy" When doing some research what I found out is that the "gummy" feeling was the material starting to break down.

Under Galley

This was the birth of a new project. Run new water lines for all fresh/pressure water throughout the boat, clean up and organize the plumbing runs and add water filtration to not only filter what is stored in the tanks but also the standard city water input when at a Marina. We started by running new hot and cold water lines from the engine room to the galley. We welcomed this change because someone in the past ran the 2 Flexible hoses for water along the floor in the galley (Rather than under a floor or through a compartment).

 From the Galley, we ran the new lines forward under the sole to the forward port hanging locker. From there we chose a new route over the previous one by going from section to section up to the V-Berth, across the v-berth and back down the starboard side into the forward head under the sink. We also ran hot and cold lines from the engine room to the rear head as well. In the rear head we added tee's and cutoffs so we could feed hot and cold water to the sink as well as the shower. We also added a fresh cold water line extension to provide water to the rear head rather than pumping in from a through hull.

We chose to instal Pex lines rather than the flexible hosing that was in the boat before.  After doing some research and finding out that many new boats are being made with Pex, we decided to give it a try.  In every place where the lines go through a bulked we installed a PVC protective sleeve to protect the Pex from any wearing with movement.   We also supported all Pex with clips (as seen in the picture above as well).  Pex lines are now run to the Galley and both heads. We still have to bring it all together in the engine room and connect it to the hot water heater and filters.    Like most projects, we created a map of what we intended to install so that we can keep it for reference and with the boat documentation.  Below is the diagram of the fresh water plumbing.

What happens during spare time on board

Deb and I have been working hard to get everything wrapped up on schedule for moving aboard in June.  We have a lot of projects that are all under way right now.  The rear head is being completely rebuilt (new counters, sink, support walls, toilet and plumbing).  The engine room is getting a make over as well.  Most all has been removed from the engine room short of the engine (all pumps, batteries, hot water heater, etc).  We are actually hiring someone to help with installing holding tanks, 36 gallons between 2 tanks.  As part of this process, they removed the upper floor in the engine room and will be building a new sub floor for the tanks, tank frames and a shelf 16" higher than the subfloor.   We are hoping that will be done sometime this week.   We have taken advantage of the open space in the engine room to install new plumbing and reframe the flooring where a generator will go at some point.   We pulled out the lower floor and are adding support studs to help reinforce it.  We have added new supports and also made new floor planks out of Red Oak.  We have drilled for countersunk screws.  It is epoxied to seal the wood and protect it from moisture.  Those will be going back on board tomorrow.

We have installed the new Teak cabinet faces on the Starboard side as well.  Today we cleaned the outside of the boat and scrubbed the windows in the cockpit.  As we were looking for routes and ways to run new plumbing lines for both hot and cold water to the forward head, we had the floor panels out over the fuel tank and around the mast.  While we didn't find a great path to pass the water lines, Deb did get distracted by the nastiness of the bilge.

She put on a pair of rubber gloves and pulled about 6 handfuls of what looked like mud.  As she scraped the floor in the forward bilge we realized that the previous owner had a problem with the forward shower drain pump and rather than fix it, he just yanked the drain line out and let the forward shower drain into the bilge.  So god only knows how many years of soap scum and nastiness has worked it's way down the shower drain and into the bilge.

I know we all want to think of anchoring off a white sand beach and chilling on deck with a coldie, but these are some of the other not so glorious sides of working and refitting a boat.  
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New additional Electric Panel and Air Conditioner

A few months ago we purchased a new combination unit for the salon that is an air conditioner, reverse cycle heater and dehumidifier.  We had been waiting until the salon was a little further along and any leaks were resolved and we were not filling the salon with saw dust before we put the expensive unit in place.

We were able to resolve the leaks that we had from the ports as well as the chain plates and the building, cutting, sanding in the salon was finally wrapping up, so we loaded the Webasto FCF 16,000 BTU unit into the dock cart and hauled it on board.

It fit well into a spot right under the settee in the salon and is accessed by removing the slide out bunk in the salon and dropping it into the storage area from above.  When adding this unit to the boats total Electric supply it was just pushing the limit of our 30amp service.  The existing panel in the boat has separate breakers for both a forward and rear air conditioner, but given that this size air conditioner runs at about 9 amps (with a startup of about 15), and the rear air conditioner (as old as it is) runs at about 12 amps with a very high startup of about 18amps.  So if both units were running and the microwave was used or a hair dryer, this would likely pop the 30amp main in the boat or at the shore power supply panel.

We decided the best approach was to add a second electric panel and 30amp service into the boat and leave the rear air conditioner on the existing original panel and the new air conditioner on the new panel.  We decided to go ahead and add plenty of room for expansion and selected the Blue Sea 8074 Electric Panel.  It comes with a volt and amp meter built in to monitor usage through the panel.


It will notify you of reverse polarity from your dock power service so you can know that information before you start turning on breakers. We love this feature since we plan on visiting marina's and you just never know the quality of the power or wiring that may be in place.

I normally like to do most of the work on the boat myself, but was nervous about doing this job for 2 reasons.  First it requires drilling a hole in the outer hull of the boat and also it required wiring in the main electric feed to this breaker box.  Because of that we hired someone do to this and he was able to complete the whole job in about 4 hours or so.

He started by drilling a hole in the outside of the boat right above the existing 30amp service line.  The boat side connector was installed and matches the other style of waterproof connectors as the other 30amp power service, telephone and cable inputs.

The wire from that service line runs through the existing wiring channels across the engine room and toward the existing electrical box where it is routed just about a foot forward of the existing one to the new panel.  The bulkhead between the engine room and walkthrough had to be cut to attach the flush mounted panel  (See photo on right).  This went just below the Xantrex remote panel for monitoring battery bank charging and battery levels when not charging.

From the panel, the one and only used breaker, runs to the new air conditioner.  So we have 7 more available breakers that can be used in the future.  After the electric was run to the new unit, I plumbed in the sea strainer, sea water circulation pump and it was also connected to the unit.  The thermostat wire was run to a forward bulkhead wall.  So the moment of truth was here and we tested out the unit.  It ran but we were not getting water circulation.  I took the lines apart and luckily it didn't take too long but the culprit was a bit of a clog in the exit through-hull.  I suspect dirt dobbers or something had tried to nest in there but after a quick clean out, all was circulating and working great.  The good news is that we now have enough air conditioning to keep the boat cool even in the heat of southern summers.  When it gets cold, we also have the heat capability and if we are going to be off the boat for some amount of time, we can set the unit to auto dehumidify as well.   Making progress, slowly but surely.

Stateroom Coming Together

About 3 months ago we started the Salon refit.  Early into the demolition we found that the Chain Plates were leaking and started to worry about their strength given they are 35 years old.  As you can read in an earlier post, we replaced them.  Once complete we slowed down through the holidays while traveling and are back at the work again.  

So far, we have removed the salon cabinets (behind the settee), Built new seat backs in the Salon, Built new countertops behind the settee's.  We removed the Atkins & Hoyle hatch that was leaking around the glass and sent it back to the manufacturer for rebuilding.  (I would recommend this to anyone that has Atkins and Hoyle hatches.  They are still in business and family owned.  A complete rebuild with new glass, gasket and overall tune up was 1/2 the price of a new hatch and matches all the others on the boat).  We build new Teak walls behind the Settee's as well as along the coachroof.  We painted all of the inner settee storage with a nice new coat of white paint.

Insulated the entire ceiling with 3/4" insulation and installed the Pine Slat ceiling like in the rest of the boat.  This went on the ceiling, including the angled section that goes on to the Galley.  We installed the new duct work and new register boots in the Salon in preparation for the new Reverse Cycle A/C Heating unit that we will install.  

The salon was wired first for LED accent lighting, fans, reading lights as well as surround sound speaker wires.  I know that I won't likely remember the locations of each of the wires so made a quick video to outline where they are run.

One of the challenges we had was that when we made the new counter tops, we had a need to get creative on how we wanted to protect and decorate the raw edge of it.  We wanted to install a fiddle rail, much like what is in the galley.  The down side is that I couldn't find any place where I could buy fiddle or bunk rail that was over 5' long and I didn't want to have a joint in the middle of the counter.  So, like we have found ourselves doing many times in the past, we had to figure out another way.  We purchased raw teak wood at 1/2" thickness.  After ripping it to 2 and a half inches wide, we routed a groove in the bottom, used a round-over bit to ensure that the top of the rail is round.  I think they look pretty good and will be installed shortly.  We ended up making 2 8 foot lengths of this fiddle rail and another 5 8 foot lengths of thin trim molding to go around the cabinet facing that we are building for the salon.

LED Multi-Use Lighting for the Owners Stateroom

We have been considering putting accent lighting in the Owners Stateroom since we completed the refit there last year.  I ended up purchasing some LED light strips that were single color and waterproof at a local electronic component store to install in the boats breaker box.  I never did install them but it started the expansion of our ideas for the stateroom.

LED lighting is available at West Marine but it is very expensive and not as versatile as what you can order online.  I reviewed the specs for the LED strips from West, and the ones I can find on Amazon seemed to be fairly similar in that they were the bright LED style strips and waterproof, but the ones from Amazon were also able to be cut to any length and could be set to change colors if desired.

Link to Amazon RGB LED Lights

Thin Cedar Strips mounted

We chose Cedar as the mounting surface for the pleasant smell, resistance to moisture and lastly it was an inexpensive but good way to accomplish the task.  I bought a single 8 foot cedar fence picket and 3 8 foot lengths of scalloped moulding to put the LED's behind.  We got these from home depot.

We cut thin strips of the cedar wood and drilled thin pilot holes through it every 18 inches or so.  We then drilled a small countersink hole at each one so that when mounted to the walls, the screws would be flush.

These particular LED lights came with a 120V AC to 12V DC adapter included in the kit which allowed me to toss that and wire these directly into the boat's 12v DC system.  When we did the refit in the stateroom, we planned to add lights later so already had wiring into each of the 4 corners of the room.

LED's mounted to cedar strips

When installing these lights, we installed the small electronic component, and Infra Red Remote receiver into the corner of the stateroom (where later we will install a small shelving unit with power in it to charge cell phones and Ipad's and store eyeglasses when sleeping).

Once the wiring was connected to the connector for the LED's we mounted the LED strips to the cedar strips facing down.  These particular LED's come with a 3M adhesive backing but I don't suspect that will hold up in the varied temperatures on the boat.  We are adding some epoxy glue to the back side as well to ensure they stay put.

The scalloped molding was also cut to the proper length, had pilot holes drilled, as well as counter sinks allowing us to install and fill the screw holes with bungs after the fact.    Every time in the past we had installed anything that was wood on the boat, we have used a good hardwood (either Teak or Mahogany) but in this case we chose to use a simple pine molding and stain it to the color we wanted.

All my wiring tools
(meter, shrink wrap, marine crimps), etc

After staining the pieces, we applied multiple coats of varnish like the rest of our interior projects.  Once dry we installed these pieces of molding to the cedar strips with the top of the molding flush with the top of the cedar strip so that it creates a void aiming downward for the lights to shine down without being able to see them directly.

We are happy with the way the LED's have turned out and will also be doing something similar in the Salon as we wrap up that part of the refit as well.   The good news is that the entire strip of LED's in the stateroom (about 16 feet of them) still draws minimal amps and are better than the 2 double filament fixtures that were back there before we started the refit.  It is a pleasant surprise to turn on all of the boats LED lighting throughout and watching the DC Ammeter barely move.

Below is a short video we did showing what the lights look like in operation.  We filmed them with the lights changing colors but I don't see us using it that way, I suspect that we will just have a single color when they are on.