Improvements overlooked by most guests – Part 3
Even though it’s been almost a month since I wrote the second installment in my Improvements overlooked by most guests series, I haven’t forgotten about it. Today’s add-on, a fresh water wash down hose located in the cockpit, is actually somewhat related to the previous one, our hi-capacity watermaker.
Like many of my upgrades, I received this idea from our friends Peter and Bobbi on another 4600 named Grand Cru. Peter had installed a similar hose in his cockpit area, albeit in a different location (he added his in the lift raft locker, tying into the transom shower plumbing). While our hose remains tucked away under the helm almost all of the time, I frequently pull it out during charters to flush out the crumbs, sand and hair that tends to accumulate under the cockpit table, and around the transoms.
While similar results could have been accomplished by plumbing in a separate salt-water wash down pump, with the large amount of fresh water that we can produce, simply tying into the boat’s normal fresh water system was a much more streamlined solution. While our guests seldom ever see me using this, they do get to enjoy a nice clean cockpit!
And you are getting props on TTOL TOO,
http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=1628535&an=0&page=0&gonew=1#UNREAD
Nice.
It it plumbed into the ice maker also?
🙂
No hardwired ice maker for us. Many 4600’s do have a fridge or ice maker in that spot though.
Much better to plumb into the fresh water rather than saltwater. Saltwater seems to attract dirt, maybe great for the anchor wash down but not so much the boat….unless the boat is wooden!
For those who think that I waste a ton of water with this, I am still pretty frugal when using it.
I installed a wooden cockpit grating because keeping the floor clean was an unending nightmare. I hate the feeling of walking on grit on gelcoat. I still have to lift the grate and wash under it, but only occasionally and it’s easy. And the grate is nice on bare feet (the PO had used Dri-Dek which is painful and sucks eggs.
http://sail-delmarva.blogspot.com/2011/07/teak-cockpit-floor-for-14500-plus-hour.html
I love the look of that cockpit grating you have.
Nice setup. I like your covert cleaning, makes the guests wonder how the boat stays so clean compared to others. Do I spy a rescue tape/zip tie leak fix on the spray handle? Nice engineering!
🙂