S/V Deep Playa - Pearson 424

This weekend I finished installing the starter. Along the way I decided to replace the bonding wire on the starter to the v-drive with tinned wire because the existing wire was corroded. As I was doing this, I also decided to replace the bonding wire from the v-drive to the raw water strainer because it had broken a few months back. Removing the nut on the raw water strainer lead to the strainer breaking.  The strainer (bronze) was bolted to an aluminum bracket with stainless steel screws and it had started to bend at the hanger points. I was planning to replace this fall when I haul out, but turns out I needed to do it today. I put a board on that aluminum bracket and put in a new raw water strainer. All in all it was pretty simple, the new fittings lined up a bit differently, but the new strainer looks great and will provide years of reliable service! I have one more bonding wire to put in, just need a 8 AWG to #10 screw ring terminal to check that one off the list.

I also finished installing the starter this weekend after I painted it and let it dry. It pretty much popped right in, I fastened in all the bolts to the block, put the new bonding wires on and then hooked up the battery cables and starter switch. She started up on the first try and water ran well through the exhaust. Everything is look good!

Finally, I finished our plumbing upgrade as well by putting in a new shower mixer valve and handheld \ wall mount sprayer. The original faucet was a 4” on center individual knobs for hot and cold and had a fitting for the shower nozzle right on the faucet. When I pulled this off the wall I was left with two holes in the whole. I put a Shurflo mixer \ volume control in the bottom hole and a wall mount for the shower nozzle in the top hole. This completes a project I started last summer!

Two weeks ago I took off work on Friday to work on a bunch of projects one of which included using epoxy and I wanted to take advantage of the warmer weather and have an extra day to get things done. That Friday went pretty well and I worked on cutting the hole in the cabin top and sealing the edges with epoxy so I can install the mushroom vent for the composting head (more on that to come) but about 11pm that night the Flu (or maybe food poisoning) hit me and I was down and out for about 4 days. Well this weekend I’m feeling much better and Dawn and I are ready to tackle the to do list. Here’s the goals:

• Finish Installing the mushroom vent in the head
• Wire up the DC power to the fans in the composting head
• Change the Oil, Oil Filters and Fuel Filters, remove sediment and water (don’t think we have any water) from the RACOR catch bowl
• Check the Port water tank for a leak. I think one of my fittings is leaking :-(
• Check the Propane tank overboard vent – I’ve not expected this since the purchase. I want to make sure its not clogged or broken
• Secure the Plumbing – All of the plumbing is working great but all the lengths of hose need to secured under the salon floor. Not hard, but time consuming since the work space is so confined

That list feels a little ambitious, but I think we can get it done. I have a bunch of pics from cutting the hole in the cabin top for the vent and I’ll take some more as I get everything installed and do a write up about the installation process.

Here's the new composting toilet bolted down to the new tile floor. Looking very spiffy !!

As I told my neighbor at the Marina, “We can check something off the list… and add 12 more things to it!” The plumbing project is now complete!!

We started this project because were unhappy with the quality of the water which had a but of a smell to it, the look of the faucets and the LOUDNESS of the water pressure pump. We resolved all those issues, especially the pump. The old pump was so loud I was embarrassed to even used the water, the new pump is so quiet I wasn’t even sure it was working at first. I also did away with the splices connecting both the water pressure pump seen in the picture and the wash down pump in the v-berth and put in a power bar instead which will let me add things in the future.

There are some random pics on TwitPic too.

Here’s all the new pieces that went into the project:

• All plumbing hose replaced with Trident 1/2” white hose. The old hose was clear which had allowed growth within
• Jabsco Sensor Max VSD 31750 Variable speed water pump
• Added American Plumber water filter to the to the pressurized side of the system. Foot pump had filter previously.
• Galley faucet with sprayer
• Head faucet
• Blue Sea Systems 30 Amp Power Bar
• Removed faucet from v-berth
• Removed sink drain to thru hull connection in v-berth. This thru hull is still used for the anchor wash down pump. I need to add a strainer here as there is not one today.

Tomorrow we should finish up with the tile in the head and bolt down the Nature’s Head composting toilet. I’m also going to determine where the Nicro vent will be installed as well. More posts and pics on that later.

This weekend Dawn and I proved Deep Playa still goes by driving her over to the pump out to empty the holding bag and rinse out the whole toilet system so we could remove it completely as part of installing our Nature's Head composting toilet. Our neighbor Dan was heckling us as we drove out of the causeway since he's never seen us take the boat out. We need to replace the jib halyard before we can really sail her again, but was good to motor her around the marina. We got a little docking practice in as well proving to ourselves that we need a lot more practice. :-

The goal for this weekend was to remove the toilet, the holding bag and as much of the plumbing as we could without covering ourselves and the bilge in poop! As I said we first went over to the pump out and emptied the holding bag. We ran about 20 gallons of fresh water though the system and pumped that out. We also used the bilge pump-out and were able to get the water in the sewer down to less than inch. We'll need to get down there and really clean it good in the next few months.

So after our docking adventures pulled back into our own slip and got to work ripping things apart. My strategy was to pull close to through hulls, pull the toilet and then start removing the bag and hosing in sections. The toilet was head down on a small wood base which was on the larger platform. Disconnecting the toilet from the hoses wasn't too hard but I had to cut the waste pipe with a hack saw. After that the whole thing lifted right out.

Next, I disconnected the hoses to the holding bag. Some of these hoses had plugs handy and some I closed off with plastic bag duct taped in place around the opening. With that done the empty holding bag was removed.

Finally we removed as much of the hoses as we could leaving only those which were directly connected to the through hulls. While the through hulls are closed I'm not sure of the best way to cap the ends. I have a guy coming out to do some fiberglass work and he'll cap those through hulls and remove the remaining hoses.

With all the "messy stuff" removed I attacked the 2" high platform the toilet sat on. The wood underneath this was wet and I'm not sure if its rotted. It seems pretty solid but I'm not sure. I left the heated in the head and it dried out a lot in less than hour I hope it will dry out completely over night and the wood will prove to still be solid.

Here's a shot of the bilge area without the holding bag, that is  a LOT of storage\system area we are regaining. Check out the rest of the photos.

A great weekend of getting things done! This next week the fiberglass tabbing should be repaired and then we can start putting Deep Playa back together on the inside and start taking her out.