Plumbing and Wiring

The shower plumbing is now 95% complete.  We have opted for a fairly common mixer from Screwfix.  Our logic is should the mixer fail it will be a relatively simple task to replace.

During the past 8 months I’ve noticed the marina engineers have changed a number of shower mixers and I’ve asked them whether a more expensive mixer is an indicator of longer life and reliability.  They tell me this isn’t the case.

When I installed a shower mixer in the house we built in NZ it was mounted to the bathroom stud wall.  It was interesting to observe this mixer is actually attached to the panel.

These plastic press connectors make plumbing so much easier than copper and brass with hemp threading.  I am showing my age!  All that is now required is for the pipe to be pushed onto the mixer connectors and the panel screwed to the wall.

Yesterday I mentioned there was a leak in the joint between the main water tank outlet valve and the brass elbow.  This morning I fixed it by removing the elbow.  The elbow was then reconnected to the valve with plumbing tape rather than the “glue” which had been supplied yesterday.  This time the joint didn’t leak!  Both water tanks were then filled to the top.  The purpose behind this was to test the seal on the hatch in the lower foredeck (cratch) water tank.  The water pressure from the main tank would “test” the silicone seal I’d made around the hatch.  Water started to weep from four screw heads in the rear starboard corner of the hatch.

After tightening the screws only the far right one continued to weep.  It was then removed and the threads coated with construction adhesive before once again being tightened. This time there was no sign of a leak.  The two tanks have now been isolated from each other as a safety measure.  I don’t want the hatch seal to fail during the night and all the water leak into the cabin.  I’ll feel more confident once the cratch automatic bilge pump is fitted and working.

Apart from the PIR (mentioned last Thursday) all the wiring to the bow node has now been completed.  I ran wires for the cratch bilge pump, bilge pump float switch, headlamp, horn and water tank  gauge12v supply.  These are now all connected to the node.

The cables have yet to be tidied

The external wiring will be run under the gunwale in flexible conduit.  The “curled” conduit contains the wire to the bilge pump which will be located in the base of the locker.  I have yet to finalise how the flexible conduit will be secured under the gunwale.  My current idea is to have small metal plated welded horizontal to the inner edge of the gunwale and then drill a hole in the plate.  The conduit could be secured to the plate with cable ties.

The headlamp, horn and camera cables are currently in the bow thruster locker awaiting the welding of the steel post on which the components will be mounted.  My plan is to run the wiring up inside the post.  There should be sufficient room in the holes I’ve drilled through the bulkheads for the bow thruster battery charging and control cables.