Cockpit Shower
We’ve seen a lot of cruising boats that have a shower pump that can be used in the cockpit. We really liked that concept for a few reasons. Using the shower in the head is a bit of a chore. The curtain helps keep the water off the countertop and toilet, but there’s still a bit of cleanup and drying off that needs to be done after the shower. Plus, in the hotter months it tends to get stuffy and hot when showering in the head. We like the idea of rinsing off in the cockpit after swimming so salt and river grime don’t get tracked into the boat. It’s also nice for just cooling off in the summer.
The cockpit shower uses water from our freshwater tanks and it has hot and cold options. We have a 5 gallon per minute Shurflo water pump that puts out plenty of water. The mixing valve is from Scandvik (we bought it on Defender). It has a stainless steel cover that lays flat on the side of the cockpit well. The plumbing was fairly simple (we used PEX pipe) to run from one side of the cockpit locker to the other side. The deck fitting is made by Jabsco. It has a quick connect fitting that just pops in and out even while under pressure. The hose is a 25 foot coil that we use for the deck/anchor washdown as well.
Deck & Anchor Washdown
The Delta can be a muddy and weedy place to anchor. And what do the mud and weeds do once they dry out in your chainlocker? They start to stink. And our chainlocker is right in front of our V-berth. The installation of the deck washdown was similar to the cockpit shower, except it has its own pump and uses the thru-hull under the V-berth to pull water from outside (salt or fresh). Power for the pump is from the same circuit as the windlass breaker.
