When we were first boat shopping we saw many boats with manual foot pumps in the galley and head. Our boat also had manual foot pump in the galley and head, but when we gutted those areas we took them out. Until recently we sort of forgot about them. As time went by, I started wondering why we would need them at all. Then we switched from several years of “boat-refit” mode to “sailing more” mode and now I understand why they’re useful.
Our new, electric water pump is great, but if you’re anchored or it’s late at night, it’s nice to turn on the faucet without the loudness of the water pump. Plus as a redundancy for the electric pump, the manual foot pumps are great.
We always planned to reinstall the foot pumps. Way back in 2013 we installed separate faucet fixtures for the pumps with the new countertops. We have 2 pumps in the galley (fresh and salt water) and one fresh water pump in the head. We rebuilt 2 of the pumps that came with the boat, but the third one was cracked and had to be replaced.
The plumbing was pretty simple. We had to add a line from the tanks to each pump. The saltwater pump is in place, but it’s not completely plumbed at this time. We’re not in saltwater and we don’t want the dirty water from the Sacramento Delta inside the boat, so we’re going to wait on that one.
