Washdown faucet - salt or fresh water?

[dkircher]

My washdown faucet (port side next to the Alaska bulkhead) is hooked to the fresh water tank. Is this common? I have a salt water washdown pump switch at the helm. Was there a consistent approach by the factory on washdowns? Given the freshwater tank size, I would need to be pretty cautious about using freshwater for anything but small clean up jobs, certainly not rinsing the anchor and chain.

I have been on boats that have salt water washdowns and they are especially useful for washing mud off the anchor and chain. Has anyone redone their washdown from fresh to salt water? How did you go about the switch?

Thanks,

Dave Kircher
Andiamo
1998 28 TE

[Russell]

My guess is that a previous owner changed your salt water washdown to fresh water. My boat has a fresh water shower in the transom and the salt water pump feeds the hose bib behind the crew seat and the bait well. It would probably be an easy change to go back to the original setup. Salt water can leave salt deposits and maybe the person changed to the fresh water tank to avoid that problem. I use the dock hose to rinse the whole boat when I return from a trip.

[RobS]

I agree with Russ that a previous owner may have changed your salt water wash down to fresh water. It's just a matter of "T" ing it into the cold water whale pipe feeding the transom shower. It's common to have just salt, not just fresh. I have both fresh and salt, side by side. Comes in very handy. If he were not a fisherman I could see giving up the salt for fresh.

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[jcollins]

Dave,
Mine is on the port side as well. You should have a seacock on that side for the sea water washdown. Mine is located in the center bilge area just forward of the engine. The prevous owner probably did change it.

[RobS]

In my 2000 the s/w washdown seacock is located in the rear port corner of the bilge as pictured in the tech specs. The baitwell and s/w washdown seacocks are side by side there, as pictured.

[DougSea]

In my 2000 the s/w washdown seacock is located in the rear port corner of the bilge as pictured in the tech specs. The baitwell and s/w washdown seacocks are side by side there, as pictured.

Ditto on our 1997.

[dkircher]

Thanks for all the information, guys. Next time I am down at the boat I'll do some detective work and try to locate an unused seacock, plumbing, etc. After four months, I am still learning about the quirks of this boat since the former owner is ill and hasn't been able to help out since the sale. She did provide lots of information initially and took pretty good care of the boat. Only issue is the low hours, 300 in 12 years! Some of the problems have worked themselves out as I use the boat more regularly and some have required parts replacement.

Dave Kircher
Andiamo
28 TE

[Pitou]

In my 2000 the s/w washdown seacock is located in the rear port corner of the bilge as pictured in the tech specs. The baitwell and s/w washdown seacocks are side by side there, as pictured.

The same set-up as Rob describes above and in the sea-cock tech specs on Pitou.

I too have the Alaskan bulkhead and have a fresh water spigot port side of the bulkhead in the cockpit. This was factory from Albin. Don't be so sure that a previous owner switched things around ... maybe not. The fresh is nice to spray down lures after fishing, hosing down after a swim and other quick tasks such as spraying down the winshield from salt spray. My boat was not set-up with the transom shower that many do have.

My Spigot for the salt water is set in the rear qtr. starboard side aft of the rod storage in the cockpit by the baitwell. The salt is great for cleaning up after misc. fishing tasks and hosing the mud from anchor and chain which many times requires an extensive wash not well suited for our limited fresh water supply.

It all depends on wants and needs. I would consider adding a salt water wash in addition and if you have an active baitwell a "T" from this line would be easier than adding a seacock, seperate pump and possibly wiring if it is not already in the bilge waiting, but entirely possible. Check to see if the salt water wash switch has wires running to it and if so I'd bet they are sitting in the bilge area where the seacock is positioned on the diagram posted above and if you do have an active baitwell the wires are probably massed and zip tied to the baitwell wiring near that pump.

Good luck in your search and endeavors with this project.