The Angelic Pump

One of the things that has been on my famous "shit list" has been getting the pressurized water working on Corleto. It has plagued me since I bought her 15 months ago.

The first problem was discovered when I filled her water tanks and then engaged the pump and opened the wrong faucet knob. The next thing I knew I had water coming into the drawers below the faucet.

I had quickly discovered that the faucet was a standard bathroom fixture you could find at any hardware store and that it had not one but two supply hose housings. One for hot, one for cold. The hot side was not hooked up so when I opened the cold side, the water ran out the hot side and made a mess.

The simple fix for this was to replace it with a single supply faucet. But as time went on, that replacement fell lower and lower on the "shit list" of things to be done.

Fast forward to last fall and my good friend Kinc- ( the fellow who helped bring Corleto home), and I were going to join a larger group of boats on a long weekend of sailing. Kinc had asked me about the pressurized water system and the faucet that he had disassembled.

Feeling bad I suppose, or more likely feeling pity for Corleto's rookie skipper, he went and found a single supply faucet and gifted it to Corleto and her crew. The possibility of pressurized fresh water was now within our grasp. Kinc dutifully removed the old and replaced it with the new adding a nice piece of stainless to cover the old holes. He hooked up the water and gave word to turn on the fresh water pump.

The new piece of hardware worked like a dream. But wait, whats that sound? It sounds like leaking high pressure water. Kinc closes the faucet. Its still hissing. What can that be?
I quickly check on the pump under the starboard side seat. The water is streaming out of the bottom of the pump. Turning the pump off stops the flow. Now it looks like the pump is the problem. I take a picture of it and study the photo. It appears to be cracked at the bottom.

As it turns out, the event that led to the crack was made back in Bellingham when I took possession. I filled the fresh water tanks.
You see, it being FEBRUARY and oh I don't know, it being WINTER. That coupled with the fact I must have been day dreaming about faraway sunny places, I forgot that water freezes in February. That is what cracked the pump.

The crack at the bottom- ice- who knew?

So fast forward to pretty much anytime I was into a Marine shop looking for a Flojet model xxx-xxx water pump. I would often find Flojets on the shelves, but never the right model number. That was until just a couple of weeks ago, when I went into the store to look for a hand held VHF radio and I strayed into the pump isle. And there it was, a shaft of angelic light shinning on the box of a FloJet 4405-143. I didn't even look at the price, I just picked it up and headed for the cash. Running pressurized water would soon be a reality.

Install day was now upon me and I was very excited to finally scratch this off the "list". I was able to quickly remove the old pump and use some of those fancy wiring skills that I learned at my engine course from last season. This all took about a half hour and I was ready to engage the pump.

The new FloJet

And just like that, I had running fresh water. I was feeling pretty proud of myself. My confidence was boundless. I had a filter from last season still in the package. I thought, why not get that installed while I have everything exposed. What could possibly go wrong?

I cut the supply line between the water tank and the new pump. Added a couple of clamps and began to put it all back together.

What's this? This hose does not seem to fit over the intake barbs. Fuckkkkkkkkk.
I fumbled with it for several minutes and then remembered the sage advice from my boating Yoda- Richard. Always heat up the ends gently and that will help in a tight fit. I went for the heat gun, set it to stun (low) and gently heated the end of the hose.

The filter

IT FIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Victory was MINE!

Pressurized WATER!