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HomeBoatDIY BoatingWash it off: DIY Anchor and Deck Wash System

Wash it off: DIY Anchor and Deck Wash System

Boaters who regularly anchor in rivers and estuaries will have experienced the horrible situation where their chain/rope and anchor come up caked in stinking mud and sludge.

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Once an anchor digs through this stuff it will usually hold well; the trouble is, upon weighing, half the bottom usually comes up as well, glued to the chain and anchor in the form of a smelly, oozing mess – which is when an anchor wash system is absolutely essential!

Even when wet, this smelly substance is very difficult to clean off the chain and anchor, but if left to dry on deck, it is practically impossible to remove from chain. I have seen people trying to poke it off their anchor with a boat hook, or by dipping a deck-brush in the water and then valiantly attempting to wash the black crud off their chain and foredeck. My schooner Britannia has a two-metre-long bowsprit and the anchor(s) come up under it, so they’re impossible to clean with either method. To clean an anchor, I used to dangle it in the bow-wake as we motored away, then pile the dirty chain on deck and swill it with buckets of water before stowing it. This anchor cleaning method is not advisable if you have a short bow roller, because the anchor will bump against the bow.

All these shenanigans rather took the pleasure out of getting underway – or rather it used to, until I built myself a neat little deck-wash system.

You can of course buy complete deck-wash kits from chandlers’ stores and on the web. They cost anything from about $200 to over $1000, depending on the pump pressure and whatever ancillary equipment they include, like hoses, a nozzle, a filter, pipe fittings, wiring, etc. They are primarily meant to be hard-mounted below deck, drawing from a seacock or other seawater source, through a pump and to a deck outlet fitting, normally near the bow – to which is attached a water hose and nozzle. These kits don’t usually include connecting pipework, or electrical wiring, which adds to the cost of installation.

A powerful deck-wash system is really the only way to effectively clean a dirty anchor/chain/rode, ensuring it passes into the chain locker in a reasonably unsoiled and non-stinky condition.

Providing your hose is long enough, it can also double as an actual deck-wash – but that’s all it does. A fixed system cannot be used to pump rainwater out of a dinghy; as an additional bilge pump; to wash a bilge; or any other job for which a powerful water jet would be useful. To wash a deck a much longer hose is usually needed than to simply clean ground tackle. In other words, a fixed system is not very versatile, with few other uses. The deck-wash I built can be used for all these functions, and anything else you need to pump water on or off, including out of your boat or dinghy – or at your house.

A Johnson WD 5.2 washdown pump.

The equipment and assembly are simplicity themselves, consisting only of a pressure pump and filter, two lengths of regular garden hose – one with a weight on the end to keep it underwater, and a hand nozzle. Operation is equally simple; the pump is connected to a battery and the inlet pipe is simply hung into the water so it sucks up water and shoots a powerful jet through the hand nozzle.

The principal item of course is the pump, and there are many on the market to suit different budgets and pressure needs. The only common requirement is that the pump should be self-activating (also called an on-demand pump) – that is, it starts and stops when pressure changes in the line, as the hand nozzle is opened and closed. This makes the operation semi-automatic and saves the need for an on-off switch. These types of pumps are usually also self-priming but must also have adequate lifting capacity from the waterline to the deck, because if the pump is not powerful enough to suck water up it obviously won’t work.

Diaphragm pumps are preferable to impeller pumps since they can run dry, enabling the lines to be pumped empty ready for stowage after use. Also, unlike an impeller pump,
a diaphragm pump has no ‘kick’ as it starts up, which means it won’t fall over, or roll-off wherever you place it. On-demand deck-wash pumps are similar to those used to pressurise freshwater systems for sink taps and showers, etc.

A Johnson WD 5.2 washdown pump.

After examining many pump specifications, I decided on the Aqua-Jet WD 5.2 wash-down pump from the Johnson Pumps Company. This is one of the more powerful pumps, providing 70psi (4.83 bar) of pressure (about the same pressure as your tap at home), and easily sucks water up my boat’s nearly two-metre freeboard to deliver a powerful jet. The pump has
a detachable, easy-to-clean filter in the line, which saves having to buy a separate one. The filter also swivels, allowing the outlet hose to point forward or back, making it easier to use.

Included with the pump is a hand nozzle, which can be locked in the open position. The nozzle fits on the hose with
a push fitting, which is useful because you don’t have to unscrew anything when you need to remove it for a greater continuous flow, like when emptying a dinghy or a bilge. There are four large rubber feet under the baseplate, so this pump can be placed anywhere on deck with little fear of it damaging anything.

The pump comes with fittings for ½-inch and 5/8-inch (12.7mm and 15.9mm) water hoses, but it is best to use the larger size (which has some 60% greater volume), to give the maximum water flow. This pump is available from most marine suppliers, and on the web for about $350 (part #10-13407-07 for 12 volts).

A typical commercially available washdown kit.

I bought an inexpensive 15-foot by 5/8-inch (5m by 16mm) garden hose, cut it into a 2m and a 3m length, and attached them to the pump push-in barbs with clamp-type hose fittings. Three metres of hose is long enough to easily hang over the side of my boat.

To keep the end underwater I weighted it with two brass fittings from my local hardware store. One has a 16mm barb for the hose, and a 19mm NPT thread, onto which I screwed another brass nut for added weight.

I found a couple of crocodile clips (like those used on car jump-leads) in my local auto parts store, which I soldered to a length of 14 AWG 1.6mm wire to reach any of my 12-volt batteries. Do not be tempted to use a cigarette lighter type receptacle, that you might have in your cockpit. They can get quite warm and shouldn’t be used for the continuous current draw of these powerful pumps, which for the Johnson 12-volt unit is 15 amps on start-up.

To set up the hoses I suspend the inlet hose through a bow mooring fairlead in the bulwarks that prevents the pump falling overboard if it does move. After clipping the power on the pump hums, but nothing else happens – until the hand nozzle is squeezed, whereupon the pump starts sucking water and delivers an incredibly powerful three-metre-long jet that will knock the muck of any anchor and chain. The long-reaching jet also enables me to hit the chain as soon as it comes out of the water, and with my electric windlass I can bring the chain up as quickly as I like. Washing the anchor flukes is also easy.

Pumping rainwater out of the dinghy – all from the the comfort of the aft deck.

If the pump pipes become clogged with sucked-up debris, the filter is easily unscrewed and cleaned. The hoses can also be unclipped from the pump by hand with the quick-release connectors, for emptying the pipes or storage.

Using the nozzle the pump empties a 20-litre bucket in just under three minutes; without the nozzle it has a greater flow and takes just half as long.

When I want to wash any part of my deck, I just drop the hose over either side, connect the power, and fire away. Whenever my dinghy gets full of rainwater, I simply drop the end of the hose into the boat and pump it dry in just a few minutes – all from on deck –which beats climbing into the waterlogged dinghy with a hand-bailer any day! I found other uses as well – emptying an ornamental fountain in my back yard, which I could never empty completely with a small bailer and emptying a children’s play pool.

This is a deceptively simple system to build that works amazingly well. It is very versatile for many purposes and also cheaper than a kit with a comparable power pump. That’s something of a rarity in the marine equipment business nowadays, don’t you think?   

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