We had planned on replacing the fixtures throughout the boat over time, but we what worked well in our other boat was that we would keep an eye out for a good deal, or a boat show special, or something like that, Purchase the item and hold on to it until we were ready.
The best laid plans…
 |
| Old faucet down to no flow rate at all |
The galley sink on this boat had always had really low flow. The hot water was worse than the cold, but it was tolerable, so we just decided to live with it until we replaced the rest of all of the underlying plumbing lines. (The plumbing system is a mixture of copper, vinyl, poly and whatever the heck someone could find at the time of a repair) Our plan was to replace all of the plumbing with PEX throughout the boat. This would ensure a good solid plumbing system. Right now most of the joints between materials drip and that is no good for a long term solution. As all of you sailors know, Fresh water is a precious commodity not to be wasted a drip at a time into the bilge.
So back to the original story, Yesterday, I noticed Deb going to the rear head and coming up with a
 |
| Removing the old sink from underneath |
small pitcher of water and then doing the dishes that way. I asked why and she said it was taking too long to fill a pan for washing dishes. I kind of blew it off, thinking she was in a rush. This morning I went to fill my little 4 cup coffee pot and it took about 8 minutes to fill that little tiny pot. This was NOT going to work. 🙂
I pulled the old sink out early this morning before starting work for the day and planned to find a small slot in the afternoon when we could run to the store to get a replacement. Deb and I have found we like the brushed Bronze look and that is what we put in Last Affair when we did that boat. We also really like the high spigot for filling pots or pails. We like the pull out sprayer for convenience and also like a single lift lever style control so you can turn it on with your wrist or elbow.
The installation actually went pretty good, the old one came out in about 10 minutes. (The faucet and small filtered drinking water dispenser). The new one took about an hour to put in, mainly due to the fact that one of the holes in the counter was larger than needed and there was not enough “meat” on the bottom side of the mounting surface to put the locking nut in place. I fabricated a mounting surface from some old plastic parts and it worked great.
The new faucet is in, has really good pressure if needed, has a water conservation type spray if chosen and that 4 cup coffee pot fills up in about 10 seconds now.
The only down side of all of this is that the marble below where the old sink faucet was has some dicoloration and while the new faucet covers some of it up, it doesn’t hide it all. If anyone has any great ideas on how to clean it, we are certainly open to suggestions. We have tried marble polish, magic eraser, soap and water and even a quick test of bleach. I have avoided sanding, but may try a 3M green scrubber to see if that does it.