Practical Boat Owner — November 2017

Great ideas and tips from PBO readers

Practical projects

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Throughout PBO's golden anniversary year, the winning Practical Projects article will be rewarded with a pair

of Spinlock’s Lume-On bladder lights. These are tiny LED lights that attach underneath the bladder of any

lifejacket: when activated, Lume-On lights use the bladder as a diffuser, turning the whole lifejacket into a

glowing light, and are designed to work alongside existing lifejacket lights. Lume-On lights were named joint

overall winner of the prestigious 2015 DAME design award competition: the DAME jury were impressed with

the lights’ cleverness of thought, simplicity of application and very accessible cost. Priced at £14.94 a pair.

T

here I was, covered

in soap, shampoo

and shaving foam,

taking a leisurely shower in

a well-known south coast

marina and the water

stops, dead: no hot, no

cold... nothing.

A closer inspection of the

shower instructions (I was a

bit myopic) explained that

you only get six minutes

worth of water for your token,

mmmmm.

On with the towel and out

of the shower, across to the

reception area with a pound

coin in hand to get another

token, wet sudsy footprints

there and back to show my

path and a rather huffy

reception person.

My boat, a Macwester

Wight at 10m, would have a

shower and possibly Jacuzzi

if built in the last 10 years but

is sadly only equipped with a

rather cramped heads. First

thoughts were of a shower

tray in the cabin but getting

the water out would entail a

pump and a rather damp

interior so I decided the

wheelhouse/cockpit would

be the best bet.

I re-made the wheelhouse

about 12 years ago so there

was nothing like mainsail

Blowing hot and cold

Keith Calton puts a shower facility in his wheelhouse

travellers to get in the way

(that’s on the roof now) so

siting the shower rails partially

over the companionway and

out into the cockpit where it

could self-drain seemed the

best idea.

I made a D-shape using

20mm electrical conduit with a

couple of corner sections as

the basis, about 700mm wide

and about 930mm long, (you’ll

need about 3m in total).

Design it to suit your boat. A

hot air gun judiciously played

on the pipe while bending

around an object of suitable

diameter (dustbin, chair etc.)

will give you your curved

D-section, but be careful as it’s

easy to get it too hot and

scorch it (you might want to

practise fi rst).

The forward pipe

clips are

screwed through

the head lining,

and on my boat

the aft clips

locate near the rear lip of

the wheelhouse.

To fi t the shower frame to the

boat just slide the ring through

the aft clips until you can pop

the front cross tube in place.

It’s then all fi rmly located – you

can put the shower rings and

curtains on before or after this.

Having a fully canvassed

cockpit and using two nylon

shower curtains, one each

side, provides good privacy.

You can walk in from the

cabin, shower, dry off and

walk back into the cabin

without having to step outside.

And at the same time the

self-draining cockpit gets a

much-needed wash too!

A good tip is to trim your

curtain depth to just above the

fl oor level with the seam

outside so I doesn’t retain

water or get dirty or mouldy.

Pressurised water comes

simply from a converted

12-litre Hozelock ex-pesticide

garden pressure sprayer

which can give a decent

shower with one full kettle of

hot water and the rest cold,

but proper portable camping/

caravanning showers are

available from around £20

upwards. If you re-use an old

pesticide pump, be sure to

clean it thoroughly (though if

you don’t at least you won’t

suffer from greenfl y...).

You can make all of this with

hand tools, though a band

saw and sander will help and

a hot air gun is useful.

All tubes, clips and lengths

of rectangular PVC are

available from DIY/Hardware

stores, different makes have

different tolerances which can

either be a pain or really useful

if you need a sliding or tight fi t

and mixing and matching

between electrical and

plumbing fi xings can be

helpful too.

COST

£20

D-shaped rail sits neatly under wheelhouse canopy

A shower curtain can be erected under a canvas

sprayhood as well as under a solid wheelhouse

Conduit corner section