Previously, I had installed the head and associated plumbing, but I never quite finished up the raw water seacock connection knowing that I was going to be 'teeing' in a line for the washdown pump. So, with that in mind, I decided that I would continue work on that seacock and install the washdown pump (Johnson 54535 AquaJet 3.5) off of it at the tee. I also needed to connect the strainer to the head intake on the other side of the tee and get it all connected up to the raw water seacock.
I knew that I was going to mount the washdown pump under the v-berth in one of the compartments forward of the holding tank but it took quite a bit of time and thought to decide on the final location. Everything on a boat is a tradeoff; if you mount everything in the most accesible locations then you have no room for storage once it's all back together. On the other hand, you don't want to install something that may need service in a place you cannot possible get at easily. This particular pump has a strainer mounted on it that will need to be serviced from time to time to clean it out so I tried to make it as accessible as possible without making the compartment unusable for storage.
I ended up tucking the pump under the aft end of the compartment opening so it wouldn't be in the way, but I could still access the strainer. It's not really even the pump that I'm worried about interfering with storage, it's the inlet and outlet hoses that I don't want to get in the way. Mounting the pump required the usual 'I need 3 hands but I only have 2' sort of situation and I somehow managed to sit on my glasses and break the frame while doing it. However, in the end, I think it's a good location and I took quite a bit of care to secure the hoses well and get them out of the way.
The seacock side of things had much better access and I think the installation looks solid and the strainer going to the head will be very accessible right under the head compartment sole. I still have to run the wires from the pump and tank monitor (installed the week before) to the distribution panel, but I'm going to tackle that next spring when I label the existing wiring and replace the panel. In the meantime, I'll be cleaning things up and removing my tools for the winter and start preparing for the engine rebuild. I'm really happy with how far I've gotten so far and I haven't found anything that scares me yet, but I'm sure that will come with the engine project.
