Washdown conversion?

[311Hemi]

Anybody add a wash down system to their boat, including some sort of drainage?

I hate trying to keep carpet clean and getting a new boat is not an option. I was thinking about putting a vinyl floor in my CL Sportfish and then putting a few drain tubes at floor level that would drain into the rear drainwell area under where the bench seat is mounted, obviously with some back flow protectors or drain plugs on them so water would not come back into the mnain ****pit area.

Any thoughts on negatives of something like this?

[REW]

311,
A much cheaper option is a 5 gallon bucket and a 10 foot rope.
All that a washdown system is doing is to supply water from the exterior of the boat to the interior of the boat.
Most of the pumps that you can buy are rather anemic and really don't have enough pressure to give you any type of pressure effect.

A 5 gallon bucket to get the water into the boat, and a good scrub brush work as well and much more quickly than a wash down pump and system.

I do it all the time with my boat.
I simply have a gallon bailing bucket that I keep in a locker. When I need to clean the boat, I reach over the side and toss about 10 gallons of water down the boat. As needed, I use the scrub brush to clean up the soiled areas. I also keep several different types of soaps and cleaners on board to deal with the various types of spots.
Finally, I will finish up with another 5-10 gallons of water that I will toss down the boat, rinsing off all of the areas. I keep the bilge running as I do this. I have a pair of drains from the deck area to the bilge area in each stern area of the deck area where all of the water drains. I also have a large deck hatch, that I open when doing large amounts of cleaning to allow the water to quickly drop to the bilge to be pumped out.
After cleaning the deck, I also reach down through the hatch and clean the bilge area as well, and get out any of the junky stuff that might be in the area, as well as a good wipe down of the bilge as well.


You do need to be aware of various water laws where many different eco laws prohibit this type activity. Rather, these same areas require that the discharge of contaminated (dirty, and or soapy water) be captured and be disposed of properly on shore.

Take care
REW