Spectra Watermaker Install Day 1 Day 2

...Spectra Ventura 200t...

Now that our new B&G gear is all installed and running, it is time to focus on the new Spectra Ventura 200t watermaker installation. We are on a mooring ball in Stuart, Florida. That makes it a bit more challenging but we are pushing hard to get this new gear installed so we can test it and shake it all down. Stuart has turned out to a new dream location for us. We LOVE IT HERE! We are working with Mack Sails Company who is supporting our efforts as we work through our own refit #3 program. Thank you again goes out to Colin Mack who has been the best person to work. We ordered all this new gear through him and leaned on him and his team for all the help and support we needed. What a fantastic company. If you need anything...sails, electronics, chain plates, tanks, etc, you need to run it by Mack Sails first. Colin and Travis Mack will serve you well.

The feed pump up high on the side of the cockpit cooler box

On Day One of this Spectra Watermaker Challenge, we installed the feed pump and the product water diverter valve and we prebuilt all the plumbing parts. Day Two we installed the Clark pump platform over our B&G autopilot ram. This shelf needs to hold the 30 lb pump and pressure cylinders while bashing into  serious ocean waves. We think we designed and built a very solid platform. I pre-built the pieces while still at home and final cut everything onboard using my Dremel tool with a saw blade. I must say, having a Dremel with all the blades is a good idea on a boat. All I had to do was fit them into place and then epoxy the battens onto the bulkhead and the fiberglass stern. Next, I mounted the custom fit 14" x 24" 3/4" plywood platform. I used JB Weld and 5200 adhesive and screws to assemble the platform. It worked out well. At the end of Day Two, we have the platform installed and painted, top and bottom. and the watermaker will be bolted in tomorrow. 

Overall this watermaker install is a difficulty level of a 2 out of 10 as Spectra has made it their mission to design this for owner installation. It is very, very straightforward. We are glad we are doing this ourselves again, because this way, we will really know the system. It is very important to us that we know every wire, every system, every hose, and how all systems work on our boat. That way, when we are remote, we can usually fix items if we have a break down or if a system is not working correctly. We like this about our Team Island Spirit program, it has worked well for us over the past 15 years!

Here are some photos of Day 1 and 2 of the Spectra Watermaker Challenge. 

This is the entire system being loaded into the dinghy.

One bag of hoses. one bag of parts and one 20" pressure cylinder.
This is an 8.3 gallons per hour watermaker that uses only 8-9 amps 12 volt!

Radeen reading up on how to install this watermaker.

We took a wonderful Sunday morning off and visited good friend Jim Austin
of sv/Salty Paws in Vero Beach, FL. Jim is my photography mentor.
See. http://www.jimages.com/ 

My photo of mentor Jim getting an interesting shot of the flag on Memorial Island at Riverside Park.
We also took pictures of the antique bells and wagon wheels at the historic Driftwood Inn.
http://www.jimages.com/

Back on Team Island Spirit, with the sun setting beautifully.

We love the curves of Island Spirit, nearly perfect.

Day One, we drilled into the cockpit "ice box" to see where we would end up.
Guess what? It is 4" thick with foam. We eventually drilled through.

Hayden inside the sail locker on his back drilling holes overhead.
(Jeff Gabor, where are you??)

Next we started to assemble the parts and the fittings.
This is just standard plumbing, nothing mysterious.

Radeen in her Black and White Spectra outfit, what a great helper.

Day 2 returning from Home Dept with plywood and parts.

It takes more time to gather the parts than it does to do the job.

Day 2 began with a plan for the platform over the pilot ram.

We used a carbide scraper to remove the latex paint, then sanded and roughed up the surface.
I curfed battens in the back to make them curve to the shape of the hull and the inside of the sail locker.

The platform with one support leg glued and screwed in place.

The painted platform, we painted the bottom and leg before installing.

After living in the sail locker all day, I finally used 5200 adhesive and then screwed the platform in place.

The finished watermaker platform on the aft wall of the sail locker. This was Jay Aker's idea from sv/MINX.

With the platform built, installed and painted, we are ready to install the watermaker tomorrow and then pull the plumbing hoses and connect to the new thru hull in the galley floor. We also need to run heavy 10 AWG wire from the battery bank to this unit for power. If all goes well, this should be completed by the end of the week. Thank you for following along, we love to hear from you.....