Freshwater Wash-down Tank

D

Dora~Jean

Active member
The marinas that I go to here in SoCal have fewer and fewer available wash-down facilities. This is becoming very irritating to have to drive home some hour or more before flushing the engines and washing down the boat and trailer. It also takes considerable longer to first dissolve the encrusted salt, then complete the wash down.

I'd like to carry a water tank with a demand pump (like a Shuflo or Flojet 45psi perhaps) in the back of my tow vehicle. After pulling the boat out of the water, use the hose fittings on the motor to flush them without running them (I know this isn't a complete flush, but maybe 90%). Then use the remainder of the water to rinse off the boat, stainless, trailer, brakes and leaf springs -- hopefully while they're still wet.

Anybody ever do this? I'm leaning towards 35 gallons as enough (250 lbs). 5-7 gals each outboard, 10 gal for the boat, 10 for the trailer.

Thoughts?
 
Dana Point has a good wash down--for what it is worth.

We have used 5 gallon sprayers--with salt away for the engine and the brakes etc. Hose type bib for hook up to pump into the water passages, and a garden sprayer to spray around the brake lines and housing sets.

We don't do the entire trailer, unless there is a wash down.

Also there are often car washes near the ramp (for example there used to be one fairly close to Long Beach Alamitos Bay on 7th street and Belflower (not sure if it is still there.

You could also consider a bladder tank--I think I have a 30 gallon one which I got years ago--and have rarely used.
 
I don't know if this is an option for you but if there's a fresh water lake nearby with a boat ramp (and it's not too busy), just back down in, run the engines for 5 mins and your good.
 
Steve,
We have plumbed the on board wash down pump on our Tomcat to be switched to the boats fresh water system. Before we pull the boat out of the salt water and there is no fresh water available at the ramp we find a place to top off our fresh water tank in the marina. Then by running the fresh water pump and the wash down pump at the same time you get plenty of pressure to flush the engines and the brakes until we get to the storage yard which has a wash down area. As you probably know Channel Islands and Ventura both have fresh water at the ramps but they require money and on a busy day you have to wait on them. BTW we also live in T.O. near Janss & Erbes. We keep the boat in Ventura. Hope to see you out there.
 
Thanks for the ideas guys. I like the idea of using the on-board freshwater system, however, it is usually near empty when I return from our trip on the ocean; then, how do I refill it if all the spigots are sealed at the marina? This is the case (now) at Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro.

I like the car wash idea to wash down the boat/trailer, but to flush the engines I still need a container, not sure I want to put car wash water in my on-board tank. :roll: But maybe could use it as a quick fill on an external storage tank.

Here in the Southwest, water is at a premium, so there are few public sources of water, even to pay. Marina Del Rey, Oxnard and Ventura have wash-down facilities, but the time is 2 minutes I believe, and the pressure is quite variable, sometimes very high. I'd like much more control over the whole process.

So it sounds like 30-35 gallons might be sufficient.
 
Steve, other than flying in to LAX two weeks ago to change flights on my return home from Vegas, I've not been in Southern California since 1976. That being said, are there any places that are able to "sling launch" our C-Dorys. (From Santa Barbara south to San Diego?)
 
Thanks Roger, the reason I mentioned the sling is that at least you can launch and not immerse a trailer into the saltwater, which at least solves a bit of the "washdown" problem for the trailer. We are fairly fortunate up here since at least the two launch ramps that I use the most have a couple of hose bibs for washdown which I use everytime I pull the trailer out of a saltwater immersion.
 
Dave,

There is another possible sling launch marina, King Harbor, about 10 miles south of Marina Del Rey. You'll have to contact them on their weight/length limit. I've never used them, but saw them in operation years ago.
 
Thanks Steve, back in the early 70's I owned and lived in a house in Redondo Beach 10 blocks from the King Harbor Marina and at times sailed out of there a couple of times a week.
My reason for asking about sling launches in So. Calif. was because the discussion was in part about having the lack of available washdowns at the ramps for the trailers. Personally, I'm not a big fan of sling launches as they usually only operate at certain times of the day (meaning no way to remove the vessel from the water if you return after closing time). However the plus side of sling launches is that your trailer is not immersed and there is not the concern to immediately wash them.
Now as think back to the early 70's and Redondo Beach, I'm having some fantastic memories!
 
Back
Top