Beneteau Oceanis 40 Plumbing Questions

[Aljo]

I'm new to owning a sailboat and I have a few questions about the plumbing on my 2007 Beneteau Oceanis 40.

I have two shower drains and for some reason sweet water accumulates in the drains while we are sailing. I only discovered this due to a malfunctioning shower pump. We have only owned the boat since April and have not used the showers yet.

FYI - Bilge is bone dry.

My questions are:

1. Where is this water coming from;
2. Are the two shower drains connected; and,
3. Is there somewhere I can get the plumbing schematics (The manual I received with the boat is useless is this and many other areas)

[peghall]

Are the shower drains connected to a sump? If so, there may still be water in it that the PO didn't pump overboard. Have you found a switch or breaker for a sump pump?

Find a Beneteau dealer and give them a call...they don't have to be near you to just answer some questions. Alternatively look online for a Beneateau owners group.

--Peggie

[Aljo]

Thanks for the reply.

Both showers have their own pump and the drains where the water accumulates has a float that activates the pumps when water accumulates. The pump in the forward head works fine but the pump in the aft head runs but doesn't catch its prime and may need to be replaced. Could it be that the sinks in the heads drain into the shower drain?

[peghall]

That's possible, but unnecessary, at least in the US...it's legal to drain gray water (galley, bath and shower water) directly overboard here, but it may b necessary to hold gray water in some parts of Europe. If not, there should be nothing preventing you from re-routing the head sink discharge line to go directly overboard.

If one of your pumps isn't priming, that may be because the level in the sump is too low for that pump's inlet fitting. I suggested earlier that you talk with a Beneteau dealer...I'm amending that suggestion to recommend that you talk with a boatyard that services a lot of Beneteaus. They're more likely to be familiar with Beneteau plumbing problems and can tell you how to solve them.


--Peggie