Galley foot pump info

[Bayou Sailor]

My new to me Cal 34 has been sitting for a few years. I have the engine (A-4) purring, bottom cleaned, brightwork done, sails and rigging upgraded, 12v and 120v panels replaced and wiring upgraded. Now, she has a water tank">fresh water tank in the v berth and a whale foot pump at the galley, along with a hand pump at the galley sink. I was going to replace the foot pump with an electric pump, but I think I will just rebuild the foot pump. My question is, why is there a foot pump and a hand pump at the galley. All of my boats either didn't have water, or electric pumps. Any suggestions/ideas would be appreciated. Thanks and Merry Christmas!!

[wholybee]

Originally Posted by Bayou Sailor

My new to me Cal 34 has been sitting for a few years. I have the engine (A-4) purring, bottom cleaned, brightwork done, sails and rigging upgraded, 12v and 120v panels replaced and wiring upgraded. Now, she has a fresh water tank in the v berth and a whale foot pump at the galley, along with a hand pump at the galley sink. I was going to replace the foot pump with an electric pump, but I think I will just rebuild the foot pump. My question is, why is there a foot pump and a hand pump at the galley. All of my boats either didn't have water, or electric pumps. Any suggestions/ideas would be appreciated. Thanks and Merry Christmas!!

I think the reasoning for both a hand pump and a foot pump, at least in my experience, is that one is fresh water and one is salt water.

Electric pumps require electricity, and will empty your tanks into the bilge if there is a leak. For both of those reasons, I turn off my electric pump during ocean crossings, as both electricity and fresh water are limited at that time. For coastal sailing and while in port, I use the electric.

[Bayou Sailor]

I guess my biggest question is, if I plump from the foot pump to the galley, will I have to pump the hand pump also? If I get the hand pump primed, do I need the foot pump? Sorry if I sound ignorant, but I am.

[wholybee]

In my galley, I have 3 taps. One is the electric pump, which is just a plain faucet like at home. Then to either side of it are smaller taps, one is connected to a foot pump(which is salt water) , the other has a hand pump(fresh water).

Do you have the foot pump connected to the same faucet as the hand pump? That would not be normal.

[Calif.Ted]

You may have to examine how the pumps are plumbed, foot pumps were installed to drain ice boxes also.

[Bayou Sailor]

Nothing is connected. That is one reason I'm confused. I do not have a seacock in close proximity to the galley, and there is only one faucet and it has the hand pump. I've never thought of having fresh and salt water available.

[Tugwit]

My boat has a pair of Whale Gusher foot pumps in the galley--one for fresh water and one for salt (which doubles to drain the icebox via a 3-way valve). There is a hand pump in the head.

I find the foot pumps much more useful--you can wash both hands at the same time, or fill a coffee pot with one hand while holding on in a seaway with the other.

In fact, at home after returning from a cruise, I find my foot unconsciously searching for a foot pump in the kitchen with both hands under the faucet stubbornly and futilely waiting for the water to flow .

The foot pumps are durable and well-made. As you note, rebuild kits are readily available, but I've only rebuilt one of the two pumps in 40 years of ownership.

[TrentePieds]

Bayou:

In the past there were good reasons to have multiple faucets. Water preservation was extremely important, and manual and foot pumps were efficacious for that reason. Pressure water didn't become common in cruising boats until about half a century ago, since suitable 12V pumps were not produced much before that.

A great number of on-board tasks could, before pollution became pervasive, be performed with saltwater, thus conserving scarce potable water. "Salt water soap" were (and is) available for these purposes. Cooking potatoes is one such task. Personal ablutions is another. Doing dishes is yet another.

Preparing a meal while underway can be rather awkward since the human body is quite deficient in arms. Much work in the galley requires two hands and when the boat rolls in the seas, it would be useful to have one or two MORE hands to hold on with :-). Thus the foot pump. It should IMO (as it did in days of yore) draw from the potable water tank.

The hand pump, back then, drew from the sea in order to supply sea water to the galley. If the boat had a separate toilet room, which back then was a big if, the basin was also usually supplied with sea water via a hand pump.

Gimballed stoves were known, but I myself have always preferred a rigidly mounted stove. In days of yore that is generally what they were in any event because stove and cabin heater were almost always one and the same. Such stoves have "fiddles" on them (rails around the edges), and these fiddles carry clamps that embrace the cooking utensils and hold them in place so they don't get thrown across the galley or the cabin as the boat rolls.

It follows that, as a matter of routine, you NEVER fill a cooking utensil more than 1/2 full, because the content will slosh around as the boat rolls. You also always cover a pot while it is in use so the contents cannot slosh out of it. We didn't have pressure cookers back then, so at times it was expedient to hold on a pot's the lid by means of a wire from handle to handle on the pot itself. Below is a most excellent example of such a stove.

You can obviously connect your sundry faucets any way you like, and any way that suits your purposes, but now you know a bit about the reasons they are there. If you have a water maker aboard, the whole think obviously becomes entirely moot.

TrentePieds

[noelex 77]

An electric pump is needed for applications such as the shower, but foot pumps are better for the galley. Swapping foot pumps for an electric pump would be a backward step in my view.

Hand pumps are easy to install, but they don’t free up both hands and are best replaced with foot pumps if this is practical.

[Cheechako]

Sometimes a hand pump is salt water. A foot pump is good because you can rinse dishes while you pump wasting less water if you have a limited water available.
I like those foot pumps in that situation.

[roverhi]

The foot pump is probably an add on by the PO. The hand pump was standard equipment with the original build of the boat. The PO probably plumbed them separately leaving the hand pump in place to hide the hole in the counter top. Repurposing it for salt water is a good idea if there is any reason to call a hand pump a good idea. Hand pumps are a total PITA. Just try washing your hands if you don't believe me.

[Scubaseas]

What everyone else said plus the foot pump is quiet. It won't run the electric pump which can be noisy to the point of waking up the off watch.

In addition to pressure water I have a fresh water foot pump and a lever hand pump for salt water. No other reason than my last two boats were set up this way. Foot pump for salt would be great if I had the room for it.

[OldGreyB]

Originally Posted by Bayou Sailor

I guess my biggest question is, if I plump from the foot pump to the galley, will I have to pump the hand pump also? If I get the hand pump primed, do I need the foot pump? Sorry if I sound ignorant, but I am.

On our boat, there is a manual 3 way valve just downstream of the foot pump suction. We can open the galley sink door, select either "seawater" or "potable water" supply to the foot pump. As the valve is just before the foot pump, it only takes 3-4 pumps for the water to change over. It is a very useful and low cost, high benefit feature that I recommend you incorporate at this stage of your build. The seawater supply can be obtained (tee joint) from any existing seawater intake source, as its a low flow user.

You could then remove potential redundant hand pump and replace with a Whale Telescopic Faucet, or similar, thus utilizing the existing hole, to provide both sea or potable water at your sink.https://www.theboatwarehouse.com.au/...scopic-faucet/

Despite now having installed a water maker, we still utilize the seawater and foot pump for rinsing all dishes.

As other posters have mentioned, foot pumps are superior over hand pumps due to ease of use. Even if you add a pressurization system to the potable water, using the foot pump during voyages makes sense, as an electrical pump can quickly deplete you potable water into the bilge if there is a leak issue and you have not heard the pump running, which I have experienced on other peoples boats.

Happy refit and we look forward to seeing you post happy sailing questions

[Scubaseas]

On our boat, there is a manual 3 way valve just downstream of the foot pump suction. We can open the galley sink door, select either "seawater" or "potable water" supply to the foot pump. As the valve is just before the foot pump, it only takes 3-4 pumps for the water to change over. It is a very useful and low cost, high benefit feature that I recommend you incorporate at this stage of your build. The seawater supply can be obtained (tee joint) from any existing seawater intake source, as its a low flow user.

Hope there are double check valves on the "potable" line. How do you keep dirty harbor water out of the system? I know a lot of boats both in and outside the US that have no holding tank. There's a lot of harbors in the US that are near sewage treatment plants that literally overflow during rain storms. There are beaches that get closed in the summer for e-coli but you want to plumb that water through a shared faucet?

[wsmurdoch]

This is a place where you might want to use a Groco 3-way valve rather than an Apollo 3-way valve. The Groco valve goes A-off-B when the handle is swung while the Apollo goes A-both-B. When the Apollo is in the middle position, flow can pass between A and B.