When I first started building the yacht - I established some rules which I often stated - and always tried to follow.
Things like - never make anything sharp that you can cut yourself on - idiot.
AND - electricity goes HIGH - and
plumbing goes LOW.
So that unbeknowns to me - when the world turned to sh... and I had to cut the entire yacht in half - this basic
rule of boatbuilding proved a blessing.
All the
plumbing, pipes, and hoses, and there's a fair bit - throughout the entire yacht were BELOW the level of the cut - all except for the
Shower Head pipe - that was mounted in a linen cupboard.
But here's the thing - I'm 6'4" - and most showers are set too low for me - and EVERYTHING on this yacht is made to fit ME. So - I had cut the copper
shower line - when I was fitting it originally - so that I could mount the taps at the usual height - and the
Head higher - well above me. And I had just put a section of
Heater Hose in as a joiner with double hose clamps each end.
It all worked fine - and there's never been any problem. And when it now came to having to cut the yacht and disconnect the normal plumbing - all I had to do was - undo this one section of flexible hose - in the entire yacht.
You've got to have an occasional win.
When the decision to cut the yacht in half was forced on me - a great deal of the
interior work had been done - particularly anything that involved 'structural' fittings - like walls that were bookshelves and cabinets - and a bathroom & shower that backed on to a bedroom & Linen closets - etc.
Things like the
Electrical System - Master Control
Panels were all built in to finished quality - and the Shower in question - was fully tiled - and built in with Cedar walls and door - to look really nice - and was being used. I had also put in some attractive 'feature' embossed tiles.
A whole section of this shower area - had to be chipped and broken out - including the large feature tile - for the area to be cut in half. When it was cut - one side was a ferrocement wall (tiled) - 2 other sides were tiles over ply walls - and the other was a perspex and cedar wall - so you can imagine the problems cutting right around in there.
But when it was done - as I've said before - I still needed to live there - and in fact to use the shower daily - so I made a really nice feature piece of timber - rebated to fit IN the 'tileless' sections - and such that it overlapped the other existing tiles - it was held in place from behind only by a few screws and it was sealed in with silicone. It made the shower again completely watertight - and looked good - and was easily removed in the end for lifting off of the top.
It hasn't yet been put back up - and the shower is in a makeshift state - at present - until the job moves to the top of the list.
Rodney