Welcome Aboard!

These pages will cover the restoration and upgrades I have done to a 1979 Choate 40.
I acquired the vessel in poor condition at a reasonable price and so far have put twice that amount into her.
From the evidence I have found, she had been de-masted, run aground several times, slightly flooded, run hard and put away wet.
Fortunately, she had new standing rig with a used mast from a Catalina 40 and a recent head job on the motor.
The rest of the info I'll segregate into pages for detailed information.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Head/Shower & Hanging Closet

This turned out to be a real challenge! To start with there was only 5'8" of head room with the present decking. So to add a drain and keep as much head room as possible I went with a preformed shower base with an electronic drain/pump assembly.

This is the hanging locker side...................


The hull was only 4"below the old decking and the old thruhull was sealed off. The hoses on the right goto the overboard discharge valve under the settee next to where the old holding tank was.

 I purchased a preformed shower base and cut and ground many times to get it to fit in real nice and level


 The ancient knot meter wasn't working and had been cut off years ago. So it was pulled and a plug put in. Some day I may reuse the old thru hole, if I can find a transducer that will fit. In the mean time I place in a board and deck fitting to access it easily.

 A pre assembly to get measurements........

 Looking forward with the head on the right. The deck and large cover has been epoxy/glassed over.

Now for an enclosure.A view fwd.

A view aft................................

 Placement of a sink and the 3-way valve

 Skipping ahead here a bit. This took a lot of engineering to figure out, what to put in and the angles involved.


 I used the left over counter top material from the galley to go under the sink.

 Adding a storage cabinet above the sink and temporary assembly.



 Another problem I had was the wire from the fish finder thru the bulkhead and around the shower base. If this were all sealed up and I tried to pull the wire through for a replacement it would have hung up under the shower base. So I epoxied in a track for the wire to guide around the base.

Now going back to the plumbing, this is where the water comes in and goes out. The yellow pump is for the electronic drains. The black pump is for fresh water to the shower and sink.

 I T'd into the down side of the overboard discharge hose for the shower and sink drains.

 The electronic drain is T'ed together at the lowest point for the shower & sink drains. The hose coming thru the bulkhead is the raw water supply for the toilet. The wood blocks are supports for the shower base.

Here I'm starting the final assembly. Glued down the shower base and sealed up around the edges with marine sealer.

I've covered up the hoses with this removable box panel, which also supports the shower head. I put a weight and roller assembly on the hose to help in retraction of the shower hose back into the box.

Starting the white paneling work and added a shelf above the sink. Later will cut hole in for sliding doors.


A view looking forward with the hanging locker on the port (left) side

Views looking into the hanging locker looking fwd.


Cut out for sliding doors and added an extra shelf.


Added edge moldings............

Matching trim moldings at multiple angles is a bitch.


Added water tight access doors.

And here it is to date. I still need to add the sliding doors in the cabinet, lacquer the trim, add more trim and install sliding doors on the head and hanging locker. But it was functional for this summers cruise.















2 comments:

  1. Is that a filter on the raw water intake on the head? Good thinking

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, its a screened intake. You wouldn't believe all the critters and sea grass I've caught in that. Dead sea life rotting in the hoses is what causes heads to stink.

      I have a fitting up forward that I use to flush out sea water in the system when the boat is sitting for more then a few days.

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