How to Install a Boat Deck Shower

The deck shower offers a cool rinse at the end of a swimmer's day.

A deck shower offers you the opportunity to have swimmers rinse off with fresh water before going below decks or after leaving the water for the day. Deck-shower units include both the mounting and storage unit and the flexible shower unit. Installing a deck shower is a straightforward process, requiring only that your boat be equipped with a pressurized running-water system to serve a galley or head.

Things You'll Need

• 1/2-inch reinforced clear PVC tubing
• 1/2-inch barbed nylon T-joint
• 1/2-inch ball valve
• 2 thread/barb adapters
• Drill
• 11/64-inch drill bit
• Deck shower unit
• No. 8 fasteners
• Screwdriver
• Plastic wire ties
• Marine silicone caulk

Instructions

1. Thread the thread/barb adapters into the ends of the ball valve. Close the valve. Cut one 8-inch piece from the roll of 1/2-inch water line

2. Turn the boat's water-system pump off. Find a point in a water line, near where you want to mount the deck shower. Cut the water line at that point and insert one end of the barbed "T" joint into each of the cut ends of the line. Insert the "T" joint into one end of the clear PVC tubing.

3. Snake the PVC tubing to the planned deck-shower location. Whether you snake it through the lazarette between decks, under deck plates or through the overhead of a compartment below decks, keep it out from underfoot, so that it's not a trip hazard. Use a drill and 1/2-inch hole saw to drill through the deck where the line needs to rise to the deck shower.

4. Cut the PVC tubing at some point after the PVC tube has risen from the hole in the deck. Push the barbed adapters of the ball valve into the tube rising from the deck, and push the remaining tubing onto the barb on the remaining end of the ball valve. Use the template supplied with the deck-shower unit to mark the location of the mounting holes on the bulkhead (the wall of the cockpit area) or bulwark (the side wall of the deck) where you propose to mount the deck-shower unit.

5. Drill six mounting holes, 11/64-inch in diameter, at the locations you marked using the template, and mount the cockpit- or deck-shower unit by screwing the six No. 8 fasteners into the mounting holes with a screwdriver. Push the line from the ball valve onto the shower unit's barbed connector, coil the excess line, and secure both the excess and the line running from below deck to the shower unit with plastic wire ties. Caulk around the point where the water line penetrates the deck to rise to the deck-shower unit.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't cut off the excess shower line if you may move the shower to a different location.

• You must open the ball valve before the shower can work, but the ball valve gives positive control over the water fed to the shower.

References

• "The Modern Cruising Sailboat: A Complete Guide to Its Design, Construction, and Outfitting"; Charles Doane; 2009