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As part of the extensive rebuild of the Far Reach I installed a Fynsprsy WS62 brass galley pump in 2014. I chose it because it had a good reputation for reliability, it had no plastic, and it looked great, especially in the traditional interior I designed and installed in the boat. While it is an expensive pump I managed to get it on a 50 percent sale from a vendor in Canada. I really like the timeless classic vintage look.
I had removed the ubiquitous Whale Gusher MkIII galley faucet foot pump when I gutted the boat and tossed it in a box of parts I decided to keep.
Then Fynspray does not pump a high volume of water which is surprising given its size and the sweeping travel arc of the long pump handle. And, while there are advantages of a foot pump over a hand pump I generally liked the Fynspray and I was used to it. However, I have had trouble with it over the years achieving a prime when it sat unused for any length of time—as in more than a couple weeks. On its best day it does not generate a lot of suction while on its worst day there is no prime. My pump came with the new nitrile rubber plunger a supposed long lived upgrade to the leather cup which can dry out causing the pump to lose prime. The thing is, you could always take the leather cup out of the pump and soak it in water. It would become supple again and you would be good to go.
However, what I have experienced with the nitrile cup is that over time it seems to shrink. And when it does, there does not appear to be anything you can do. The nitrile cup is also fairly rigid. It's kinda hard and more rigid than supple.
The inside diameter of the pump barrel is 1.5" exactly. I have replaced the nitril cups twice at a cost of about $30 each time. Both have shrunk about 1/16" less in outside diameter than the barrel ID. In other words the nitrile cup eventually no longer maintains contact with the inside surface of the barrel and thus cannot generate a vacuum suction. The cup is not supple enough to flex and expand on the upstroke to create suction. No suction: no water. In the past I have taken the pump apart and coated the cup and barrel with silicon grease. It usually worked...for awhile...lather, rinse, repeat.
Over the last five years I have sent White Start Products of New Zealand (the maker of the pump) four emails asking for insights on the pump as well as requesting a part number for a WS60 pump I use for sink in the head compartment. I have never received a reply. Not one. It's disrespectful for a company not to reply to customers. Even if they could not help me, just a reply would go a long way. It says a lot about the company's attitude towards its customers when they don't reply to inquiries.
As I prepared the boat for launching this fall I once again found the pump unable to draw water. I took it apart. I greased it and reinstalled it. It would not pull water. I checked the integrity of the hoses and the connection to be sure I did not have a leak in the system. I took the intake hose off the pump and sucked on the hose and immediately got a mouth-full of water. I emailed the company. A week later and still no reply. I had had enough.
I removed the pump from the countertop and took it home, disassembled it, and looked it over. I happened to still have the Whale Gusher MKIII Galley Foot Pump that came with the boat. I have owned the Far Reach for 24 years. As mentioned, the whale Gusher is probably 40 years old. It's so old the main body housing is blue instead of white like all the others I have seen. So far as I know it's never been rebuilt. I took it out of the junk box in the shop. It was covered with dust and grime. I blew off the dust with compressed air. I hooked the whale gusher up to a hose and stuck the hose into a pail of water. I stepped on the foot pump and it immediately pumped water at hight volume without a bit of fuss.
I decided it was time to rethink the galley pump system. Because I have a toe kick under the galley sink cabinet I was faced with a design challenge. The toe-kick does not support the installation of a foot pump (the top of the toe kick covers the foot lever). I would have to modify the toe-kick. I made some drawings. Seemed doable.
Next, I removed all the guts of the fynsprsy pump to include the plunger and handle. I used a hole saw to cut a 1" diameter disk from a 1/8" thick pice of copper I had in box of metal offcuts. I cut a similar size gasket from a piece of 1/8" thick rubber. I installed these two pieces in place of the plunger assembly and screwed the cap down. I then connected the Whale Gusher outflow hose to the Fynsprsy intake. I stepped on the foot pump and water gushed out of the Fynspray faucet.
The Fynspray WS 62 is a single action pump (it moves water only on the up stroke ) while the Whale Gusher is double action and is moving water on both the upstroke and downstroke. It was clear to me this was the path forward. Along with the advantage of freeing up my hands while drawing water I had the aesthetic benefit of a good looking substantial brass faucet combined with the power of the Whale Gusher.
The modifications to the toe kick were not complicated but required some thoughtful detailed work. To accomplish it I removed the galley sink cabinet from the Far Reach. Because I designed and built the interior of the Far Reach to be removable this only took about 30 minutes. I took the cabinet home and assembled it in my shop so I had better access to it.
Looking at where the pump needed to go (I wanted to preserve as much of the toe kick as possible) i decided I need to install the Whale Gusher on the left side of the cabinet when I was facing forward. It was therefore apparent it would be advantageous to have a left hand pump. What that means is instead of the water intake and exhaust ports being on the right side of the pump, they would be on the left side. My pump was a right hand pump. I looked at the pump carefully and it occurred to me it was probably reversible. With a philips-head screwdriver I removed the front and rear covers along with the foot lever and reversed them and reassembled the pump. I retested the pump in a bucket of water. It worked perfectly.
I careful positioned the pump where I thought it would work best and took measurements. I made a few pencil marks and laid down some tape to mark where the pump would need to be positioned. I removed the toe kick and shortened it by cutting off about 7" on the chop saw. Next, I milled some scrap African mahogany and made an L shaped modification with a slot for the foot pump lever. I cut a half lap joint and glued it up using Tite-Bond III.
After the glue dried I test fit the parts. It fit nicely and looked good. Satisfied I sanded it and applied a base coat of varnish thinned 50/50 with mineral spirits to serve as a sealer coat for follow-on coats of varnish.
Next, I decided to add a bare teak trim ring under the faucet base to raise the faucet about 1/2" and provide a wood contrast to the counter top. The bare teak also matched the bare teak trim around the edge of the sink.
When it stops raining (ugh) I will reinstall the sink cabinet in the boat and make a template for the modified portion of the toe-kick to incorporate the upward slope of the hull and then trim the new part to fit. Six coats of varnish to the toe-kick mod will complete the job.
(This posted was edited for grammar because I typed it on my phone
).