About this site

Piers and Lin du Pré bought their new Fleming 55 / 129, Play d'eau, in 2003.

She was berthed in Beaucette Marina, Guernsey in the Channel Islands at N49° 30’.197 W002° 30’.350 until she was sold in October 2021.

This site charts the thrilling adventures they had in her.

You can contact us here.

Where’s Play d’eau?

If the new owners have the AIS on, you can find where Play d'eau is right now.

Click here.

Zoom in and our position will be shown on a map.

Recent Posts

No water pressure

I removed the water filter which
looked reasonably clear to me
click to enlarge

For some time, Play d’eau’s domestic water pressure had been reducing. And now there were times when the taps ran dry before slowly starting to run again.

Not very helpful when you’re in the middle of washing your hair.

Where oh where?

Drawing on my long forgotten schoolboy ‘A level’ Physics, I assembled the facts.

The water tanks were full; the Headhunter X-Caliber pump was set to its maximum power (500 watts); the cut-in pressure was at its highest setting; all isolation valves were open; and the water strainer was clear.

Watching the accumulator pressure gauge, it would rise when the pump ran, only to fall slowly when the pump stopped. Hmmm.

Analysis

Being quick and feeling proud of myself I came to the conclusion there had to be a leak. Yet finding no evidence I went back to the drawing board.

Then it dawned on me. There had to be a non-return valve to prevent pressurised water being forced back to the water tanks. This valve had to be faulty.

I found it. It was called a ‘check-valve’ and mounted on the inlet to the Headhunter. I felt so proud of myself – again.

I changed it with my spare and fired up the pump, full of excitement.

Un-manly

…but the filter was the culprit
click to enlarge

No change. Same problem. My high expectations of success were dashed. I thought I’d been a genius. I hadn’t. I went and stood in the corner.

Being un-manly, I started to read the instruction book. The troubleshooting guide advised to change the check-valve. Really helpful.

I emailed the manufacturer.

Pressure tune-up

By return I received a ‘Pressure Tune-up’ guide. Stage 1 was to check any in-line filter. Apparently a blocked filter would exhibit the exact symptoms we were experiencing.

Now why didn’t I think of that? I’d checked the strainer but not the filter. Although it looked reasonably clean to me, I changed it.

Success.

Back to the man-cave

So how much time had I wasted? How much easier would it have been if I’d contacted the manufacturer in the first place? Don’t ask. Don’t even think it.

Back to my man-cave to hide and consider my future as ship’s engineer.

Piers
from the man-cave of
play d’eau

You can get in touch with us any time by using our Contact Form.

7 comments to No water pressure

  • Hil

    I love it! So pleased it’s working now-so simple ,yet so complicated.

    Lots of love, Hil.

  • Marco

    Know the feeling . . . . . .

  • Woolly Mammoth

    We change our fresh water filters every year. Always have. Glad you found it Piers, extra large G & T tonight. Talk soon.

    • Hi Graham, Interestingly, we changed the filter on 28 Dec last year, so the thought it would have clogged in 3 months never occurred to me. Must be the water here in Guernsey….

      So, rather than set a mandatory interval for change, I think I’ll just stay aware of the problem and be ready with a spare.

      Off to build a ‘friendly’ G&T.

  • You can fly to the North Pole now Piers but it is a much greater achievement to do it the hard way.

    Ditto fault fixing. Manuals are cheating, men have to prove they can still be men.

    The only mistake you made was you did cheat in the end. You never wasted a further 40 hours on figuring it out, which would have marked you as a truly outstanding man. I constantly feel the need to reaffirm the wonderful attributes of our gender (well at least in a ignore-the-manual kind of way).

    All of this does of course make you wonder how men ever became pilots in the age of flying by numbers and manuals?

    To serve penance I suggest you gather all the manuals you can find and quietly sneak off to a quiet corner of Guernsey to hold a ritual bonfire,,,

  • Geoff S

    Sometimes the simplest things can defeat us all, chalk it up to experience and move on.

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