I have mine out now to put a new one in. Fortunately I only had to move the water manifold, that area on our boat is just used for storage at present, though this spring it will be home to a 28 gallon holding tank. I just unscrewed the manifold and hose fastenings and moved all the hoses out of the way, they are tied up out of the way now.

To get at the back of it take the cabinet below the sink out, there's only 4 screws holding it in on my boat, they're in the frame around the outside of it, they might have plugs in them on your boat which you will have to remove. Once you take that out it's easy to get at the engine coolant hoses. Then you just undo 4 screws on each end of the water heater and it should slide right out. I took mine out through the settee seat but I think it will come out the other end also.

It only took 20 minutes to get it out. No doubt replacing it will take longer, especially since I'm replacing the coolant hoses.

This must be a common maintenance item for our vintage boats....I just replaced mine last year. I gained access exactly how Bud explained and the w/h came out rather easy...have some rags on hand to catch remaining fluid in the hoses and heater.

I purchased an exact replacement model (Seaward) with w/h hoses in the rear. Buying the exact replacement was important as you don't have any extra room to spare...even a slighlty larger dimension will NOT fit. Getting it back in was more diffcult, but it all worked out.

While in this area, I tried to improve the drainage of the galley sinks, but not much success there. I am open to others suggestions.

I am also replacing this water heater but decided to go with with the Seaward
Model that has all the fluid connections on the front side. The original installation
places the coolant lines on the rear side where you cannot easily inspect them.

There is plenty of room to extend the coolant lines around the water heater and when the hoses eventually deteriorate and start to leak where the hose clamps
compress them you will see it more easily than in the factory installation.

That's very true, I was thinking a similar thing. But then I discovered that the hoses that are there are the originals from 1995 and still appear to be in excellent shape. I am changing them anyway, but it seems to me this is a small risk thing which ends up adding more hoses (carrying very hot fluids) into an area that is already pretty busy on our boat. I just decided the accessibility problem is an acceptable trade off especially since just removing 4 screws allows full access to the area.

The hoses on my '97 looked fine too, I checked them on both the engine and water heater ends. I then removed them last season to replace them. Holy Crap..! Where they ran under the galley sole they were terrible, cracked and discolored; I was really glad I was being proactive as there may have been trouble if I'd waited until I could see deterioration.

I believe this is due to one of Newton's lesser know laws, that being that things will always break somewhere where you can't see them. Hoses. Wires. Steering cables. You get the picture.

Yesterday while removing the water heater I could see the coolant lines after I had removed the four screws/cabinet drawers, but I could not easily remove the coolant lines until the water heater was slid forward to give a bit of working
room. Adding three feet to the hose length probably increases the overall
hose length by about 30 percent(my estimate since I have not yet pulled out the old hoses). Fortunately, since my boat is a 2000 mk 2 and no extras are installed in this area the extra hose is no problem. My experience is that most hose
related problems occur at the hose ends and so I was trying to make access to these areas more easy.

Jtrigg

Bud and jtrigg,
Another thing you can easily do is to cut a hole in the outboard side of the drawer assembly. This gains you access to the aft end of the W/H for inspections, tightening clamps, etc. Just takes a few minutes and does not alter the structural integrity of the drawer assembly. It also helps with the access to the foot pump, if you have one in that area.

Tom, did you notice any extra speed from the boat after removing the weight of that plywood? :)

+ 2.754 knots. That was the primary reason I did it..... ;)