I bought this for the wife and I to use on our boat:

Tags: improvements

In replacing the holding tank and installing a macerator, I came to the conclusion that it was also time to replace the toilet.  It appeared that the toilet that was there may have been the original that came on the boat from 1969.  With the condition of the hoses it would not surprise me.

Luckily toilets were on sale at West Marine, and so I was able to pick up a Jabsco for $160.  As a bonus I also picked up a stereo that was also on sail.  I had removed the old one some time ago and have been wanting to install a new one anyway.  The hole to the right was from an old phone line that someone had installed.  I took it out and have plans to fill the hole with something else.

The installation was pretty straight forward and besides taking time, it wasn’t difficult.  I also bought about eight feet of 1 1/2” hose so that I could replace that too, making this a completely new installation.  From what I read the rubber hoses will tend to “breath” after they age, and so odors can seep through – NOT a good thing in an enclosed boat.

I started by running some clean water through the system to minimize the potential mess.  I then disconnected the toilet’s exit hose from the holding tank.  I also disconnected the intake hose.  Next was unbolting the toilet, which was comprised of three large wood screws holding it down.  I carried it, with the exit hose attached, into the cockpit and carefully set it down so that any remaining water that might be in the system would not spill out.

I cleaned, sanded, and scrubbed the area where the old toilet had been.  When I finished cleaning it you could have eaten dinner off of the area, really.  The screw pattern was different for the new toilet, so I filled in the old holes and did a bit of painting to cover the sins of the past, and then was ready to mount the new toilet.

After a bit of contemplation on just where to put the toilet and how to angle it, I retrieved a marker and marked where the holes would be.  I drilled pilot holes and screwed in the wood screws to get them started.  I backed them out and then positioned the toilet and screwed it down.  I cut and connected the new hoses to the toilet and tank, cleaned up, and was done!  Well, almost done.

I also thoroughly cleaned out beneath the holding tank, bleached the area, cleaned it with bathroom cleaner, and then dried it with a blow drier for about a hour.  I then spray painted the area.

All said and done it is a decent job for someone who has never done this kind of work before.  It took a lot of reading and thought to decide where everything should be mounted and how things should be built, but it’s not bad.  A few finishing touches here and there and it’ll be good for a long time.

And then my reward for five hours of work:

Tags: Head, learning, maintenance

I decided get started on building the platform for the holding tank.  Initially I wanted to get the tank into place and make sure that all the lines would reach and that I was happy with having the tank where it is.  Now that it appears it is where it should be, time to complete the installation.

Here are some pictures:

Now I’m thinking I need to replace the toilet.  The toilet that is in there is really old – probably original.  The exit is 1 3/4 inch and the hose is really hard to find.  I could use exhaust line, but that ends up running over $10 a foot, so I wanted to make sure of my plan before investing in almost $100 of additional hose.  This is not to mention that I will soon need to rebuild this toilet anyway.

Tags: Head, maintenance

This is a repost of a gentleman that posted in SailNet.  The author, kd3pc, nailed a problem with government regulation related to dumping from boats.

Just for grins…

there are 877,000 boats owned in the 5 state watershed to the Chesapeake, according to the latest verified numbers by the USCG (2004).  DC did not show so I used 20,000 boats owned for them.
PA  350K
VA  245K
MD  210K
DC  20K
DE  52K

lets assume absolute worse case is that EVERY ONE of those boats is on the bay (Note they are not, this is ALL boats, trailerable, conoe, kayak, PWC, etc) AND that every one has a 30 gallon holding tank…..full

that turns out to be 26,310,000 gallons of poo….likely more than a few days worth for most boats, a season for some….but let’s just say

26 MILLION gallons…

Now let’s look at ONE city on the bay…certainly not picking on Baltimore, but they are consistently in the news, and seem to not be able to make headway on fixing things.  DC is no better, Anne Arundel County is as bad, YMMV.  VA neither.

Anyway…last week in Baltimore: Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Massive Sewage Spill in Baltimore
When it rains, it pours.

…Nearly 4.7 million gallons of untreated but diluted wastewater overflowed from city sewer lines during Thursday’s downpour, spilling down city streets and flooding the lower level of the Penn Station parking garage, a city public works spokesman said Monday.

Six different major sewage overflows occurred in the city, according to spokesman Kurt Kocher, with the largest dumping 4.4 million gallons into the Jones Falls in the 400 block of E. Eager St. near the Baltimore Detention Center…

The total for the day…almost 5MILLION gallons of untreated sewage, it was diluted, though….

Now back to our numbers…if you google Sewage, (Balt, Annapolis, DC, VA, etc) you will find that this is “normal”.  Now add a small factor for the “upstream plants” that simply settle the solids out ((not filter mind you)…see Gary’s description of high tech systems) and dump the rest in to the nearest stream….see Cumberland MD.

Our worst case scenario of ALL registered boats dumping their FULL tanks is but a day’s waste by a very few of the land based systems.  And when you add the fact that we stupidly spend time and money to pump, truck  and dump marina waste back in to the shore side systems for it then to be released back in to the water.

THE RECREATIONAL BOATER IS NOT TO BLAME, just an easy target.

AND before you all jump, I have NEVER pumped or dumped my tanks overboard.  Nor would I.  I have however pumped out, only to see the septic tank 100yards up the shore, overflow and gurgle effluent out, down the marina parking lot and right back in to the river I just came in….

All the best, and to the EPA and CBF….get your targets in sight and leave us alone.

Tags: government regulation, living aboard, maintenance

After spending the last two weekends cleaning and painting the bilge, I have become more intimately aware of everything down there than I ever wanted to be.  At least she is clean and dry, and the bolts are more-protected than they were.

Tags: maintenance

Working this weekend at the boat.  Will have an update soon.

Tags: preparing, repairs

There’s a very straightforward ‘process’ solution to mildew control.
1. First THOROUGHLY Clean out every dark corner and ‘undersurface’ possible in the boat.
2. Dissolve the mold/mildew with a caustic based detergent … but not on bare or oiled or varnished teak. If you use Tilex or Clorox, you will leave ‘dead cells’ and they will only be used as a nutrient for ‘other species’ of mold/mildew – OK to use clorox on painted varnished surfaces but you have to followup clean to remove the dead cells.
3. So, after a thorough CLEANING, then get some sodium silicate or other ‘highly caustic’ detergent and dilute it 1:1 with water and SPRAY but DONT WIPE it from all the ‘under and hidden’ surfaces. Let the caustic solution DRY and it will become the modern ‘equivalent’ of ‘whitewashing’ … the process that our ancestors used for 1000s of years to control mold/mildew.
Once you have mildew unless you clean out ALL the dark and hidden places where the mold is growing … and is forming SPORES !!!!!!, and THEN chemically ‘whitewash’ those under surfaces, etc. you will have the mildew, etc. under control. You have to kill the ’spore forming areas’ to prevent or retard further outbreaks. No sense in attacking ‘visible’ mildew until you Clean out and ‘whitewash’ the hidden areas and ‘undersurfaces’ where its growing.
Caution: do not spray diluted caustics on varnished, oiled, ‘finely’ painted surfaces … its going to LIFT/’bubble’ the coating; on BARE teak it will extract the tannins from the teak.
Special Caution: Never ever clean ‘dry’ mildew, always ’spritz’ it before scrubbing. Only clean/remove wetted (can be clorox to wet-out) mildew. Wear respirator …. you ‘build-up’ additive toxicity to mildew.
Dark and hidden places:
1. the VENT exit area of your water tank
2. undersides of flooring and ‘pan’ liners
3. behind cabinets and hull liners.
4. behind ceiling panels
In the special case of Ty37’s, etc.:
Under the ‘flooring’ where the batteries are located under the cockpit – unscrew the flooring to check/clean.
The bilge area under the engine
The Cavernous Locker under the cockpit
The void area in the stern behind the steering quadrant
The Anchor chain locker … under the ‘false flooring’.
Inside the Dorade boxes !!!!!
The damn seat locker in the shower stall and under the shower stall floor pan.
Behind the ‘fascia’ for the chainplates … and especially if the chainplates are ‘dribbling’ – UNDER the flooring under the settees.
Anywhere the bulwark is leaking down into the hull.
The area UNDER the fridge where the fridge drain hose exits into the bilge !!!!
‘whitewashing’ …. just thoroughly clean and spray on and let dry any ‘caustic based’ detergent … I prefer Tuff-eNuff by Wallace and Sons (Florida) -used to be carried by WM so they can probably special order it – expensive. Stuff is good for mildew/fungal removal (those teeny black spots) on woven dacron sails. Other ’sprayables’: VERY very diluted lye solution, diluted TSP solution, etc. Mildew spores will not ‘activate’ on a ‘whitewashed’ (caustic) surface.
Special: if the boat is closed up for long periods of time – get some Paraformaldehyde crystals (read instructions/cautions carefully as this stuff is not compatible with human lung tissue) hold your breath and sprinkle onto large plastic containers before you leave and close the boat … when it ‘off gasses’ it attacks mildew cells. When returning to the boat HOLD YOUR BREATH, rush inside and open up any port-lite, hatch, etc. while holding your breath until you are forced to go outside. Open all possible openings and then let the boat air-out for ~30 minutes before you go back in (holding your breath) to put any remaining ParaF crystals into plastic bags. Youll probably have to ’smuggle’ ParaF in to Kalifornia, etc. Commercial form of Paraformaldehyde: "MildewGaz", etc. — only way to kill the mildew spores during a long term closed-up boat.

Tags: maintenance

Here is a project that is not for the meek.  I decided to undertake cleaning of the bilge this past weekend.

The last two boats that we have owned have both had wet bilges.  That is not really a good thing.  First of all the continual moisture in the bilge fosters growth and smells.  That infamous “boat smell” that those of us that own boats know and do NOT love.  It is also bad for the keel bolts, as it rusts them.  All this in mind, I decided that it was time to dry the bilge and divert whatever was making it wet to begin with.  At lease divert most of what ended up there.  There will always be some water that accumulates in any bilge, but it needs to be a minimal amount and it needs to be able to dry before it builds up and starts to smell.

First order of the day was to dry out the ice box.  The ice box drains into the bilge on our boat, and so that needed to be stopped.  After that I snooped around and found no other areas that were leaking or draining there.  The shower drains directly into the bilge (bad idea), but no one would be showering until I was finished with drying things out.

I started the drying by taking a few towels and dropping them into the bilge to soak up the water, and then squeezing them out into a pail.  I did this over and over until I had soaked up several gallons of water that was standing.  I then turn on a small fan and let it blow into the bilge area until it was relatively dry.  Here are some pictures:

As you can see, rust is on the keel bolts.  It’s not really all that thick, so I can use a wire brush to take care of that.  There was a fair amount of sludge that I wiped out, too.  It really didn’t smell that bad, just musty.  I did apply bilge coat to the sides to start the process, and things immediately started to smell less musty.

When I go back to the marina for round two, I’ll make sure that all of the sludge is cleaned up and the surfaces are clean and dry, and then apply bilge coat to everything.

After all is painted, and this includes the insides of the cabinets and hanging lockers because they also empty their moisture into the bilge and are open so that the smells make their way in, things should smell less musty.  The smell has migrated into the seat cushions, so they will either have to be replaced or cleaned, and all of the towels and clothing that we leave there will have to be cleaned.

I’ll report back the process, but at the least of it all, I am becoming intimately acquainted with all aspects of our boat and will have no trouble taking care of whatever happens to her.

Tags: bilge, cleaning, maintenance

I installed a book vang on the boat this weekend.  Finally, after months of having it sit on the boat, it is now part of the boat.  Here are a few pictures:

Tags: upgrades

While inspecting our current boat before we bought her, we noted that she was not equipped with a holding tank.  Because some of her previous adventures were extended sailing across the Pacific, it made sense that this would work.  We, starting out as coastal sailors, would need one.

After some planning on how the holding tank should be plumed I opted for a simpler design where the toilet would dump into the tank, and then the tank could be pumped out into the ocean once we were the required distance from shore.  I also wanted to install a macerator to aid in the pump out.

Although I wanted the largest tank possible, I also wanted to keep as much storage space on the boat as possible.  After looking into all the nooks and crannies where the tank could go, I decided to mount her under the sink in the head.  This was a space that could not be used and it would also contain any possible smells in one area – namely the head.  I found that a six-gallon tank wedge tightly into the space I chose.

As it turned out the Jabsco macerator could either have a hose running from the tank to it, or screw directly into the tank.  To keep the number of fittings to a minimum, screwing the macerator directly into the tank seemed like the logical choice.  My other issues were that I needed to adapt the existing 1 3/4” hose from the toilet to the 1 1/2” hose going into the tank, and then adapt back to the 1 3/4” hose to exit the boat.  That was not too difficult.

In testing the installation with clean water, I noted that the plug in the lower corner tank that would have been used as a vent if I had mounted the tank another way, was leaking.  I drained the tank, put good glue around the plug and reinstalled it.  After that all seemed to work well.  Not a big deal, but it was something that no one seemed to address in any of the postings that I have read. 

All I have left is to run some decent wire from the fuse box to the macerator and wire a button to activate it.  In testing the macerator I did notice that it seems to make a noise that I will keep an eye on.  A kind of rumbling noise.