Marine toilets on the East Coast

[simonlucas]

Hello all,

Apologies for the rather unsavoury topic!

I’ve just bought a boat which I intend to keep on the East Coast - specifically the Walton Backwaters and River Stour. It is fitted with a marine toilet, but no holding tank. I was planning on installing a tank and pumping it out when I visited marinas. I’ve checked, though, and I don’t think any of our local marinas have the facilities to pump out sewage...

I’m curious, therefore - what does everyone else do?

Advice would be greatly appreciated please! Thanks.

 

[sailorman]

even those with tanks will no doubt pump-out off shore, so why add yet something else to go titsup

 

[MoodySabre]

Before I had a holding tank I would pump out the occasional pee in a marina that was not enclosed by a lock but that is all. There is a woeful lack of holding tank pump outs on the east coast - I have used the one in Brightlingsea. Otherwise I wait until a few miles offshore before emptying the tank.
If night time use is a must then a chemical loo might be the answer.

 

[pvb]

Having a holding tank is a great convenience, especially when staying in a marina. Pump-out stations on the East Coast are few and far between, so most people empty holding tanks when well away from civilisation. If you're fitting a holding tank, fit the biggest one you have room for, and try to plumb it so that you can empty the loo either directly to sea or into the holding tank.

We follow the Greek tradition of not putting toilet paper in the boat toilet, and have never had any problems with holding tanks.

 

[PeterBoater]

Royal Harwich has a pumpout but you'll have to ask them about using it as a visitor.

 

[johnalison]

I don't concern myself much about yellow waste, but a holding tank is useful if your neighbours are sitting in the cockpit as the tank stop the giveaway gurgle. Brown waste scarcely occurs since we can usually find a bush ashore to go behind, but offshore, preferably on the ebb should be OK. After all, generations of yachtsmen and fisherman have been doing it for centuries, though rather fewer of them.

 

[WF36]

Royal Harwich has a pumpout but you'll have to ask them about using it as a visitor.

Not anymore it doesn’t ?

 

[sailorman]

Not anymore it doesn’t ?

thats a bummer

 

[xyachtdave]

It’s an embarrassment you can’t pump out waste easily in the UK. I’ve an ‘empty at sea’ holding tank, when emptying it I often wonder if there was much point carrying it around before dumping it offshore.

 

[pvb]

It’s an embarrassment you can’t pump out waste easily in the UK. I’ve an ‘empty at sea’ holding tank, when emptying it I often wonder if there was much point carrying it around before dumping it offshore.

It's not markedly different from all the other mainland sewage which gets dumped at sea.

 

[xyachtdave]

It's not markedly different from all the other mainland sewage which gets dumped at sea.

But you’d like to think they at least take the lumps out before dumping it!

 

[Cantata]

Interesting.
Out of curiosity I just thumbed through ECP edition 5, and here's a list of places, from north to south, where we understood there are pumpouts during detail research in 2018 -

Lowestoft - RNSYC
Brightlingsea
Bradwell Marina - no pump-out but there is a chemical loo emptying point

On the Thames...
Gravesend Embankment Marina
South Dock Marina
Limehouse Marina
Hermitage Moorings
St.Kats

Gillingham Marina
Swale Marina - no pump-out but there is a chemical loo emptying point (not in the book but I will add it)
Ramsgate Marina (but in the Inner Harbour only)

I did look through ECP very quickly so may have missed one or two. But I'm really surprised there are so few.
If anyone knows of others, I'd be grateful for the update.

 

[pvb]

But you’d like to think they at least take the lumps out before dumping it!

They might take out paper, nappies, tampons, condoms, etc, but the poo still gets dumped at sea.

 

[stoursailor]

Watching this with interest!

 

[lincoln]

On the all tide landing at Queenborough, the shipping container has the toilet facilities for the harbour office. The waste is dumped directly into the Swale, although they do at least pass it through a macerator so you don't get a shock as your stepping off the trot boat

 

[xyachtdave]

....they do at least pass it through a macerator so you don't get a shock as your stepping off the trot boat

or step into it on the concrete hard :-/

 

[Pye_End]

They might take out paper, nappies, tampons, condoms, etc, but the poo still gets dumped at sea.

The sewage treatment process | Education | Responsibility | About us | Thames Water
The wastewater process

 

[stoursailor]

Do most people have holding tanks and offload out at sea? Or are most people just using loos and flushing out wherever they happen to be. I’m thinking particularly about estuaries.

 

[pvb]

The sewage treatment process | Education | Responsibility | About us | Thames Water
The wastewater process

Thames is filled with sewage... but half of Londoners would swim in it

Exclusive: water firms discharged raw sewage into England's rivers 200,000 times in 2019

 

[stoursailor]

Thames is filled with sewage... but half of Londoners would swim in it

Exclusive: water firms discharged raw sewage into England's rivers 200,000 times in 2019

That‘s not ideal! I guess yachts are relatively insignificant in view of this.