Daft question about showers on yachts

[TonyMS]

The following is a solution for the Med. Our shower comprises a brown 12l container with a wide top epening, sold for brewing wine, a 12v bilge pump on the end of some rubber tube, with a showerhead on the end. We shower in the cockpit. At fitting out time I spray the container black, so that it heats up reasonably quickly. By midsummer, the paint has come off, but the water is often too hot anyway. To keep water consumption down, I have blocked the spray holes using a soldering iron on the plastic, and drilled new ones using a 0.3 to 0.5 drill bit in a Dremel.

The set up needs cleaning every 2 or 3 weeks,

 

[Boathook]

I'm not a liveaboard but on holiday use this https://www.hozelock.com/product/portashower/ in the cockpit. I did have a proper shower in the heads but it was a pain trying to keep everything dry and in reality the heads was to small so the shower went. I was away for 4 weeks this summer and mostly anchored so it got well used apart from the 2 nights in a marina.

 

[Heckler]

Sure I know the true seadog uses a bucket and rinses off, but maybe in a Marina in the North of England it isn't so great. Most boats in my budget don't have showers. I don't mind - I'm used to bucket showers! So my question is, I can I just use a bucket in the head - does the water go into the Bilge and can then be pumped out? Or are the heads in yachts usually 'wet' rooms anyway?

Thanks

On both my Benes there is/was a shower/toilet pod made of figlass. Completely self contained. Two on my present boat. There is a calorifier both engine heated and immersion heated. Lashings of hot water. I shower every night where ever we are berthed. I dont consider grey water to be a pollutant. There is a pump connected to the base of the pod. So we shower on board, every AWB I have been on is set up this way. By the way, a squirt of hot water first from the shower head on the pull out tap hose, a dessert spoon of foo foo juice, aka body wash, to get a lather, then rinse off. Less than a 5 litres of water used. We hold 100 gallons of water in two tanks. At anchor here in Portugal we have some 5 gallon bidons that we take ashire whenever we go and tip them jn to the tanks if necessary. We have never run short.

 

[RupertW]

On both my Benes there is/was a shower/toilet pod made of figlass. Completely self contained. Two on my present boat. There is a calorifier both engine heated and immersion heated. Lashings of hot water. I shower every night where ever we are berthed. I dont consider grey water to be a pollutant. There is a pump connected to the base of the pod. So we shower on board, every AWB I have been on is set up this way. By the way, a squirt of hot water first from the shower head on the pull out tap hose, a dessert spoon of foo foo juice, aka body wash, to get a lather, then rinse off. Less than a 5 litres of water used. We hold 100 gallons of water in two tanks. At anchor here in Portugal we have some 5 gallon bidons that we take ashire whenever we go and tip them jn to the tanks if necessary. We have never run short.

At last -
I thought I was alone in actually using the facilities that take up valuable space. In a marina tonight and so showered on board before going out. Why I’ve never thought of trotting down the street to a communal bathroom or pouring water from a bin bag in the porch escapes me.

 

[PilotWolf]

On the boat I ran in the U.K. my shower had a sump with an auto pump to empty it. The hot water was shared with the Mate's cabin however so if alongside and not doing watches being the first up was the key to a hot shower! We could divert hot water from the other cabins but the engineer never would, I think out of spite to most of the Mates not getting out of bed promptly.

When boating I have had 2 wonderful showers. One was after a traumatic delivery to Brighton, those showers were wonderfully hot and powerful. The second was after getting pretty much drowned on a RIB off of Norfolk, I spent probably 30 minutes in the B&B shower.

Whilst living part time in a caravan it was accepted to use the communal showers, I had a wet room but it was just easier to walk 50 yards. Never used the communal heads though - I still try to only do #2 at home despite here most places provide a disposable seat cover. Sorry if too much information!

The traumatic delivery boat had a bath installed during the refit, it was primarily a live aboard in a marina so probably not an issue but not sure how. a tub would work on a smaller boat at sea.

I would seriously try to avoid draining into the bilges though as even the best pumps will never get it completely dry just because of their pick up limits. If you feel you can't do it yourself, and basic GRP mounding is pretty easy - I know because I can do it!, it wouldn't be that expensive to get a sump made.

Not sure what the UK regulations are regarding grey water these days?

W.

 

[KellysEye]

We had a shower and also a shower bag we used on deck: https://www.amazon.co.uk/RISEPRO-ga...ocphy=9045781&hvtargid=pla-428818703224&psc=1

 

[Graham376]

On the mooring, we normally dinghy ashore to yard or club for shower. When out and about, use on board shower if engine has been running or camping shower when anchored.

 

[maby]

Our boat has a dedicated shower cubicle with an automatic pump to extract water. We spend most of our time in marinas (semi-liveaboard) and I tend to use the on-board shower in preference to the marina facilities which are rather a long way away for cold weather.

 

[One A.]

Our boat has a dedicated shower cubicle with an automatic pump to extract water. We spend most of our time in marinas (semi-liveaboard) and I tend to use the on-board shower in preference to the marina facilities which are rather a long way away for cold weather.

We had the same set up, vastly improved by a Webasto outlet.

 

[Mataji]

I knew a guy who kept a boat on one of the large African lakes. Often he couldn’t take a swim due to the presence of hippos. He would close the cockpit drains, fill the cockpit and have a bath.

 

[doug748]

Sure I know the true seadog uses a bucket and rinses off, but maybe in a Marina in the North of England it isn't so great. Most boats in my budget don't have showers. I don't mind - I'm used to bucket showers! So my question is, I can I just use a bucket in the head - does the water go into the Bilge and can then be pumped out? Or are the heads in yachts usually 'wet' rooms anyway?

Thanks

The sorts of boat you are looking at you won't want to consider a shower even if some optimist fitted one.

Takes far too much water, you may have as little as 10 galls in the tank. Your bucket and flannel might only use a few pints.
There will hardly be enough room for a dwarf - even 40ft boats are pokey in this respect
You will be too cold.
As said, any dodgy water in the bilge will stink
Plus, the last thing you need is any excess water below decks

When you reach the sunny south, showering on deck becomes the thing and the black shower bags mentioned are good.

 

[Bilgediver]

It is best not to allow showers to drain into the bilge but to a drain sump fitted with an auto overboard discharge pump. It is easier to keep the wee sump clean than the the whole bilge and regardless of whether you pee in the shower or not the dirty water can create an unpleasant smell in the bilges .

 

[Graham_Wright]

I have a photo of SWMBO bathing in the anchor locker but she won't let me post it:ambivalence:

 

[PilotWolf]

I have a photo of SWMBO bathing in the anchor locker but she won't let me post it:ambivalence:

I'm sure it's illegal to tease like that!

W.

 

[temptress]

At last -
I thought I was alone in actually using the facilities that take up valuable space. In a marina tonight and so showered on board before going out. Why I’ve never thought of trotting down the street to a communal bathroom or pouring water from a bin bag in the porch escapes me.

We live onboard. We always shower onboard. We detest communal showers. Our own is always Clean.

Condensation has never been an issue. Summers and winters in the UK,Norway and the tropics.
Ventilation is the key. Especially when you have to dry our. Laundry inside because it been raining for a. Week.

 

[RupertW]

We live onboard. We always shower onboard. We detest communal showers. Our own is always Clean.

Condensation has never been an issue. Summers and winters in the UK,Norway and the tropics.
Ventilation is the key. Especially when you have to dry our. Laundry inside because it been raining for a. Week.

We find a dehumidifier fantastic even if only once or twice a year when it’s been raining hard but we need to cook, shower and dry clothes indoors.

 

[geem]

We live onboard. We always shower onboard. We detest communal showers. Our own is always Clean.

Condensation has never been an issue. Summers and winters in the UK,Norway and the tropics.
Ventilation is the key. Especially when you have to dry our. Laundry inside because it been raining for a. Week.

It very rarely comes up as an option for us. We we don't like marinas so we don't use them if anchoring is a viable option.
We love being at anchor. Since we only sail in a hot climate then showering in the cockpit with our black hot watering can hoisted up the mizzen mast saves getting the shower dirty. We use the waste water from the watermaker ( the first bit that hasn't quite got low enough tds to put in the tank but is still fresh. The watering can has a length of hose and a proper shower head. Its as powerful as our proper shower in the heads and we get two good showers from about 12litres of water.
The cockpit floor gets a rinse so whats not to like about it. We also shower below when we need to. We dont like shower bags as they have stupid little pipes and rubbish shower heads. They fall apart quickly and are a pain to fill.

 

[rotrax]

The beauty of our last two boats is that the designer built them for a mature cruising couple.

Hence large heads/shower with auto pump out, including a convenient shower seat which can be filled with lead ballast should a genset be fitted.

Our shower seats have been where the washing machine lives - a simple twin tub from Amazon for under £100.00.

We run the genny for an hour every morning when without shore power to give the batteries a kick and heat the water for showers.

We have good water capacity and can just go a week showering daily, but use shoreside facilities when available.

On our boats, condensation from showers and laundry has not been a problem, but we are aboard in the UK from mid May to the end of September. So, usually not too cold.

Works for us!

 

[dgadee]

The beauty of our last two boats is that the designer built them for a mature cruising couple.

Hence large heads/shower with auto pump out, including a convenient shower seat which can be filled with lead ballast should a genset be fitted.

Our shower seats have been where the washing machine lives - a simple twin tub from Amazon for under £100.00.

We run the genny for an hour every morning when without shore power to give the batteries a kick and heat the water for showers.

We have good water capacity and can just go a week showering daily, but use shoreside facilities when available.

On our boats, condensation from showers and laundry has not been a problem, but we are aboard in the UK from mid May to the end of September. So, usually not too cold.

Works for us!

Don't understand the shower seat bit. Lead?

 

[rotrax]

Don't understand the shower seat bit. Lead?

Yes - a concious design point.

If a generator is fitted, weighing about 220KGS, the seat can be unscrewed from the shower seat and lead ballast inserted to level the vessel.

Heads/shower is on the Starboard side, generator would be fitted on the Port side.

Hence the heavily built and strong shower seat which can take up to 500lbs of lead ingots to balance the trim.

Standard for the larger Island Packets.