Help needed! Aiming to liveaboard in Southdown marina - what do I do with my holding tank?

[BoatKate]

Hi everybody!

My husband and I are looking to liveaboard in the Southwest and are complete novices (unless you count dinghy sailing as a teenager). I'm a bit confused about the holding tank! It looks like there are only two marinas in the Plymouth/Torpoint area which have pump out services and they are both a bit bigger and more expensive than we'd like.

Do people use a leesan type self pump out system? Or are they all just go ashore?

Any advice welcome! Would love to hear from anyone with experience of Southdown marina.

 

[Lucy52]

RYA Wast Management:
Waste Management | Environmental Advice | Knowledge & Advice | RYA - Royal Yachting Association

So, you can go three miles offshore when you need to empty the tank, or you invest in a cassette toilet and empty it on shore in the facility provided or in lavatory. Some buy composting toilets, and yet others pump out on a falling tide or go out for less than three miles and do the same.

 

[nortada]

Hi,

Welcome back to sailing and we’ll come to the forum.

From experience, when ever possible folk use the facilities on shore but you can be caught short.

If there is no pump out facilities, which is often the case, a short sail is the only remaining alternative.

Best of luck with your new adventure.

N

 

[jordanbasset]

Hi everybody!

My husband and I are looking to liveaboard in the Southwest and are complete novices (unless you count dinghy sailing as a teenager). I'm a bit confused about the holding tank! It looks like there are only two marinas in the Plymouth/Torpoint area which have pump out services and they are both a bit bigger and more expensive than we'd like.

Do people use a leesan type self pump out system? Or are they all just go ashore?

Any advice welcome! Would love to hear from anyone with experience of Southdown marina.

Not sure if you have a boat and if it has a holding tank, but from my experience in practise most people use the facilities ashore for when they want to do a proper job. They empty the holding tank if it just contains urine
Not sure of the legality of that, but it is what a lot of people do.

 

[Yngmar]

You don't ? on the boat as a stationary liveaboard, you just walk to the marina toilets. Yes, when it's raining and storming too. You can wear your raincoat and wellies. Technically you're not allowed to discharge pee either, but in reality it's fairly harmless and just about everyone does it. Your holding tank does not get involved and is best kept empty (or reserved for absolute emergencies, like when you're too sick to make it to the facilities).

Some dirty ? ? also discharge their ? in marinas, which is politely referred to as "silting" and removed with a dredger every now and then. Few will admit doing so though, as it's illegal and frowned upon, but if you see a patch of brown slime trapped in a corner of your marina, you know what's going on.

 

[V1701]

It might be that there is a diverter valve that in position 1 pumps the contents of the loo directly overboard and in position 2 pumps it into the holding tank. If that's the case then set it to pump directly overboard and as others have said it's generally accepted that you can pee on the boat (or rather pee into the toilet on the boat!) but use the marina facilities for number 2. I used to have a fancy electric fresh water flushing loo on mine, it used electricity from the batteries and fresh water from the water tanks and all went into a 200lL holding tank with no option to pump overboard directly from the loo itself. It was to me a nightmare of a set up so I removed the lot and now have a separator loo where the 1 & 2 are (you guessed it) kept separate. There's a 10L urine jar that I empty once a week or so, it's very rarely used for number 2 but that just goes into a container lined with a biodegradable bin liner and would go in the normal trash. I made mine from a kit by a Swedish company called Separett (how come the Swedish have so many good ideas?) but they make whole separator loos as well. Having dismantled, descaled, serviced and cleaned numerous marine loos I love it for it's utter simplicity, there's nothing whatsoever to go wrong and you can use your loo in the marina with impunity...

UK seller of Separett & other options click here (I have no affiliation/WHY with them)

 

[BoatKate]

Thanks everyone! I had heard about people pumping out into the marina, sounds pretty horrible. The boat we are currently looking at seems to have a large holding tank but it looks like the grey water runs into it too, we'd have to pump out every few days at that rate which would mean a trip to a different marina or out to sea. The director valve idea sounds like it could work though! I will look up the other toilet options and see what else might work for us.

 

[nortada]

Thanks everyone! I had heard about people pumping out into the marina, sounds pretty horrible. The boat we are currently looking at seems to have a large holding tank but it looks like the grey water runs into it too, we'd have to pump out every few days at that rate which would mean a trip to a different marina or out to sea. The director valve idea sounds like it could work though! I will look up the other toilet options and see what else might work for us.

Reckon you have already been given the answer.

A sea toilet is for use at sea not in a harbour or marina. This is why many places do not have pump out facilities and I would venture that the majority of older vessels do not boast a holding tank.

I am not sure even if even now it is a requirement that all new build vessels have a holding tank, which could be very difficult to fit in smaller hulls

 

[ryanroberts]

I have a tiny 40L black tank which is enough for a few days and satisfies any regulations hopefully

 

[BoatKate]

So interestingly, she does have a divertor valve, however the whole plumbing system needs a service and the joinery for some reason has blocked in all the pipework so we can't access it. We are basically looking for the least smelly option overall, and using the shore facilities seems to be the option with the holding tank as a back up.

 

[BoatKate]

Also, I've got to say, being able to access this forum is great! Nothing like real life experience to help us out - thank you very much.

 

[nortada]

So interestingly, she does have a divertor valve, however the whole plumbing system needs a service and the joinery for some reason has blocked in all the pipework so we can't access it. We are basically looking for the least smelly option overall, and using the shore facilities seems to be the option with the holding tank as a back up.

Wish you well. Boat heads are a black art?