holding tanks mandatory

Beginning of last season spent weeks fretting over "NEW REGULATIONS".....Then spoke to Dutch friends who also did not have holding tanks, "No problem" they say.
If you really have to "go" there are dry toilet bags available in Holland (and on-line) which will take care of the problem.....so maybe they are a bit frightening to those of a sensitive nature, but they are a darn sight cheaper than fitting holding tanks!
 
Peegee said:
If you really have to "go" there are dry toilet bags available in Holland (and on-line) which will take care of the problem.....so maybe they are a bit frightening to those of a sensitive nature, but they are a darn sight cheaper than fitting holding tanks!
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These ones Lovely name!

Marinas with over 500 berths are also supposed to have pump out facilities. I have berth 560ish in Noordschans and there is no sign of a pump out, though they did bury two new septic tanks last winter.
 
pheran said:
Standard tank? Hardly - as I said in my original post, it was 5-sided. Haven't seen any like that in the catalogues!! It had to fit into a restricted space and the only way in was by lowering it from above. To ensure I'd got the dimensions absolutely right (there was no lee-way for mistakes and only 5mm clearance in any direction), I made up a dummy tank in hardboard, ensured that fitted, marked where I wanted the connections then turned the 'model' over to the fabricators. The cost was £185 and although that was 8 years ago and prices have inevitably risen, I can't believe they've gone up to that extent, especially as my tank was 3 times the capacity of yours.


ps more accurately, it was a seven-sided tank. In my simplistic way, I always thought of it as 5 sides and 2 ends!!
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Prices quoted by Vyv are realistic. The cheapest 60 litre tank is a standard Vetus tank with no fittings cost £115. Bulkhead mounted with fittings, £270 With pump and all fittings £900. My custom made tanks cost £350 (30 litres including fittings) from Tek Tank and 60 litres, made in Corfu 450 Euros. Shape and volume actually have little effect on price - an 80 litre bulkhead tank from Vetus is only20% more than a 25 litre one!

If you DIY using either GRP foam or epoxy plywood you can of course make your own tank, but few people have the skills or inclination to undertake such a job.
 
Yep!

vyv_cox said:
If it really is applicable to Greece it is a ludicrous requirement. With almost no effort at all I can name ten Greek ports into which the town's sewage is discharged untreated. In Astakos there was so much H2S in and on the water that my white antifouling turned black.
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I flew home from Corfu via Athens a few days back. Once again the streams of effluent emanating from towns were all too obvious as we flew over the Gulfs of Corinth and Patras.

But you know, there are those who would, like on the warming planet issue, say that we Brits should "set an example" not criticise the Greeks (for poo) or the Chinese (for nasty un-protected coal-fired power stations)

Chas
 
Holding tank or porta potti- unless there are adequate pump out points it leaves you with a problem when the tank is full. I cant say I have seen any in the Rias, Azores, SW Ireland where I have been sailing the last couple of seasons. I avoid marinas if possible so the logistics of emptying the thing become a bit of an issue. However I am fully in favour of finding a solution to this. It is clearly an issue that it not going away and I dont want to add to pollution.
 
Tanks for all domestic water discharges???

Looking around the marinas attending the Paris boatshow two weeks ago, I was told that Turkey is deliberating whether the holding tank rule should be extended to all domestic water discharges from boats. It appears likely that they will require that all sink and shower discharges must be held in a suitable waste tank for pumping out later. Turkey would be on their own here for a while, I suspect but last year in France, there was quite a bit of muttering when SWMB's washing up sink contents discharged - and we try to use Ecover products on the boat.

We have black water tanks coping with sewage but having to add waste water tanks as well would significantly reduce strorage capacity on our boat (50') and might be well nigh on impossible on much smaller boats.

Hard to know the most responsible course of action, isn't it?
 
Tranona said:
Prices quoted by Vyv are realistic. The cheapest 60 litre tank is a standard Vetus tank with no fittings cost £115. Bulkhead mounted with fittings, £270 With pump and all fittings £900. My custom made tanks cost £350 (30 litres including fittings) from Tek Tank and 60 litres, made in Corfu 450 Euros. Shape and volume actually have little effect on price - an 80 litre bulkhead tank from Vetus is only20% more than a 25 litre one!

If you DIY using either GRP foam or epoxy plywood you can of course make your own tank, but few people have the skills or inclination to undertake such a job.
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My price was more than realistic - it was what I actually paid!! So why are 'your' prices so much more, I wonder, especially as in my case, we are talking about the same manufacturer albeit, eight years later. And more recently, it would seem that jamesmar bought his tank at a price that was apparently at least in the same ball-park as that I paid. Something doesn't quite add up.
 
It is my invariable custom when swimming to have a pee.

Will I be prosecuted by the authorities if I do this in Turkish waters?

Isn't all this business (:D) now becoming disproportionate? Just providing yet another opportunity for pettifogging jobsworths and holier-than-thou busybodies to start bossing other people around. In Victorian times we would have had these kinds of people preaching religion at everyone, now they are preaching environmental issues.
 
pheran said:
My price was more than realistic - it was what I actually paid!! So why are 'your' prices so much more, I wonder, especially as in my case, we are talking about the same manufacturer albeit, eight years later. And more recently, it would seem that jamesmar bought his tank at a price that was apparently at least in the same ball-park as that I paid. Something doesn't quite add up.
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May well be what you paid - but it was a long time ago! My Tek Tank price was what I paid about 5 years ago and the one I had made in Corfu, very similar to the Tek Tank, was this year. The Vetus prices are from the 2009 catalogue. I think you will find these prices representative of today's market. I don't know why yours was so "cheap" - I have a 2002 Lee Sanitation price list which shows a 55 litre standard tank with fittings at £260..

As you might guess I have done a lot of research on this subject, most recently last winter when I was planning the system in my Bavaria so think I am pretty much up to speed on both designs and prices. The figure of £350 for parts alone on a standard tank gravity system is about right (add about £150 for a custom design) and nearer £1000 for a fully pumped system.

The head scratching and swearing making it all work comes free if you DIY - expensive if you have somebody else do it!
 
Try this company

They supply tanks etc for motorhomes etc .and because they are not "Marine" the prices are realistic.
Quality is excellent
img004.jpg

They have a vast range of off the shelf tanks in all shapes & sizes
 
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We fitted a Tek-tanks standard one (60l) last year. Tek-Tanks was brilliantly helpful. The cost all in was about £600 of which only £130 was the tank itself. We fitted it ourselves, which took 3 weekends, and lots of swearing, skinned knuckles etc.

We used it in the Netherlands last summer and found reasonable pump-out facilities, although one sailor told us that the locals simply went out into the Waddensea (which is officially an inland water) to pump out.

I'm sure you can get away without a holding tank/portapottie etc, but I don't want to swim in other people's s**t and I don't want it polluting the mussels I eat, so it seems reasonable to do as I would be done by.
 
It sounds as though a 21 lt porta potti tank would take a lot longer to fill than the same size conventional holding tank as the amount of water that goes through for each flush is controlled and much less than when you pump a sea loo. Could anyone who has one give an idea how long you might expect it to take to fill with say 2 people on board? Is it practical to have spare cartridge to double up on this time? Thanks Colin
 
pheran said:
Thats more like it!!
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But, that is not a custom made welded tank, but a standard size rotationally moulded one, comparable to the Vetus one at £115.

When making comparisons you need to compare apples and apples!

If you can fit a standard size tank then go for it - but most yachts can't. Just the same as you can use a caravan tank, but don't expect it to be constructed to the same standard as a Tek Tank!

Once you have volume the price comes tumbling down. Bavaria use rotationally moulded fuel, water and waste tanks - but they are made in the thousands - not one-offs. The rotationally moulded standard 60 litre bulkhead tank from Vetus is about 35% cheaper than my similar size custom tank - at retail, 50% cheaper to the trade.

So, if you want the highest quality custom made it costs. If you can use a standard item it will be significantly cheaper. If you want a product built to a lower spec it may be cheaper still. Nothing new in that.
 
jamesmar said:
Didn't need diverter valves...it is a straight through system using the existing seacock to empty the tank.
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Can you describe how your system works, if you don't have diverter valves, and yet you can empty the tank through the existing sea-cock. Have you installed an extra pump?
 
pheran said:
Thats more like it!!
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Not sure what you are arguing about, it's easy enough to check that what Tranona and I say is correct. Look at this link and see for yourself.

Custom waste tank prices checked at random:
Rival 36 £496.28 and £449.77
Sigma 38 £272.03 (A rectangular one, so may be a standard shape)
Starlight 35 £563.73.

All prices plus VAT

As I said, they are currently building mine, for which I have paid £460
 
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