Holding Tanks

[StephenW]

Anyone any idea what the rulings are about holding tanks; in the UK and also in Europe? Are they a requirement to have on a boat in say French ports?

My very basic understanding is that they are for use in Marina berth situations, presumably pump out at sea?

What about retro-fitting to older boats? Arte there problems associated with them (maintenance/bolckage?) and are these problems frequent?

All help appreciated
Stephen

 

[Guest]

Certainly not in French marinas, most Frenchmen pee over the side, can be quite disconcerting when you come up for breakfast (well at least the first time it happened). I know in Turkey they have very strict laws on pollution and I think you need them there. We (touch wood) have had no problems with ours but we are very careful to never put paper down the loo. We have a macerator and pump out. I don't think there is any problem in retro fitting, ours was fitting by the yard when we bought the boat, but you do need a bit of room for the tank.

 

[jollyjacktar]

How do you wipe?

The mind boggles, how do you wipe if you do not use paper? Toilet paper is designed to fall apart in water. Try using some wet stuff then check your fingers!

Still there are some societies that exist with out a piece of paper. The king of the Zulus in the good old days ruled his two million subjects and a standing army of 15 000 with out a single piece of paper or without being able to read or write. A truely paperless society without computers. Mind you he killed a few of his own subjects and would not let his warriors marry. Perhaps lessons for us all. Anyway I would have been very careful about shaking hands with one of them.

 

[billskip]

Re: How do you wipe?

Norma said "dont put paper down the loo" not dont use paper ..

Bill
www.aegeansailing.co.uk

 

[bryantee]

Re: How do you wipe?

next holiday in greece, get the little paper bucket with lid and the signs,multi lingual, as the Greeks know not to put paper in the toilet.but the rest of the europeans don't. failing that an old paint can and eat only with the right hand.
Actually you can get holding tank soluble paper but would'nt risk it.My lavac and holding tank(Flexible)works ok. a neat system where the pump does double duty,
with a seperate pump out line and breather(very Important)Never tried the pump out from a marina as they have'nt got round to installing them yet in this part of Greece.It would be a waste of time as everything goes untreated into the sea at present.Never Never swim in a marina in Greece.

 

[billskip]

Re: How do you wipe?

Never swim anywere near another boat in greece..but have done after too many beers... fell in poros north wall once.... now that is bad all the sewage comes from the town straight into the harbour out of the wall not even piped out a few 100 mtrs... big fish there tho....but have to go in sometimes to free anchor or clear a fouled prop.....as for holding tanks do they make one with a tank fitting around the base (dont mean port potti)

Bill
www.aegeansailing.co.uk

 

[hlb]

Dont take much notice of them. We've been throwing toilet paper down the bog for the last four years and never blocked it yet. Holding tanks are very usefull, especialy when the boat is a long way from the toilet block. They do need fitting profesionally though IMHO.

Haydn

 

[MedMan]

We fitted a holding tank before setting off for the Med four years ago via Biscay. We have got as far as Croatia and, so far, have not been anywhere where they have been obligatory. However, when in a marina for a few days or anchored in a nice bay where many are swimming it is nice to know that we are not adding to the polution. We are told that they are obligatory in Turkey but we havn't got that far yet.

On the paper front - it all depends ao what type of loo you have. We have a Lavac which uses a Henderson MarkV bilge pump with inch and a half pipes and we have an electric Mark V to empty the tank. We use normal bog-standard (sorry!) soft loo paper with no problems. If you have a loo with a poxy little hand pump you will have problems, but then you will anyway. It is the U bend out of the loo that causes problems, not pumping out the tank.

 

[StephenW]

Thanks folks-less of a problem than I thought
Cheers
Stephen

 

[billmacfarlane]

You can get special quick dissolving paper for use in holding tanks.

 

[Gordonmc]

Holding tanks can be a bind to fit in older boats, but try telling the memsahib or the 8 year old they will have to negotiate the pontoon to find the lavvy in the middle of the night!

One option if you have room is a take a porta-potti. I hate the things, but in an emergency they are more acceptable to the fragrant members of the crew than a bucket. In practice the thing really is only used in the marina at night with the sea toilet used on passage.

I won't get into the wiping debate.

 

[iangrant]

My simple holding tank is just a "stainless box" essentially an in line unit in the output pipe from the toilet. It is mounted just below deck height. There is also a vent and a deck waste cap. I close the main seacock (the "output" from the tank) in harbour and at sea, open it to empty the tank. Paper is no problem. The toilet is a standard unit.

Ian

 

[Strathglass]

Never mind the frenchmen. The women are worse. One day we were out cruising and the french wife of one of the crew requires to relieve herself. She just stripped off and set on the stainless spinaker ring on the pulpit then performed her duty, and thought nothing of it. Vive La France.
Iain

 

[Grehan]

Going Greek

Yes, we too use the Greek method - Nothing in the Loo that hasn't come from You, everything else goes in the Greek bin.

 

[HaraldS]

After reading this thread I think I should share my recent experience with our holding tanks.

Previously I hardly ever had problems with clogged toilets and that was true for the Lavacs we had, but then we had no holding tanks. All the many boats I have been sailing on in the states had holding tanks, lots of rules and restrictions. And my experience there was that the systems worked reliable, but it was sometimes quite hard to find a pump-out.

On our new boat we have two holding tanks, one for each toilet. Previously our yard (Najad) had fitted holding tanks with big manual diaphrame pumps for emptying them offshore. Just about when they did our boat, they had this great idea about leaving the pumps away and hanging the tanks under the deck, so that the bottom of the tanks was about 2 feet above the waterline. A straight 1 1/2" hose and tube with seacock, should allow them to gravity drain. Off course there is also the deck pump out fitting. The toilets are installed so that they always pump into the tank. For simplicity reasons I didn't take the electric toilets that they generally install, but chosse the proven Jabsco or Brydon Par.

That combination was one of the very few things that didn't work right on our new boat. Things have been worst when the tank was left open to drain to the sea, then the liquid stuff would quickly disappear and paper and solids pile up until the exit cloggs. It happened several times, and apparently much more likly because the manual toilets do not chop the stuff at all, the electric ones have a macerator.

When the clogging goes unnoticed and the tank fills up, the liquid stuff exits via the air vent, which is not a good way to make friends with a boat moored alongside.

We found a ingenious solution for the first season: When we wanted to drain the clogged up tanks, we would hammer one of these wooden emergency plugs into the tanks air vent, and then pressurize the tank with the toilet pump until it blows off with a big blast.

Certainly without paper we wouldn't have had the problem, on the other hand I think a ships toilet needs to digest paper, or why would you bother having one at all.

Najad saw it the same way an installed two big sealand evacuation pumps free of charge. Now it is perfect, and we are more than pleased with our yard.