Hot water at anchor?

https://www.kiwicamping.co.nz/product/12v-electric-shower

I use one of these and a 15 litre bucket. Boil a full kettle and add to the bucket then top up with cold water until desired temp is reached.
One must be a bit frugal, but plenty of time to wash and rinse ones hair and body.
I took one on flotilla holiday and my wife and i each had a shower every day that was better than that available from the built in system.
On my own boat, I don't have the headroom for a shower sump pump so i use the shower in the self draining cockpit.
As such its not ideal, but you cant beat a fresh water shower to wash out the salt and sunscreen.
 
John the kiwi said:
https://www.kiwicamping.co.nz/product/12v-electric-shower

I use one of these and a 15 litre bucket. Boil a full kettle and add to the bucket then top up with cold water until desired temp is reached.
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This is a great solution.

It provides a wonderful shower that is just the right temperature.

The water can be heated using a kettle (gas or electric), solar, diesel, or any combination of these sources, so there is plenty of redundancy.

You can even install a more permanent and durable system using a normal marine freshwater pump.
 
I recall in an episode of QI, the hilarity about UK guesthouses in rural spots still sometimes showing a sign reading "Hot and cold running water". As if that were a boast, not a very basic standard. And running water, not just in a jug. :biggrin-new:

Given that hot water certainly can be made available through a tap or shower-head even on a tiny boat, why is there so much horrible sweaty conceit about resisting the small task of equipping the boat thus?

I found this on the Contessa 32 class association webpage...

"There may be no shower or hot water on a Contessa, but hey, you're amongst friends or family."

...unlike all you folk, who load your yachts with strangers, and object to the reek of a fo'csle full of unwashed shipmates. :rolleyes:
I doubt anything else could have been so briefly said about the Contessa, to make it sound as unappealing in the 21st century.
 
dancrane said:
I recall in an episode of QI, the hilarity about UK guesthouses in rural spots still sometimes showing a sign reading "Hot and cold running water". As if that were a boast, not a very basic standard. And running water, not just in a jug. :biggrin-new:

Given that hot water certainly can be made available through a tap or shower-head even on a tiny boat, why is there so much horrible sweaty conceit about resisting the small task of equipping the boat thus?

Icentury.
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Because were hardy up here in the North and it is so cold that the part of the brain that has reason , does not function well.
A cold dip in the morning with a sandstone , gets the blood going.
But on another note my Wife does that fresh open water swimming malarky , goes of onto those dark cold Lochs in all weathers and swims around (MADNESS)
 
dancrane said:
I recall in an episode of QI, the hilarity about UK guesthouses in rural spots still sometimes showing a sign reading "Hot and cold running water". As if that were a boast, not a very basic standard. And running water, not just in a jug. :biggrin-new:

Given that hot water certainly can be made available through a tap or shower-head even on a tiny boat, why is there so much horrible sweaty conceit about resisting the small task of equipping the boat thus?

I found this on the Contessa 32 class association webpage...

"There may be no shower or hot water on a Contessa, but hey, you're amongst friends or family."

...unlike all you folk, who load your yachts with strangers, and object to the reek of a fo'csle full of unwashed shipmates. :rolleyes:
I doubt anything else could have been so briefly said about the Contessa, to make it sound as unappealing in the 21st century.
Click to expand...

I posted earlier that my hot water supply came from a kettle and I used a basin, sponge and soap to keep myself clean. This is not some kind of masochistic preference but simply recognises the fact that on my 28' yacht of traditional design, with its narrow beam and low freeboard there is nowhere to install a shower and no means of providing a continuous supply of hot water. I enjoy hot showers very much, and have two a day at home or in an hotel but on my boat I cannot do it, so I go without. The absence of a shower when compared with the joy that comes from owning a beautiful sailing boat is trifling.

When I served in HM submarines frequent showers were not available but we got extra money to compensate for the discomforts we had to endure. Being dirty may not be very pleasant but, if not carried to excess, it does you no harm. :rolleyes:
 
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Poignard said:
I posted earlier that my hot water supply came from a kettle and I used a basin, sponge and soap to keep myself clean.
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I noted that, and I'm sure your socks and your cabin are as fresh as a lawn on a summer morning.

Mid-Solent in 1990, I watched a Contessa 32 responding like a living thing to a light breeze following a calm. Thereafter I was a big fan, until my mate's accounts of various comfortless cruises aboard one, poured very chilly water on my impression of the class...

...and then, the realisation that in order to sail this graceful beauty, it is necessary to forego customary ablutions just because back in the day, it never occurred to Mr Rogers (or any his peers) that it might be nice (or reasonable to expect) to have a shower on board...

...well I'm sorry, but I reject the claim that the capability can't be retrofitted.
When I buy a Swift 18, I'll do it, and the aroma of Radox will drift through the moorings. :)
 
dancrane said:
I noted that, and I'm sure your socks and your cabin are as fresh as a lawn on a summer morning.

Mid-Solent in 1990, I watched a Contessa 32 responding like a living thing to a light breeze following a calm. Thereafter I was a big fan, until my mate's accounts of various comfortless cruises aboard one, poured very chilly water on my impression of the class...

...and then, the realisation that in order to sail this graceful beauty, it is necessary to forego customary ablutions just because back in the day, it never occurred to Mr Rogers (or any his peers) that it might be nice (or reasonable to expect) to have a shower on board...

...well I'm sorry, but I reject the claim that the capability can't be retrofitted.
When I buy a Swift 18, I'll do it, and the aroma of Radox will drift through the moorings. :)
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As we get older and less adventurous, and presumably more malodorous, the intervals between visits to marinas have become shorter and the time spent in them greater, so showers have become more frequent. Although on cold mornings my wife still prefers to wash herself on board with the fan heater on to make it snug in the cabin whereas I, being made of sterner stuff, am willing to brave the usually tepid showers which seem to be the norm in Brittany where we cruise. :D
 
Poignard said:
As we get older and less adventurous, and presumably more malodorous, the intervals between visits to marinas have become shorter and the time spent in them greater, so showers have become more frequent. Although on cold mornings my wife still prefers to wash herself on board with the fan heater on to make it snug in the cabin whereas I, being made of sterner stuff, am willing to brave the usually tepid showers which seem to be the norm in Brittany where we cruise. :D
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At marinas we are fine and switch on the immersion heater - we don't tend to use marina showers or loos (except on Sundays) as the ones on the boat are there and we treat the boat like home - wouldn't walk out of our house down to the nearest public loos.

At anchor if the sea is unreasoanable enough not to warm up the water tanks then it's we run the engine for 30 minutes as that's needed for the fridge anyway. When we get a 12v fridge fitted and solar that will sort out the fridge so not sure what we will do when we want hot water at anchor - if I could just work out how to directly heat the hot water tank via solar heat then that would be ideal.
 
RupertW said:
At marinas we are fine and switch on the immersion heater - we don't tend to use marina showers or loos (except on Sundays) as the ones on the boat are there and we treat the boat like home - wouldn't walk out of our house down to the nearest public loos.

At anchor if the sea is unreasoanable enough not to warm up the water tanks then it's we run the engine for 30 minutes as that's needed for the fridge anyway. When we get a 12v fridge fitted and solar that will sort out the fridge so not sure what we will do when we want hot water at anchor - if I could just work out how to directly heat the hot water tank via solar heat then that would be ideal.
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Unimagined luxury. Why Sir, you are indeed a sybarite!
 
RupertW said:
At marinas we are fine and switch on the immersion heater - we don't tend to use marina showers or loos (except on Sundays) as the ones on the boat are there and we treat the boat like home - wouldn't walk out of our house down to the nearest public loos.

At anchor if the sea is unreasoanable enough not to warm up the water tanks then it's we run the engine for 30 minutes as that's needed for the fridge anyway. When we get a 12v fridge fitted and solar that will sort out the fridge so not sure what we will do when we want hot water at anchor - if I could just work out how to directly heat the hot water tank via solar heat then that would be ideal.
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Well it's good to know that at least on a Sunday, you use the marina loo. Presumably every other day your shit floats around the marina. Yeuch!
 
RupertW said:
...we don't tend to use marina showers or loos (except on Sundays) as the ones on the boat are there and we treat the boat like home...
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Spirit (of Glenans) said:
On a Saturday night! :)
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I'm not sure I understand the significance of the weekends or the appeal of public facilities then, as opposed to on other days. :confused:

You got there ahead of me, NormanS. Nicely expressed, too. :rolleyes:
 
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I'd just like to be able to have the time on board to actually use the facilities.. seems like the most I ever get these days is a weekend. Just be glad that you can enjoy the afloat lifestyle for longer periods - pretty sure there's plenty like me right now who are thinking "I wish that this was my problem" :)
 
dancrane said:
I'm not sure I understand the significance of the weekends or the appeal of public facilities then, as opposed to on other days. :confused:

You got there ahead of me, NormanS. Nicely expressed, too. :rolleyes:
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I assume they have a holding tank , and after a good sunday Lunch you need that little bit more luxury with the Sunday papers and feel a proper shower hitting the skin with no hot water problems :rolleyes:
 
NormanS said:
Well it's good to know that at least on a Sunday, you use the marina loo. Presumably every other day your shit floats around the marina. Yeuch!
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Of course not - we have holding tanks in each heads and when there is two of us on board we know it'll last at least 5 days, possibly longer. The reason for Sundays is that we normally go for a whole number of weeks and fly home for work on a Sunday - so won't be leaving the marina to empty the holding tanks.
 
dancrane said:
Mid-Solent in 1990, I watched a Contessa 32 responding like a living thing to a light breeze following a calm. Thereafter I was a big fan, until my mate's accounts of various comfortless cruises aboard one, poured very chilly water on my impression of the class...

...and then, the realisation that in order to sail this graceful beauty, it is necessary to forego customary ablutions just because back in the day, it never occurred to Mr Rogers (or any his peers) that it might be nice (or reasonable to expect) to have a shower on board...
Click to expand...

When I got to sail on a Contessa 32 (very early 1990's, I think), it seemed to me the height of comfort and sophistication!

At the time I cruised a tiny little centre-boarder, noticeably shorter LOA than your dinghy, around the South Devon coast. The only shower I had was when it rained! The ablution facilities comprised a medium-sized plastic 'jerry can' for the water supply, and a small plastic 'washing up' bowl that lived under the cockpit seat and was used on top of it. I can't specifically remember the water heating facilities, but it was probably a portable one burner, upright type, Camping Gaz 'stove'. I also had a bucket and, indeed, chucked it. I had great adventures and enormous fun with that little boat, and though I can recall frequently getting frustrated by the lack of storage space, and concerned at times about its ability to cope with even moderately rough seas, I don't remember feeling an absence of a shower.

But maybe that was due to my upbringing. When Mr. Rodgers produced the first Contessa 32 (1970) I had never lived in, or known anyone with, a house with a shower. Showers, as far as my experience then went, were communal affairs one put up with in public swimming pools, school PE facilities, and the like, and a very poor substitute for a proper bath. Throughout my childhood we'd had baths regularly: every weekend!

I can remember being astonished to read (mid 1960s) that in Australia (to where my family were contemplating emigrating) people had showers every day! I think I wondered why they did that, and it seemed the obvious explanation for the water shortages that they were also said to sometimes suffer.

I have long thought that running hot water is one of the crowning achievements of human invention and social organisation, somehow far more valuable, important and enjoyable than flight, iPhones, or almost anything else.

I still feel guiltily decadent, and amusedly appreciative, that my 'new' (40 year old) boat has water that is not only piping hot, but also runs by itself!
 
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