Just an observation...

Hi there
Thought I'd join as Solent Clown speaks very highly of you guys but are there any female forum members here or can you point me in the right place to post. I suffer from a bowel disease <snip?
Karen

Welcome to the forum Karen, glad you've joined and hope you'll be keeping him in order from now on. I though he was the one with the bowel problem, or is he just full of .... :)
 
Welcome to the forum, Mrs. S.C., good to have you on board.

There used to be more women on the forum, but they have seemed less in evidence in recent times, so we need new recruits!

May I commend to you an old book 'The Sea Wife's Handbook' by Joyce Sleightholme. Despite its apparently sexist title*, it is full of sound, practical, helpful advice about managing life on a boat, and also managing the man you share it with! Aspects of the book are out of date, but to my mind this just adds to the entertainment value.

(*There was a later edition of the book with a bowdlerised title to better suit later tastes in gender role nomenclature, but in the original she quite clearly states that women are perfectly capable of sailing oceans on their own, but she is aiming the book at the role that women more usually have in relation to boats and men. )

Happy sailing!
 
Welcome to the forum, Mrs. S.C., good to have you on board.

There used to be more women on the forum, but they have seemed less in evidence in recent times, so we need new recruits!

May I commend to you an old book 'The Sea Wife's Handbook' by Joyce Sleightholme. Despite its apparently sexist title*, it is full of sound, practical, helpful advice about managing life on a boat, and also managing the man you share it with! Aspects of the book are out of date, but to my mind this just adds to the entertainment value.

(*There was a later edition of the book with a bowdlerised title to better suit later tastes in gender role nomenclature, but in the original she quite clearly states that women are perfectly capable of sailing oceans on their own, but she is aiming the book at the role that women more usually have in relation to boats and men. )

Happy sailing!

Thanks for that, I found it on the dreaded Amazon and ordered it for her.
 
This thread has borne fruit for the ickle one already. I was going to delay fitting the toilet until later in the year, but I will prioritise it much higher.
I will give thought to a curtain or door too, as our washboards are transparent.

Mind you, even a bucket in the cabin of a 24ft yacht has to be better than some of our previous efforts, lashing her in an Oddyseus like fashion to the mast and screaming at her above the wind and wash not to kick the bucket over.

Funny how the need to "go" in a dinghy or small boat is usually just as a huge wash or swell hits you. Not good for me, as Karen will turn her hand to anything on a boat, but she is rudder phobic, especially in our 16ft so its a one handed balance operation for me.

We must give the Red Funnel passengers an eyeful from time to time.
 
Not if you are a man it is not. With a loo facing across the boat one can aim up or down & brace one's self against the back wall or the one in front. You just have to watch the lid does not slam shut when on the down side !!!.However, operating standing as if one is standing on the side of a hill is really difficult.
the Hanse 445 has a forward facing heads &I have it on reliable info that it is diabolical.

on HMS Wully the number one rule is that EVERYONE sits down to pee, disregarding this rule will get you kicked off the boat. No bracing, no bad aiming, no falls, no smell.
 
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Funny how the need to "go" in a dinghy or small boat is usually just as a huge wash or swell hits you. Not good for me, as Karen will turn her hand to anything on a boat, but she is rudder phobic, especially in our 16ft so its a one handed balance operation for me.

Good thinking on moving it up the priority list - you can enjoy a day and night out on the boat much more easily if you are carrying civilisation around with you, including a private flushing loo.

But you are right about timing - it's usually when I'm about to tack, or dive overboard to clear a propellor or reef or about to moor up - all things which could be slightly tense moments and I used to be quite cross about it. I've long learnt to just stop and be patient and life is so much more pleasant and I get coffees and cold drinks and food passed up - often also as I'm about to do something saily but it's a nice life afloat together.
 
This thread has borne fruit for the ickle one already. I was going to delay fitting the toilet until later in the year, but I will prioritise it much higher.
I will give thought to a curtain or door too, as our washboards are transparent.

Mind you, even a bucket in the cabin of a 24ft yacht has to be better than some of our previous efforts, lashing her in an Oddyseus like fashion to the mast and screaming at her above the wind and wash not to kick the bucket over.

Funny how the need to "go" in a dinghy or small boat is usually just as a huge wash or swell hits you. Not good for me, as Karen will turn her hand to anything on a boat, but she is rudder phobic, especially in our 16ft so its a one handed balance operation for me.

We must give the Red Funnel passengers an eyeful from time to time.

Three thinks my wif insisted on before she would stay on the boat.
A flushing Loo
Hot water
A fridge

The fridge was due to our distance from home.

This is a on of the signs on my boat.

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Also consider

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in the small dinghy we often wore wetsuits, and then if caught really short subscribed to the "sub aqua" philisophy, go in the suit if it's a wee. But Karen with her bad bum cut short several trips, and caused a couple of aborts at the slipway, usually just after I had raised the mast and rigged the boat. Not her fault at all, but it did cause a bit of friction when my excitement to get out on the water met her nervous stomach. I like to think I am more considerate now - and one of the other great things that makes a marina berth worth it is the facilities. It takes that issue out of the equation for a quick sail. Having a toilet will at least enable us to go further for longer without the issue being at the back of her mind.
 
on HMS Wully the number one rule is that EVERYONE sits down to pee, disregarding this rule will get you kicked if the boat. No bracing, no bad aiming, no falls, no smell.

I have occasionally read of people giving your instruction and can understand the need for it on some boats. On our boat the heads/shower is entirely laminate or glass and an accident can easily be remedied by a wash down with the shower hose, so there is no need for me to be prescriptive, and in any case, it would be excessively awkward for me personally. Any odd splashes are regularly washed away by our use of the shower or occasional fits of cleaning energy.
 
You might try buying a bigger, but still trailable, boat with a cabin...Then you can take a portable toilet with you in the cabin. I recently bought a portable chemical toilet for my boat...I wanted the very smallest one I could find because I only have a 16 foot foot and don't have enough room on board for a fixed toilet. I opted for the Thetford Porta Potti 335...It's the smallest one they make, and the one they recommended for use in boats. Oddly, it's not the cheapest one they make though...I recall mine cost me almost £90, but I felt that is a small price to pay for peace of mind.
 
You might try buying a bigger, but still trailable, boat with a cabin...Then you can take a portable toilet with you in the cabin. I recently bought a portable chemical toilet for my boat...I wanted the very smallest one I could find because I only have a 16 foot foot and don't have enough room on board for a fixed toilet. I opted for the Thetford Porta Potti 335...It's the smallest one they make, and the one they recommended for use in boats. Oddly, it's not the cheapest one they make though...I recall mine cost me almost £90, but I felt that is a small price to pay for peace of mind.

we have an 18ft seafarer, basically a microcruiser dinghy with a cabin kind of affair that we sail every week, but it is no longer on a trailer because of a previous mishap. We have never bothered with a toilet on it so far, mostly I think because after it sunk we have never been as adventurous with it as we have with smaller boats, and we only go out for a copuple of hours in it. It's not a bad idea though, let's see what she thinks
 
Hi there
Thought I'd join as Solent Clown speaks very highly of you guys but are there any female forum members here or can you point me in the right place to post.
I suffer from a bowel disease and wonder how others cope with longer voyages and though Solent Clown has posted a thread about toilets I am really worried about the whole next step and think in a lot of ways I'd be happy to have stuck to being a trailer sailer with our dinghy. Maybe I'm just fretting about nothing.

I'm also a keen crocheter and want to make throws and blankets for the trident if we are going for longer trips then I can't image going without my crochet projects so crafters how do you store your crafting/hobby equipment?

Thanks in advance.
Karen

My missus gets stuck in on all things on our boat, even likes going up the mast. The market in La Linea sells materials by the yard cheap! We took a Singer 201k out as hold luggage and she loves making things out there!
Stu
 
I'm enjoying reading this, having been upsized to what some might think is a massive boat, by my lovely wife insisting on highly specific "domestic" facilities...

We did that a few years ago and being persuaded to spend a lot of money on a boat then to spend lots of time on it made giving in to her demands very easy. They were specifc and led to a certain size and type of boat. And she did all the boat searching too. Ok it's not a fast boat at all but I'm finally finding ways to get more speed out of it without sailing in an alarming manner
 
This is pointed towards Karen the Missus, regarding storage for her crocheting work. It seems to me that such kit is not far removed from what once was kept in the 'Bosunry Bag'..... the needles, threads, cords, and other small tools needed to do sail-sewing and halyard-whipping on board.

There's a wide range of robust plastic storage boxes now available in the likes of B&Q, Screwfix, Aldi, even IKEA, which are well suited to the storage of the crocheting kit. They're even well suited to storage of HIS small electrical spares, bits and pieces. Add a few even smaller ones ( kitchen storage types ) from Aldi/Lidl, and those will hold all the very small stuff - protected, clean and dry.

Play your cards right by suggesting a ( plastic ) home or two for his boat-tools, fuses, spare impeller screws, Locktite, other essential odds and ends, and he might just buy you one of your own.... But get a contrasting colour!
 
Not if you are a man it is not. With a loo facing across the boat one can aim up or down & brace one's self against the back wall or the one in front. You just have to watch the lid does not slam shut when on the down side !!!.However, operating standing as if one is standing on the side of a hill is really difficult.
EVERY boat I've been on there has been one rule, you sit in the heads.
 
EVERY boat I've been on there has been one rule, you sit in the heads.

Never had that as a rule on any of boats I've been on, skippering or crewing. Not a bad rule but I'd never have a rule that I wouldn't follow myself. But I know I have odd rules too - for example not allowing paper in the loo but following the Greek practice of a lined bin beside it instead.
 
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