Livaboards - how do you shower?

[Lumo]

I've often thought - well dreamt - that one day I might spend extended periods of time (months to years) on a yacht, something in the region of 30-40 feet.

In the long term I don't think I would miss a proper bed, big TV or things like that at all, and I think I could get used to cooking in a small galley space if it was well organised.

But the one thing I think I really would miss, and might cause me to question the whole idea (even through this is just a dream) is not having a proper shower.

What do you do? Use marina facilities? Not wash? Is this something you get used to? Are there any decent showers out there?

 

[Carolwildbird]

err.. I switch on the shower in my heads!
(in fact we have two showers on board- and my boat isn't luxury class at all)...
.. that is, of course, as long as i have enough water and I'm not too far away from the next fill up. Others will no doubt tell you about watermakers (which I don't have)

 

[Skyva_2]

Hi and welcome,

Many modern (and not so modern) yachts have showers - so no problem. You can have a decent shower with less than 12 litres of water.

The prices ashore can mount up in marinas, and you are paying for electricity and water anyway.

Or there is always a bucket in the cockpit?

 

[BrendanS]

A lot of people have posted here over the years, that if in sunny climes, they use a product similar to this (there are different makes and sizes available)

http://www.firebox.com/product/1774/Super-Solar-Shower?src_t=cat&src_id=lifestyle

 

[Lumo]

Sorry I should have said I do have some (rather limited) experience of showers on yachts. So you really can have a decent shower in a heads/shower?

I'm tall and apart from not really being able to stand up in the heads I also discovered that raising the tap/shower head height reduced the water flow to a mere trickle. This led me, perhaps wrongly, to the conclusion they they would all be awkward and a be too much about space saving rather than being able to use the shower.

 

[Carolwildbird]

I guess it depends on your boat!
My shower is not anywhere near as powerful as a land-based shower, but certainly doesn't drop to a trickle when raised. My heads are about the same size as a shower cubicle- not generous but fine for a shower.
The head room? depends on your boat.. no problem for people up to about 6' 2" in my heads.

all depends, I guess on the make and model of the boat.

 

[silver-fox]

My boat is 17 years old 42ft long - not considered luxurious - and has two showers both with pressured hot and cold water. I am 6ft tall and don't experience any problems.

When at anchor we use a solar shower, as mentioned by Brendan, after first having had a dip in the sea (current sea temp 28 deg C). We suspend this from our stern arch and shower on the sugar scoop.... as do most other boats at anchor.

There are many things that might deter you from a liveaboard life let me promise you this is not one of them!

 

[jimbaerselman]

Yes, you can have a really decent shower. Water can be heated through a calorifier or by an immersion heater, and pump pressures typically run at 3bar.

However, big showering uses water (10 - 15 litres), needs big tanks. So, though we had the kit, we showered frugally to be not too reliant on water top-ups.

Our method was to fill the basin with water, and rinse over with a sponge to get a thorough wet. Then apply shower gel or soap. Then rinse off with a sponge again. That was generally a 3 or 4 litre shower, and very refreshing too, used from Scotland to Turkey.

Water temperature in the wash bowl can be raised with a kettle, or a solar water bag, if you haven't got a calorifier or immersion heater.

 

[HoratioHB]

In warm water you can always use the biggest bath in the world - just off the back of the boat!! My daily routine is to go for a swim, get back on board and use Head Shoulders which foams well in sea water and then jump back in to rinse off. Finally use the shower to fesh water rinse - it helps if you have and external stern shower but not that important. This also has the added advantage that you can wash your shorts at the same time - I managed 7 months in the same pair much to SWMBOs disgust!!!!!!!
We also have two internal showers (42ft boat) - the rear one being the full walk in variety.

 

[samwise]

We have a couple of solar showers on board that do the trick for us. Living on board is a very different thing from the week-end sail or even the longer holiday trip where the crew leap off the boat, towels in hand and head for the marina showers scant seconds after the boat is tied up and ( of course) shorepower plugged in. I'm not saying that you have to slip standards, but living aboard is a much more relaxed lifestyle, so you make do with a dip in the sea and a quick rinse because on board water is a precious resource. Certainly if the opportunity presents itself, enjoy! We have liveaboard friends who we met in the Balearics who used to dinghy ashore to use the beach shower and sometimes take their washing too! You don't have to slum it, but if you expect to have the full home comforts you may be disappointed. Remember too that in some places discharge of shower or "grey" water into the sea is a breach of pollution regulation and punishable by fine.

 

[Talbot]

If all else fails, a solar shower to heat the water, then transfer to a garden fertiliser spray cannister. Pump furiously, then you have a good shower system for not a lot of money.

Personally on my 9m boat, I had a proper shower, with a full sized curtained area to avoid soggy toilet paper.

 

[LadyJessie]

Modern boats are normally equipped with good showers and large watertanks so not a problem. We have a good fullsize shower in the heads, but the shower we use 9 times out of 10 is the showerhead on the stern swim platform - best shower cabin in the world!

 

[absit_omen]

Colloquially known as a 'Diana Ross'.

 

[Anonymous]

We only shower in the shower room. I did buy one of those black bags, which sounded like a good idea but it was never used. Living aboard does not have to be like a camping trip. We heat our water either by the main engine or by the generator, through the immersion heater. We also have a watermaker.

 

[Ariadne]

Solar shower in the cockpit 8 months of the year and for the rest of the time we're in a marina with 'proper showers' and unlimited water. The pressure spray is a good idea as well.

 

[Travelmate]

We are in the tropics. Always shower off the sugar scoop on our 42' yacht even though we have 2 internal showers. Generally use a bucket and a scoop to allow the other half to concentrate on stability and getting clean. If in a delicate area (Muslim country) we use a shower curtain (tarp) suspended from the davits to hide ourselves from the locals. Even though we have a water maker we conserve water. The best soap for use in salt water - as previously mentioned - is shampoo. Even on passage we wear a harness and shower on the aft deck or sugar scoop. We have the ability to capture a lot of water from the decks then pump it through a filter to the water tanks. OK if it rains.
We have no experience with cold climates as we base ourselves in Malaysia and travel the Indian Ocean circuit.

 

[tcm]

Well, depending on where you are in the world and hence depending on how warm the water is ...see that big blue wet thing out the back of the boat? Well, put some shampoo on and jump in there for starters. Then rinse off the salt on the shower you have fitted on the transom. Use a calorifier to heat the water, but normal unheated water ain't that bad really. Keep sailing around different places so wherever you are, it's nice and warm is a good idea. Not tried a solar thing, that might work. I have lots of showers every day on boat, far more than on land. If you get a catamaran you will be able to do this more, cos you'l be at anchor with no roling, instead of like monohulls which often have to go into marinas to stop rolling and get a nice snooze. The catamaran can also mean you get a big bed but you will have to be picky bout which catamaran you get.

For big TV you need a projector plugged into a computer, so I have 108inch diagonal TV whereas best i had at home is a poxy 50" thing.

You can actually cook better/faster in small wraparound galley rather than big kitchen.

 

[jordanbasset]

I would go along with the others about using the back of the boat. One word of warning re solar showers they can be very efficient. In June in Greece left one out all day and it was too hot for me to use. Unfortunately this took me a few seconds to work out!
Took to leaving it out for just a couple of hours and temperature just right

 

[Abigail]

In the warm - as everyone says, swim in sea and then shower off. We don't have a sugar scoop but use 20l jerry cans on the foredeck, pumped to a garden spray head by a 12v pump. Next year's refinedment is an additional waterproof socket on the deck to avoid running a line from below decks.

We also have a below decks shower in the heads. Our boot is 40ft and 31 years old.

 

[grumpygit]

We have two heads with showers but we also have a sea and fresh water pumped to deck side which has a 5 mtr hose on. Leave which ever hose with the water in (which we stow coiled on the guard rail) The sun heats the water and you can have a loverly shower from it, and it does seem to retain it's heat for an evening douche. In cold climes I do not have any experience of except using shore based showers but would suggest when you can not stand the smell of yourself or your best friend tells you, something should be done about it !!!! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif