Pumping out holding tanks

[Vindleka]

I am in the process of installing a holding tank. The deck fittings available in the UK seem to be of a standard type and size (same as water and diesel fittings). Does anyone have experience of using pump out facilities ashore in the Med and do they all accommodate this type of deck fitting or are adaptors required?

 

[Ocean_Nomad]

I have been sailing in the Med for 10 years and have never come across a shore based pump out facility. Everyone relies on being well offshore before pumping out using a bilge pump connected to the outlet pipe from the tank.

 

[tcm]

agreed.

Actually, of course it is untru that everyone relies on being well off shore as once you are a few miles out the place is empty . Plus of course, lots of boats have large crews on them and hardly move an inch. Hence they just MUST be pumping out into the marina. In antibes, frexample there are no pumpout facilities, plenty of big nonmoving boats with liveaboards (soem with longtime-busted engines), and in recognition of the situtation there are monster fan-pumps in the back wall of the marina which help change the water. Need very good shower after inshore med sea swimkming near marinas imho.

Nonetheless, you need the pumpout thingy for eastern med.

 

[absit_omen]

Agree with previous two. Would only add that our last three boats have had holding tanks which we have promptly thoroughly cleaned and sealed. Although limited to UK/West/Central Med we have never had a problem disposing of our effluent. As for big ships with large crews pumping out into the marina - you deserve all you get if you pay exorbitant rates to berth next to them! BTW, the Med, just a few hundred yards offshore, can be a filthy place at certain times of the day. This is due to hotels discharging their tanks at dusk onwards (from personal experience anchored off Moraira).

 

[DavidJ]

I've also never seen pump out facilities in the Med but all marinas have resonable toilets so begs the question why use up useful space in installing a holding tank (and the problems/smells that can go with them as well). If you're offshore then letting it go straight from the toilet is the norm and in the marina the odd pee won't hurt (paper will though!)
David

 

[CharlesM]

regardless of whether or not there are regulations about discharge, IMO one should put all effluent into a holding tank if you are in a relatively enclosed area (marina/lagoon/bay)

I know I would rather not swim in a 'nutrient rich' area, and I find pumping crap into a marina absolutely disgusting.

 

[Anonymous]

[ QUOTE ]
I've also never seen pump out facilities in the Med but all marinas have resonable toilets so begs the question why use up useful space in installing a holding tank (and the problems/smells that can go with them as well). If you're offshore then letting it go straight from the toilet is the norm and in the marina the odd pee won't hurt (paper will though!)

[/ QUOTE ]We are pleased to have a holding tank; we can use the toilet whenever we like which is a real benefit in the winter when it's cold and wet, or anytime in the middle of the night. It's not very pleasant if people discharge into anchorages or off beaches so again that's a good reason to have a holding tank.

Most people are going to have to discharge raw sewage in inappropriate places at times if they don't have a holding tank which is good enough reason to fit them. Personally I think that the codes should require all new boats to have a holding tank if fitted with a sea toilet outlet. But that's a personal view.

 

[charles_reed]

Forget about Holding tanks in the Med

only in the US and UK will you find these shoreside facilities.

There was one in Bonifacio (well the inlet and pump) but apparently it was never connected to the sewer and had disappeared at my last visit.

This is all very strange because all the mediterranean countirs signed a protocol in 1979 undertaking to halve pollutants every 10 years for the foreseeable future.
Like many Med laws it's honoured more in its breach than observance.

For those rabid environmentalists who object to pumping out raw sewage, please be aware that your grey water (especially phosphatic surfectants) has a far greater adverse effect than your personal effluent (which after all is a very desirable re-cyclable for thos beasts further down the food-chain).

The usual thing in the Med is what is more correctly referred to as a buffer tank.
Into this you pump all your undesirables and then wait until you're outside the 3 mile limit before pumping it overboard.

Mine fits round the front of the toilet and holds about 25l, enough for about 10 evacuation-days if you minimise flush and exclude liquids.

 

[charles_reed]

I had to

go overboard to free a prop in Bonifacio (bloody incompetent crew) and was very glad to be carrying bactericidal handwash for when I came out and scrubbed myself from top to toe.

No I'm afraid that the Med is a very dirty sea and non part dirtier than the Bay of Naples.

 

[Ocean_Nomad]

Re: I had to

Following on from all the comments sinced my previous post - do fit a tank for the Med.Turkey will impose an on the spot fine if you pump out in Harbour - Spain is in the process of introducing rules for new boats - Greece are strict in certain ports.

 

[catmandoo]

Well you may be disgusted when you think of people not using tanks but in Italy a lot of the main sewers discharge raw sewage straight into the sea .

If you have ever been in La Maddalena between |Corsica and Sardinia perhaps you did not look into the end of the marina there . There iwas a lovely greenish oily stream discharging past your boat .


By the way the fish at the discharge are huge with plenty of fishermen close by . I wonder how much you might have paid for that lovely bit of fish on the restaurant by the quay . I also have seen quite a few dead rats there

Do any of you men have big breasts yet ?

 

[Amari]

Re: Forget about Holding tanks in the Med

Interested in the idea of a holding tank that fits around the loo. We are having to retrofit one in our 20 year old Wauquiez and there are no obvious places for it apart from under a seat in the saloon. We are in Turkey, and regardless of how much the law is observed we don't like the idea of discharging the worst of our effluent when we are not moving fast enough to leave it behind!

The other option is one of these Lectrasan things (electrical treatment to process waste and discharge "clean" outflow, or so they say) Don't know how far it is compliant in Turkey or how well they work - anyone have any first hand experience?

Daphne

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Forget about Holding tanks in the Med

[ QUOTE ]
The other option is one of these Lectrasan things (electrical treatment to process waste and discharge "clean" outflow, or so they say) Don't know how far it is compliant in Turkey or how well they work - anyone have any first hand experience?

[/ QUOTE ]No experience of anything quite like that but my parents had a US toilet called an 'Antipol Loo' which electrically recirculated macerated waste in a foul-smelling blue fluid. It was so revolting you'd elect to become constipated rather than use it.

 

[Zeus]

Re: Forget about Holding tanks in the Med

Holding tanks for sewage water has been compulsory since last Jan I think, older boats have to have them retro fitted and working when the next inspection is due, the problem is that very few marinas have the pumping out facilities so the rules are that you should empty the tanks 3 miles from the shore, if you are in a marina you should use their toilets.
Zeus