Toilet and grey waste holding tank solutions?

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steve yates

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My 1976 longbow has no holding tanks, the toilet flushes straight to the sea. (well, it would if the seacock wasn't jammed shut, so its never actually been used by me. (Its one of the later on jobs to do,)

While she is having a big refit prior to hopefully going to the med in a couple of years, it seems a good time to address this. I know Turkey wont even let you discharge washing up water overboard, and I'm certain that almost every other country, quite rightly, will not allow discharge into the sea from the loo these days.

The question is, whats the best approach to this?

Remove the loo and replace with one of these composting thingies?

Replace with a chemical toilet? but it still leaves the issue of getting rid of the chemicals, and doesn't sort the grey water?

Adding in holding tanks, what sort of sizes are normal here, and what is required in the installation, and if anyone knows these boats (berwick/pembroke/reknown/longbow) any ideas of where best to place them?

Thanks.
 
I don't own a compost toilet and never used one but I'm impressed that almost all boaties who have installed a compost toilet swear by them.

Compost toilets may come accross as expensive but with the standard toilet you have the holding tank, through hull fittings, macerator and tank discharge pump.
 
canvey said:
RYA on the current state of the laws ... Also.

Going to kind of kill it for small boat cruising, isn't it?
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I like this bit from Sweden "Although a bucket, pot or similar does not count as a type of toilet and therefore falls outside the scope of the discharge ban" LOL!

I am happy not to have a head, on mine, just something else to service or go wrong. KISS, camping style...
 
C19th style.

Too right, and no need for paper and especially those evil wipes either.

I tend to think my poop actually degrades easier than your average seal or dolphin poop, their comprising entirely of oily fish and mine mostly composted plant base. Another area to apply personal discretion.
 
Zagato said:
I like this bit from Sweden "Although a bucket, pot or similar does not count as a type of toilet and therefore falls outside the scope of the discharge ban" LOL!

I am happy not to have a head, on mine, just something else to service or go wrong. KISS, camping style...
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I guess it’s a different type of sailing. I can’t imagine living at home without one so don’t want to on my second home. Little things like hot showers at sea each morning make a trip of a few days much more fun, I think.

Regarding holding tanks, anchorages are also communal swimming pools and often crystal clear turquoise so it’s impolite to put anything into it, so holding tanks are key. We don’t have a grey water one, but tend to wash up just a little during the day, wiping down plates with almost no detergent, but like most people we do wash up properly after dinner after dark and I’ve never seen any bubble or debris by morning.
 
Perhaps it's a sop for all the folkboat owners out there? No headroom for a heads unless your head is sticking out of the forepeak.
 
50 litres is a reasonable size for a holding tank for two people. With a gravity type, no diverter valve, this will give you about 4 days. Grey water tank is impossible, it would have to be nearly the same size as your water tank. I have yet to meet anyone who has one, in the Med since 2005.
 
I've known some big ships that have incinerator types, how do they work? Do you business and then they're passed away immediately as smoke, with the smell of burnt hair.

I'd love to be clean but just don't have the space. Certainly don't have a shower either.

I am all for hygiene and can remember the shock of discovering the northern side of the Med used to pump out raw sewage onto swimming beaches when they did (as a kid with his first pair of goggles underwater!). But doesn't the south side still do the same?
 
vyv_cox said:
50 litres is a reasonable size for a holding tank for two people. With a gravity type, no diverter valve, this will give you about 4 days. Grey water tank is impossible, it would have to be nearly the same size as your water tank. I have yet to meet anyone who has one, in the Med since 2005.
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I have two heads holding tanks of 40 and 50 litres, plus two grey water tanks of 100 and 70 litres. I installed the latter when the Blue card scheme was introduced, and have used them ever since. When I go to a pump out station I have the heads tanks pumped out first then the grey water is pumped up into the aft heads tank by an internal transfer pump and sucked out from there by the pump out station.
 
Norman_E said:
I have two heads holding tanks of 40 and 50 litres, plus two grey water tanks of 100 and 70 litres. I installed the latter when the Blue card scheme was introduced, and have used them ever since. When I go to a pump out station I have the heads tanks pumped out first then the grey water is pumped up into the aft heads tank by an internal transfer pump and sucked out from there by the pump out station.
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Your boat must be more spacious than mine! 170 litres of grey water tank would occupy most of my stowage.
 
vyv_cox said:
Your boat must be more spacious than mine! 170 litres of grey water tank would occupy most of my stowage.
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Two tanks in the bilges, both are wide and shallow. One is central and aft of the keel (100 litres), the other is starboard of the keel. All grey water is pumped with both showers and heads basins using the shower drain pumps, and the galley sinks have a dedicated pump. In the heads a flap type non return valve sits between the shower outlet and the pump and the basin is connected between non return valve and pump. With the basin plug in the non return valve is opened by suction from the pump and the shower water is pumped out, remove the plug and the non return valve closes so that the basin is pumped.
 
canvey said:
I'd love to be clean but just don't have the space. Certainly don't have a shower either.
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I might fit the shallow SS dairy bucket idea with handle, for washing on the new boat and just go into a berth with a shower after day three! Why have a sink, drain and pump and tanks, its just more hassle, just fill up from a water bottle and fling it over the side. As you say, nice to be clean Wilco, makes you Feelgood!

Link here to simple, sorted boat, more fun, less hassle and one hell of a 'chuckit buckit'!
Boat Envy -
 
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Well done for even thinking about it. It was entering Salcombe and seeing all the toddlers playing in the sandy shallows that made me fit a holding tank in my Frances 26.
 
Removing through hulls was on my list of jobs to do once it got warm. Do have a separate heads behind a door though, so I must explore these compost heads. Never fancied a chemical loo. The idea of sleeping in a bunk above a plastic bucket swilling with chemicals and 'logs' isn't high on my wish list. Generally happy to feed the fishes (as I don't eat them).

Once you start to think of everything that goes into the water, you'll never swim in it again. Fish, ducks, seagulls, seals ... as long as it's not plastic it's all part of a natural process.

Have you ever seen a whale take a dump? Yes, there are videos of it.

Fascinating topic. They reckon its a major component to the oceanic life cycle, recycling protein from the lowest depths back up to the top again.

Showering is much over-rated. After I've been sown into my winter unwear, it stays on until May most years ...
 
Hi Steve
Tek tanks give details of tanks already made for Westerlys Westerly | Tek-Tanks
Having fitted one in my Moody the tank is just the start and it gets expensive. Tek tanks have design ideas that are useful to understand the issues.
If you can fit a standard tank then it will be much cheaper. Don't the WOA have any info on this?
If you are going to put grey water in there too then get as large a tank as you can fit in.
 
Lots of places have bans on discharging black/grey water. And often they have pump-out facilities. And often the stuff pumped out is driven a little way away and then dumped in the sea.
 
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