Who ever uses marina loos or showers?

[Amulet]

I enjoy having a simple boat. I could afford one with a shower and many other home gizmos. Getting away from all that clobber is part of the appeal of cruising. When I get too manky I do go into a marina and use the showers. It never seems such a hardship to me. In the days before pontoons on the west coast of Scotland it was possible to cruise for a month without a bath. Amazingly, it was fun.

 

[zoidberg]

.....green mould in the showers at Aedfern, I am not sure that you would want to shower there. We often wonder where a certain well known public figure who keeps her yacht there showers.

You wouldn't want to be caught skulking or stalking that Lady. She has a sharp tongue and is a crack shot, as are those she sails with, and would likely give you an earful neither you nor any one nearby would easily forget.

 

[rotrax]

We do both. If shoreside facilities exist, they are used.

If not, we have a big genset, large capacity water tanks and a really good shower. And a washing machine, which is really useful on our 5 month liveaboard trips.

We can live a week on the hook showering every morning.

One of the reasons we bought the boat.

 

[maby]

We don't often move our boat, so it is not easy to empty the holding tank - hence anything more than a pee requires a trip to the marina facilities. In our marina, it's a long walk to the nearest decent shower, so we do tend to make use of the on-board shower for washing. I hate tramping back along the pontoon with wet hair, carrying a wet towel and bundle of clothes - the shower on-board is a far more pleasant prospect. In the recent warm weather, it dries out within an hour or so if we leave the heads hatches open - in the winter, I pop the dehumidifier in the heads on high power for an hour and that dries it out perfectly well.

 

[johnalison]

We can live a week on the hook showering every morning.

We can also live on the hook but I don't do cold showers. We also have a washing-machine but she does the work by hand, and if my luck is in she won't get around to reading this.

 

[RichardS]

We can also live on the hook but I don't do cold showers.

Why are your showers cold? If we haven't moved anywhere we just run the engine for 30 mins to heat up the water and top up the batteries a tad. We carry enough water for a daily shower for two of us for about 4 weeks and we never need to have a cold one.

Richard

 

[RichardS]

What about the ecological and regulation aspects? I assume you have to have a grey water tank when using your own shower in the marina?

Shower water is basically clean water compared to the water coming from the galley sink. I reckon that when I wash the decks down I create more pollution than the shower and there's never been any way of catching that. Some owners in the marina with large high-powered mobos from a certain country near me seem to wash down their decks on a daily basis .... with plenty of suds floating away. :ambivalence:

Richard

 

[maby]

What about the ecological and regulation aspects? I assume you have to have a grey water tank when using your own shower in the marina?

In most of the marinas we visit, a bit of shampoo in the water will only improve the environment - help to dissolve some of the spilled oil and diesel!

 

[shan]

I enjoy having a simple boat. I could afford one with a shower and many other home gizmos. Getting away from all that clobber is part of the appeal of cruising. When I get too manky I do go into a marina and use the showers. It never seems such a hardship to me. In the days before pontoons on the west coast of Scotland it was possible to cruise for a month without a bath. Amazingly, it was fun.

It might have been a hardship for anyone encountering you before your shower.

 

[Kelpie]

I never knew you lot were so hygienic. Sounds like most of you shower more often on your boats than I do at home! Makes the 'hardship' of cruising less difficult to adjust to I suppose.

 

[maby]

I never knew you lot were so hygienic. Sounds like most of you shower more often on your boats than I do at home! Makes the 'hardship' of cruising less difficult to adjust to I suppose.

It is a confined space! After two days without showering, the ship's cat winces each time I get near!

 

[johnalison]

Why are your showers cold? If we haven't moved anywhere we just run the engine for 30 mins to heat up the water and top up the batteries a tad. We carry enough water for a daily shower for two of us for about 4 weeks and we never need to have a cold one.

Richard

If I want to get the engine to warm up effectively it needs to be under load and from experience I would say that engaging gear on a mooring may lead to an unpredictable outcome. As far as I'm concerned, warm = cold, whatever the fatter people may say.

 

[RichardS]

If I want to get the engine to warm up effectively it needs to be under load and from experience I would say that engaging gear on a mooring may lead to an unpredictable outcome. As far as I'm concerned, warm = cold, whatever the fatter people may say.

I see. Perhaps you have a raw water cooled engine which I can understand would make hot water more challenging? My calorifier seems to be pretty efficient and even at tickover for 30 mins at anchor in neutral we have enough hot water for 2 or 3 showers. Being in the Med must also help as the water in the tanks is probably at 25 degrees to start with.

Richard

 

[oldmanofthehills]

I never knew you lot were so hygienic. Sounds like most of you shower more often on your boats than I do at home! Makes the 'hardship' of cruising less difficult to adjust to I suppose.

As a climber and mountaineer I regularly go away with my club for weekends. Often the showering facilities in the campsites are cold, unappealing and require odd tokens and other devices. However, on asking fellow members how they work it is quite clear that for a weekend often no one has bothered to find out, though I was once long ago advised not to travel home in one couples car unless the windows were open.
On our boat, if neither myself or the navigator are going ashore, then no harm will come if showers are not daily.

Read "Boogie Nights" blog. Wetwipes are the way to go.

 

[RupertW]

I see. Perhaps you have a raw water cooled engine which I can understand would make hot water more challenging? My calorifier seems to be pretty efficient and even at tickover for 30 mins at anchor in neutral we have enough hot water for 2 or 3 showers. Being in the Med must also help as the water in the tanks is probably at 25 degrees to start with.

Richard

Same with ours - at a marina the immersion coil does it but at anchor 30 mins in neutral is plenty - and we need to run the engine a couple of times a day to run the fridge (it's belt driven only).

 

[ip485]

They do generally use less than a bath, but not as much less than people think, probably because the idea that showers use a lot less water became established by the feeble electric showers of the 70s.

A modern 10kW electric shower -which is still pretty puny - can heat around a gallon per minute (assuming 30^oC -> 40^oC and the cheapest Worcester Combi Boiler will do twice that, as will my oil-fired boiler.

The generally accepted average figures are ~80 litres for a bath and ~45 litres for a five-minute shower. It therefore doesn't have to be a particularly indulgent shower to use more than a bathful.



That's about a minute and half's worth from an electric shower and forty seconds' worth of a power shower. I expect it gets the job done, but I prefer to put in my quid and get my full eight minutes.

I carry 1,200 litres so that is only about 30 showers, no wonder the water doesnt last long, and proves the water maker is essential. I make 140 l/h so an hour a day is more than enough to keep up, although a 3 or 4 hour run every so often works better.

 

[mjcoon]

ARead "Boogie Nights" blog. Wetwipes are the way to go.

That's another whole disposal problem...

Mike.

 

[alant]

As a climber and mountaineer I regularly go away with my club for weekends. Often the showering facilities in the campsites are cold, unappealing and require odd tokens and other devices. However, on asking fellow members how they work it is quite clear that for a weekend often no one has bothered to find out, though I was once long ago advised not to travel home in one couples car unless the windows were open.
On our boat, if neither myself or the navigator are going ashore, then no harm will come if showers are not daily.

Read "Boogie Nights" blog. Wetwipes are the way to go.

Do they go down the bog ?

 

[rotrax]

I see. Perhaps you have a raw water cooled engine which I can understand would make hot water more challenging? My calorifier seems to be pretty efficient and even at tickover for 30 mins at anchor in neutral we have enough hot water for 2 or 3 showers. Being in the Med must also help as the water in the tanks is probably at 25 degrees to start with.

Richard

We have a 110HP tubocharged Yanmar. The boat has a huge calorifier. It takes 40 minutes of motoring or 1 1/2 hrs. of running light to heat the water.

I strike up the genset where it takes 30 minutes.

I will not leave my main engine running light for hot water or battery charging, hence the genset.

8KW Westerbeke, ebay bargain, owes me £1600 installed. It was my last years DIY project.

 

[DJE]

We have a 110HP tubocharged Yanmar. The boat has a huge calorifier. It takes 40 minutes of motoring or 1 1/2 hrs. of running light to heat the water.

I strike up the genset where it takes 30 minutes.

I will not leave my main engine running light for hot water or battery charging, hence the genset.

8KW Westerbeke, ebay bargain, owes me £1600 installed. It was my last years DIY project.

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?506554-Considerate-use-of-ship-s-generator-please