POG restoration / head, shower sump, extra bilge pump

[POG]

I purchased POG in March 2010.  She was neglected but had potential. I spent the next year, minus 2 months in Europe, fixing the boat up to take her from San Francisco to New Zealand, where I lived in the Bay of Islands for nearly ten years in the 90ies.  Just a week before planned cast off date in April 2011 I got violently sick with viral bronchitis.  It took ages to get well.  The trip had to be postponed until 2012.

A lot was done to the boat in preparation and I plan to contribute occasional snippets about my solutions to problems and my improvements.  Hopefully it will be of use to other members.

First I should declare the objective of my work on POG.  I wanted to turn the boat into a functional cruising boat.  I couldn't live with a boat that looks run down and dirty, but my cosmetic improvements have aimed at getting the boat to look fine, but not like a gleaming jewel.  Whenever possible I would search for good used gear to keep my investment in the boat to elbow grease and as few $$ as possible.

As this is rather long I will try to post some pictures separately in a follow up.

Problem number one was to get the head working. Believe it or not, this head was not operational when the boat sold to its previous owner (PO) in 2004 and was never fixed and used in his 6 years of tenure!  The toilet, a Wilcox Crittenden, was stained and grotty   The holding tank was filled to bursting with older than 6 year sewage.  The macerator pump made noise but seemed unable to vacate the holding tank.  In fact, I think this was the major reason the boat was sold to PO in 2004.  You can ask yourself what kind of survey PO got from the combination of an unscrupulous broker and his surveyor co-conspirator.  This was not the only disaster that went unmentioned in the useless survey.

The diameter of the 3/4" macerator outlet hose was stepped down and connected to a 1/2" seacock.  This struck me as an unwarranted downsizing, however efficient the macerator in chewing paper and caca. The only way to get rid of waste outboard was via the holding tank, through the macerator and out through the miniscule seacock.

The handle of the seacock turned suspiciously easy.  When I had the boat hauled for inspection at the time of purchase (I did my own survey),  I ran a screwdriver into the seacock from the outside.  Sure enough, the seacock was closed and frozen and, thus, the valve stem broken.

I tried to empty the holding tank at a pump out but the combination of a bad pump-out station and the long hose lead to the deck fitting at the bow did not bring success.  I will spare you the details of hand-pumping the mature and well aged contents of the tank into buckets and getting rid of the mess.

I took out the Wilcox toilet, cleaned it and got rid of it on Craigslist .  From the same list I purchased a lightly used Jabsco.  This is my favorite marine toilet; simple, functional and easy to deal with.  

With some difficulty I got rid of the abundance of hose that went up behind the outboard side of the shower and then turned back a couple of miles to the holding tank in the forepeak.  While the boat was on land I installed a 1 1/2" thruhull and seacock at the bottom of the storage space forward of the head sink.  I cut an opening in the cabinet side so that the seacock can be operated while you are on the throne.  Via a Y-valve higher up in the cabinet the waste can be shunted either to the holding tank or to the thruhull – all this shown by my hopefully successful picture attachments.  I fitted an anti-siphon valve just under the top of the cabinet.   This is certainly above the waterline, but not hugely so.  The rules are to keep the discharge seacock closed unless pumping out.

And here comes the clincher.  I am convinced a cruising boat should not be dependent on electricity for systems to work.   Consequently I have rigged the sump of the shower so that it is flushed by pumping the toilet.  Via a Y-valve you can choose to have the water to the toilet pump come from the saltwater intake thruhull or from the shower sump.  It works like a charm.

Instead I am using the shower drain pump as a back up bilge pump.  It empties through the same thruhull as before under the head sink.  So does the sink itself, by gravity, instead of depending on electricity.  I put in a valve to be able to close the sink drain, both against overflowing if the boat should really lie on its side or to stop bilge water from going into the sink when the back up bilge pump is in use.

If I thought I would have serious use for the holding tank I would have changed the position of the macerator pump from on top of the fwd water tank to be in the space just aft of the holding tank and moved the pump-out fitting on deck to be just above instead of all the way at the bow.  

Really, the only holding tank installation one can live with is one that is just under deck and empties by gravity into a discharge seacock.  Every time you flush the toilet overboard you get a clean-out of the holding tank and smell is not an issue in such installations.  There should, of course, be a Y-valve on the outlet side from the tank so that you can close it when it is used for holding or switch to pump-out if pumped out at a station.

If this was too long and boring, let me know...

Carl

[POG]

I seem unable to post my pix.  Getting a message that the upload file is full.  I will try later.

Carl

[Dale Tanski]

Carl,
So far your boat sound like ours when we bought her.  Holding tank full of someone eases left overs, Head pump not working.  I ended up cutting the V-berth a part and removing the holding tank including contents.  Seacock broken not at the stem but half way at the hole in the internal wedge valve.  Deck drain hoses rotted through, head hoses rotted through and hoses that went here to there but connected to nothing on ether end.  Electrical that was abandon, cut and useless. Sounds like you got a complete boat more or less, we didn't have a shower sump, or a bilge pump for that matter. 
Also sounds like you are well on your way to bringing her back to a respectable level of maintenance and upkeep.  A boat is much like an old house except if you do something wrong the house doesn't sink.
Keep on going...
Dale

[POG]

Dale,

Judging by the pix of your restoration I started with much easier material than you did.  It galls me that I cannot get my pictures to post.  I get the message that "the upload folder is full - contact  an administrator", which is what I have done (Rich / THIRD DAY).  Hopefully it can be fixed pronto.

My boat is pretty much ready for the oceans now.  I was planning to show things I have done to it that could be helpful to others in several posting on different topics such as reinforcing the "bowsprit", opening the water tanks and applying "Brew Coat" (an FDA approved epoxy coating without solvents), cutting away the forward part of the forward water tank to be able to store the anchor chain deeper down and further aft, restoring pretty awful teak, building a collapsible dodger, extending the gear shift lever, creating cruising storage in the hanging lockers, installing a folding table in the cockpit, mounting the spinnaker pole permanently on a lengthened mast track, moving the exhaust waterlock deeper in the boat and putting a gate valve on it to prevent saltwater running back into the engine in extreme weather etc etc.  But I need to be able to show pictures.

Carl

[kevin barber]

Carl-

Re: your problems posting photos:

Did you check the instructions on posting photos in the general forum that Rich "sticky posted"?  

http://www.pearson365.com/forum/index.php?topic=119.0

You need to upload your photos to a hosting site like photobucket.com.  From there you need to insert the image to your post.

There is no way to upload your photos directly to the Pearson365 website.

[POG]

Thanks Kevin,

Uploading moderate pixel photos from my desktop to the site worked for me before.  I guess something has changed - and being an almost old fart I have a hard time keeping up with photobucket and such.  I guess I will have to try... though it hurts my brain (what's left of it)

Carl

[POG]

All right...  with trembling hands I will attempt to show a picture pertaining to my initial posting under this subject:



This shows my new (lightly used) JABSCO head in place.  Note the cut out in the front of the sink cabinet.  Inside is the thru hull valve for overboard discharge which can be opened and closed while on the "throne".  



Note also the small Y-valve on the bulkhead where you can switch from flushing using water from the intake thru hull or flush out the shower water from the shower sump with the help of the toilet pump.

Carl

[POG]

Next effort.  Should show a bit more of the Y valve switch between thru hull flush or shower sump flush:



Instead of closing the sea water sea cock you can achieve the same effect by turning the valve to shower sump pumping - that is, if you trust your hose and hose clamps from the sea water side.

[POG]

Illustration #3.  Shows the discharge hose inside the sink cabinet.  The anti-siphon elbow is just under the counter.  The Y-valve for switching between holding tank or overboard discharge is mounted on a wood block glassed to the side of the hull.  The overboard discharge thru hull is underneath the split bottom of the locker, which still has plenty of storage space left:

[POG]

And - lastly, here is the idiotic macerator installation on top of the forward water tank, with the pump out hose running all the way to the bow.  I would change it if I ever intended to make much use of the holding tank.  



Thank you everybody for your patience.  Thank you Kevin for the tutoring.

Carl

[POG]

Here, for good measure, is a picture of the gravity drain of the head sink, emptying into the same T as the former sump pump, now converted to back up bilge pump.  Note the shut-off valve in the drain line which can be closed if the sink threatens to overflow during massive heel.  It also needs to be closed when the back up bilge pump is employed to prevent the bilge water from surging into the sink.