Where does your head drain?
- Thread starter TooCoys
- Start date
After a while in this forum you will learn which people have expert knowledge in which areas and you will tend to follow their advise. For the time being just read all the recommendations and pick those that you think are best and shut "the head door". Creating an argument about those recommendations you may not like may just cause your requests for assistance perhaps to be ignored in the future. This is not social media but an exchange of ideas and experiences about sailing and boat maintenance and repairs.
Obviously I was kidding with the last one... A serious recommendation:
There's nothing sacrosanct about the way any boat leaves the factory because boat builders all too often put cost cutting above the best way to do things, and because hatches in cabin soles add "unnecessary" cost, they rarely install 'em...leaving owners with no access to the bilges to be able to clean 'em. It actually costs very little to install one or two hatches (I put three in the sole of my own boat).... and that's what I suggest you do. 'Cuz if you can't clean the bilges, you'll never have an odor free boat. Plus, hatches also provide access to hoses, wiring, water pumps, bilge pumps etc that every owner eventually needs.
There's nothing sacrosanct about the way any boat leaves the factory because boat builders all too often put cost cutting above the best way to do things, and because hatches in cabin soles add "unnecessary" cost, they rarely install 'em...leaving owners with no access to the bilges to be able to clean 'em. It actually costs very little to install one or two hatches (I put three in the sole of my own boat).... and that's what I suggest you do. 'Cuz if you can't clean the bilges, you'll never have an odor free boat. Plus, hatches also provide access to hoses, wiring, water pumps, bilge pumps etc that every owner eventually needs.
We know you were Peggie but that was the sharpest comeback I have heard in years. Ouch, I will make it a point to never casually dismiss any advice you give out. Hunter never put a shower on the h27 Cherubini, someone made a hole on the cabin sole liner to try an make a shower drain out of it.
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That doesn't mean an owner can't install one--correctly this time. You'd use the hand held shower, so you'd only need to cut the right size drain in lowest part of the head sole. The sump wouldn't have to be directly below it...run a hose from it to a sump and a hose from the sump to an above-waterline thru-hull and you're in business. You could also run the icebox drain line to it....keeping all the smelly water out of the bilge.
Of course that would require access to the bilge, which brings me back to "install a couple of hatches."
(And now at least 3 Cherubini H27 owners are gonna tell me why there's no way to do it on that boat...)
That's something I'd like to know myself. I've often wondered how much rotten there is under the head floor, but I'm afraid to take a saw to it lest I cut thru the hull.
Btw, there is a drain hole in the floor at the base of my compression post, as well. I figured it was to drain any water from the mast, or any overflow from the head down to the forward bilge.
Which is why I responded - to exchange an idea. I didn't discount her knowledge or experience, I just wasn't going to stick a pressure washer under my head! LOL
I don't subscribe to the bleach is corrosive idea though. I'm sure if left there in undiluted amounts it probably could be, but I'm not talking about that. I'm simply talking about cleaning it the same way you would your kitchen counter.
From what I've been told on another forum, the bilges are actually the bottom of my hull. The only places that I can't acces directly right now is the small space under the head, and the space under the aft cockpit. They are set up as a double layered "liner" as I call it.
Most areas of the boat are surprisingly accessible in some form or fashion so I don't think I need to install any hatches. But I can see where they'd definitely be useful on a larger boat.
Since we'll only be cruising locally, I doubt we'll ever actually shower aboard, so one of my projects that I put on my list is to actually glass that hole back in and remove that drain.
From what I can tell, there isn't much. Maybe an inch to an inch and a half. If I stick my finger in the holes under the head floor, I can only get my index finger in up until my knuckle. If I raise my finger up I can touch the underside of the floor of the head.
I'll try to use some flash lights and get y'all a better photo tomorrow.
The easiest thing on my boat would be to install a drain with a 90 degree elbow under it, and attach a 6 inch piece of flexible rubber tubing and run it directly to the bilge.
So now I'm confused.
Do I believe the people who say that Hunter never installed a drain there? Or do I believe that two previous owners of our own two boats did exactly the same thing in the same place on the boat? My drain is just on the side of that square post, which I assume is what you are referring to as the compression post.
TooCoys,
Hunter changed things on these boats each year they where in production, so some may have drains, others not. I've run into this repeatedly with the H30.
Draining the shower directly into the bilge may be easiest, but it is certainly not the best. Recall the primordial soup that Peggy mentioned. If you can get a 90 degree drain & hose installed, you should run the hose to a shower sump lower in the bilge, where ever it will fit, and from there what drains from your shower can be pumped directly overboard without fouling the bilge and the bilge pump.
Hunter changed things on these boats each year they where in production, so some may have drains, others not. I've run into this repeatedly with the H30.
Draining the shower directly into the bilge may be easiest, but it is certainly not the best. Recall the primordial soup that Peggy mentioned. If you can get a 90 degree drain & hose installed, you should run the hose to a shower sump lower in the bilge, where ever it will fit, and from there what drains from your shower can be pumped directly overboard without fouling the bilge and the bilge pump.
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If that was my boat, I would never take a shower in it. My 28 footer has a "shower" in it that drains (through a line) to the bilge. I hate to think what showering would really do to the woodwork, etc. in the head area. Ugh. I either shower on land or use the cockpit.
I'd remove the hardware (strainer) first, and toss it. Then, set about cleaning out whatever mess might be under there reasonably well. Glassing over the hole would be a pain in the butt, as far as I'm concerned. I'd just use it for a drink holder. Just kidding. But it would go nicely with that backrest you have on your toilet. I'd fashion a cover out of a small thin piece of Starboard material or find a small kitchen cutting board with white plastic that I like, and cut, grind, and drill it into a cover. Then seal with something like 3M 4200, and screw it down to the sole.
So, the sole in the head area, is the liner, which is suspended over the bilge, right? And if that drain hole is right next to your mast (which is on the centerline of the boat), then the drain just empties right into the middle of your forward bilge area. And that area of the bilge, unlike the bilge in your main saloon, has no access cover, meaning it's always going to be kind of skanky in there.
So, water flows into that forward bilge area from the drain (or other sources as yet to be identified), and then flows from that bilge area through the limber holes into the bilge area in the main saloon. Stick a hose in the drain, turn it on, and the entire bilge will fill up, right? Even if you block off the drain hole with a nice cover, when you get some water in your saloon bilge, it's going to travel from there, through the limber holes to the bilge area under the head. The question I would have is, so what? Your's wouldn't be the only boat on the planet with an inaccessible bilge area. Fugetaboutit. Of course, you don't want to plug the limber holes to prevent that, because any water getting into the forward bilge from a leaky hatch, etc., would be trapped in there and be a REAL mess.
I'd remove the hardware (strainer) first, and toss it. Then, set about cleaning out whatever mess might be under there reasonably well. Glassing over the hole would be a pain in the butt, as far as I'm concerned. I'd just use it for a drink holder. Just kidding. But it would go nicely with that backrest you have on your toilet. I'd fashion a cover out of a small thin piece of Starboard material or find a small kitchen cutting board with white plastic that I like, and cut, grind, and drill it into a cover. Then seal with something like 3M 4200, and screw it down to the sole.
So, the sole in the head area, is the liner, which is suspended over the bilge, right? And if that drain hole is right next to your mast (which is on the centerline of the boat), then the drain just empties right into the middle of your forward bilge area. And that area of the bilge, unlike the bilge in your main saloon, has no access cover, meaning it's always going to be kind of skanky in there.
So, water flows into that forward bilge area from the drain (or other sources as yet to be identified), and then flows from that bilge area through the limber holes into the bilge area in the main saloon. Stick a hose in the drain, turn it on, and the entire bilge will fill up, right? Even if you block off the drain hole with a nice cover, when you get some water in your saloon bilge, it's going to travel from there, through the limber holes to the bilge area under the head. The question I would have is, so what? Your's wouldn't be the only boat on the planet with an inaccessible bilge area. Fugetaboutit. Of course, you don't want to plug the limber holes to prevent that, because any water getting into the forward bilge from a leaky hatch, etc., would be trapped in there and be a REAL mess.
Where is it written that a shower sump can only be directly under the shower drain?