Flexable holding tank

[Jackdaw]

Peggie,

My new-to-me Beneteau First 260 comes factory equipped with a flexible (bladder) 10G holding talk under the Vee berth. The whole deal seems sound and well thought out, but I have never had a boat with a soft tank. Is there special care I should take with it? he boat is 15 years old now; any age limitations of materials I should be watching?

 

[Peggie Hall HeadMistress]

A couple of potential problems...

The average lifespan of any bladder tank is only about 15 years. All that flexing tends to wear out seams and fittings...and it's just about impossible to prevent 100% of chafing. Your tank is just about that old if it's still the original. And bladder tanks have never been recommended for waste holding because it's almost impossible to keep a bladder aerobic and also because they're highly prone to blowing out fittings at the first sign of a clog or blocked vent.

And then there's the small size...only 10 gallons. That's barely enough to last two adults more than about 24 hours .

The good news is, the v-berth is the best place for a waste tank unless the toilet is so far away that it would make too long a hose run from the toilet to the tank. So my advice: replace it with a 15-18 gallon rigid plastic tank. Your best source is Ronco Plastics Ronco Plastics Marine Catalog They make top quality tanks for a very reasonable price and have more than 400 shapes and sizes, over 100 of which are non-rectangulat...and they install fittings in the sizes and locations specified by the customer when they make the tank, which should make it easy to connect existing hoses (provided they don't also need replacing).

 

[Jackdaw]

Thanks for the reply. The 10G is just a guess but seems close. Bene liked 40L holding tanks for small boats. And our 36.7 came factory with a 10G tank! that got swapped. The Ronco catalog looks great. I took a quick look and it seems like a custom tank would fit in the V. I assume Beneteau used a bladder because of the limited size and the shape of the area. And yes the head is forward, so all the hose runs are very short.

PS - are you actually in Little Rock? We found our 260 on Lake Degray. I just did a post about it; what a pretty lake!!

 

[Ted]

Flexible holding tank

This may be obvious but before you order a new rigid holding tank make sure you can maneuver it into place without taking your whole boat apart. I had a friend who built a small sailing dingy in the basement of his home but when it was finally finished he couldn't get it out of the house. Like a true sailor, he ripped the house apart rather than the boat to get it out. He's now divorced. Measure twice, cut once.

 

[Peggie Hall HeadMistress]

Yep, I'm really in Little Rock. Lake DeGray is pretty... Lake Ouchita is even prettier, but it's surrounded by mountains, so it's not good for sailing.

Good point, Ted! However, it's not necessarily a case of "measure twice, cut once," but measure EVERYTHING. Years ago I had a customer who did everything right...he HAD measured twice...made a cardboard mockup of the tank he wanted...it fit the space under his v-berth perfectly...he ran all the hoses to the specified fittings locations ahead of time...he was ready to drop the tank in, connect the plumbing and go.

Then the tank arrived. He'd made the mockup while IN the boat...it had never occurred to him (or me!) to find out whether it would go through the companionway hatch or any of the deck hatches...it wouldn't! He couldn't get the d'd thing into the boat! We'd always had a "no exchange, no return" policy for custom fitted tanks, but I couldn't do that to him...we got him another tank. And I think I had that tank for at least two years before anyone else came along who could use it!