I’m the proud new owner of a 1973 O’Day 22. I’m outfitting the boat for a series of weeklong cruises (both alone and with the wife) and the biggest challenge I’m coming across is how to keep clean while afloat. Any ideas for rigging a shower system (either inside or in the cockpit) would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Dan
O'Day 22 shower?
- Thread starter Catketch
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Have you checked out the Solar Shower? I never used one but for less than $20.00, it sounds like a reasonable option, especially for a smaller boat.
http://store.sundancesolar.com/sosh5ga.html
Anyone use this?
Chuck
As Chuck pointed out, the Solar Shower is the way to go. We started using one of those back in the late 1980's on our O'Day 222 and I'm still using it to this day. You can hang it on the end of the boom and sit down inside the cockpit floor and get cleaned and refreshed. You can also hoist it up on the Jib halyard and get cooled off,-- with your swim suit on of course. Hang an 8X10' polytarp over your boom and tie it off to your lifelines for shade and extra privacy. You can also use clothes pins to hang some towels on the lifelines for extra privacy. Years ago, my wife and I sailed to Bristol RI to go to the July 4th parade. We were anchored in deep water over by the Herreshoff Dock and I decided to take a shower on board before we paddled our rubber raft to the dock. As luck would have it, some lady sailor in a large sloop, intentionally sailed by my boat and peeked in at me as I was showering. I threw my towel over me real quick.
So the morrow to this story is; always anchor in shallow water when you're taking a shower in the cockpit of your boat!
Joe
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Yes, I used a solar shower on a previous boat and it worked fine. It's kinda expensive, but Coleman now makes a pressurized hot water system with a shower adapter that looks very interesting. I'm just curious about what other O'Day 22 owners have done as far as rigging a shower enclosure goes. Thanks, Dan
We used to tent camp alot, and bought a solar shower from walmart. It was a black plastic (two liter i think) bag with a hose on it and a small shower head. It was pretty cheap and worked well. But as mentioned, you have to have a place to hang it.
In the military some of us would take along a small one gallon hand pump pressurized bug sprayer, like you use to spray bugs and weeds. The advantage of that over the solar shower is you don't have to have a place to hang it. It gets the crevices clean without being a contortionist, and works pretty well if you are sitting down. if you want a hot shower you can add some heated (from your camp stove) water to it. But it doesn't get hot in the sun as well as the solar shower.
keith
In the military some of us would take along a small one gallon hand pump pressurized bug sprayer, like you use to spray bugs and weeds. The advantage of that over the solar shower is you don't have to have a place to hang it. It gets the crevices clean without being a contortionist, and works pretty well if you are sitting down. if you want a hot shower you can add some heated (from your camp stove) water to it. But it doesn't get hot in the sun as well as the solar shower.
keith
The bug sprayers are supposed to be great on a boat for taking a shower in the summertime. I've been thinking of buying one and trying it out. The water in my solar shower can actually get too hot when the temps hit 90. I usually flip the shower over so that the transparent side is facing down when I store it on the deck of my boat in the sun. I've taken a shower on my boat many a time while she was sailing under autopilot. I've also climbed down my swim ladder and into the water and hung on to it while the pilot was steering under sail. I cut that practice out one day after we spotted a large shark basking on the surface of the water not far from Cuttyhunk Is. on the Cape. Now I use a bucket of sea water and a sponge to get cooled off. This works out OK to cool Penny off in the hot summer.
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