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Head and holding tanks

Hcard

Member III
Hi!
Welcome to the group.

We purchased our boat new in 88. We have never had a problem with head odors. We have a rule that everybody has to sit to use the head. Our theory is that using the head while standing causes some spray to leave the head and to create odors. Our boat has always been in freshwater, so that might contribute to why we've not experienced any odors coming from the hoses.

As for the fresh water tanks, I flush out the antifreeze in the spring then put in a bottle of clorox bleach and fill the tank with water. Then I let it sit overnight. In the morning I empty the tanks and then fill/empty them twice to flush out the bleach. On our boat one of our water tanks also has a foot pump attached. After draining that tank I have to use the foot pump to get all of the water out of the tank.
Thank you for your input and suggestion.
 

Hcard

Member III
What Loren said and a few more words. That blue dye coming back from the holding tank might indicate you need to replace the joker valve at the base of the toilet. It acts as a one way valve to keep stuff going in the right direction and in my experience they are good for 5 years at best. Ordorlos is a good tank treatment for keeping smells under control. Depending on your setup, you might not be able to pump directly from the toilet to OB. Most systems plumb direct from toilet to holding tank, then from tank to OB. If you're concerned about your fresh water tank you can get purifying tablets from RV suppliers.
Thank you! Noted....
 

Hcard

Member III
What Bob said! On our boat also, EVERYONE SITS. I was taught this when I first started doing deliveries several decades ago by an experienced owner/skipper. Simple rationale -- keeps the whole darned head compartment 97% cleaner. Also, when the boat is rolling around or pitching, it's safer. :)
After a multi day off shore delivery with 3 or 4 guys, the wives meet us at the destination, and we present them with a clean interior. Very good for marriage preservation.

Want another piece of unsolicited advice?! (Not hearing a 'no' over the internet...)
When cruising with friends for a day or longer, have everyone choose/provide their own bowl, cup, and spoon. Iron-clad rule is that they keep these with their personal things and *nothing* is ever left in the sink. Nothing.
They can wash and dry it regularly, or add new comestibles to the dried on crud, but it's their dish. You very soon get used to a clean galley. Whole boat is lots nicer. A sink full of dirty dishes, rattling around as the boat moves, is gross, and it's interesting how no one wants to volunteer to wash 'em, including the owner.
:)

edit: now reads 'bowl' !!
Great, Thank you!
 

goldenstate

Sustaining Member
Blogs Author
Sorry I had not reply before. The Name is AMAZING GRACE and the No. ERY32909D090, Can you please tell me what does say about the boat? Many thanks
Hi Hcard -

I own the same boat you do (32-200) and I started a thread listing all of the known Ericson 32's.
Yours is already in this 'database':


I take it Amazing Grace is still in Sandusky OH?

Otherwise it means you own one of the finest (and youngest) Ericsons on the planet.... :)

-Tom
 

Hcard

Member III
@Hcard What is the name and hull number of your 32-200?
Hi Hcard -

I own the same boat you do (32-200) and I started a thread listing all of the known Ericson 32's.
Yours is already in this 'database':


I take it Amazing Grace is still in Sandusky OH?

Otherwise it means you own one of the finest (and youngest) Ericsons on the planet.... :)

-Tom
Hi Goldenstate, I bought it from a couple who lived in OH and brought her to Florida. She was in Sandusky and hauled her to Florida. I had been looking for a nice boat and this one is very clean, properly maintained. I am very happy with her..!!
 

Hcard

Member III
Hi Goldenstate, I bought it from a couple who lived in OH and brought her to Florida. She was in Sandusky and hauled her to Florida. I had been looking for a nice boat and this one is very clean, properly maintained. I am very happy with her..!!
Is there any way I can see the posts from her previous owners? or learn about her history. I was not tole very much. I have an inspection report from 1991 and all the manuals. She does not seem like a 30 year old girl. Anything you can tell me about her would be greatly appreciated.

The boat has a water heater, how does it work??? sorry but now that I know you have the same boat I hope I will not become a pain, asking you every minute.
 

goldenstate

Sustaining Member
Blogs Author
Hi Goldenstate, I bought it from a couple who lived in OH and brought her to Florida. She was in Sandusky and hauled her to Florida. I had been looking for a nice boat and this one is very clean, properly maintained. I am very happy with her..!!
Nice work. If you not only have a nice Ericson, but one that has spent its life in freshwater, winner winner chicken dinner(!)
 

Hcard

Member III
Nice work. If you not only have a nice Ericson, but one that has spent its life in freshwater, winner winner chicken dinner(!)
jaja. yes, I was very lucky, she doe not know salt water. The rigging is clean and the engine is incredibly in great shape. Will shoot some pics this weekend.
 

goldenstate

Sustaining Member
Blogs Author
Is there any way I can see the posts from her previous owners? or learn about her history. I was not tole very much. I have an inspection report from 1991 and all the manuals. She does not seem like a 30 year old girl. Anything you can tell me about her would be greatly appreciated.
Is your manual a 32-200 manual or one for a 32-3? If you have one that is specific to the 32-200 series, it would be the only one known to exist and valuable to people such as yours truly.

Every month or so when I am bored, I google around a little bit and look for Ericson 32's for sale. Other forum members have contributed their own information too.

I traded messages in July with one person who was looking at buying your boat. He found some problems he didn't like but he also listed some of the same issues I have. You have a Yanmar 3GM30F engine with no clock, right? You have no idea how many hours it has on it, at 30 years old? I don't know how many are on my Yanmar either. But it hasn't let me down yet...

Other than that I don't know anything about your boat. I don't know if the former owners ever visited this forum. It doesn't help that there are at least an E38 and an E30+ also named Amazing Grace.
 

Hcard

Member III
Is your manual a 32-200 manual or one for a 32-3? If you have one that is specific to the 32-200 series, it would be the only one known to exist and valuable to people such as yours truly.

Every month or so when I am bored, I google around a little bit and look for Ericson 32's for sale. Other forum members have contributed their own information too.

I traded messages in July with one person who was looking at buying your boat. He found some problems he didn't like but he also listed some of the same issues I have. You have a Yanmar 3GM30F engine with no clock, right? You have no idea how many hours it has on it, at 30 years old? I don't know how many are on my Yanmar either. But it hasn't let me down yet...

Other than that I don't know anything about your boat. I don't know if the former owners ever visited this forum. It doesn't help that there are at least an E38 and an E30+ also named Amazing Grace.
Many thanks! I have the manual on the boat so I will check and let you know! The engine has not clock but the day I got it I ran it for 8 hours with no issues. SO far I am supper happy with the boat...obviously is not a new boat and has some issues but hey, nobody Is perfect, not even AMAZING GRACE! jaja. All the best!
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Engine hours, yeah. Most of us put an hour or so on the engine each sail, just getting in and out. Most of us don't go cruising nearly as much as we'd like. Fifty hours a year is a pretty well-used boat, since it might mean the owner went sailing 50 times. That's once a week for 50 weeks, which is unlikely in the real world.

So-- a 1990 boat with the original engine has maybe 50 x 30 hours on it--1500 hours. That's peanuts in the life of a diesel on an Ericson (see link below).

You can easily install an hour meter (Hobbs meter), which merely records the time the ignition is on. Useful for oil change timing, but not for the historical run time of a particular engine. That's because hour meters typically quit working and need to be replaced, and always start over at zero. Short "total hours" recorded usually means one or several hour meters. And of course, since there is no pressing need to replace a busted hour meter, the previous owner may have waited five or ten years to do it.

 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
I would suggest buying a good quality Hour Meter (aka Hobbs meter). I added one to our boat when i repowered, since the hour readout in the new little digital window in the panel is really difficult to read. As Christian points out, it will record whenever the engine panel is powered.
Note B: that new meter can be mounted anywhere handy, since it is normally used to asses a need for an oil change, or just to commemorate any engine maintenance like a valve adjustment or heat exchanger cleaning or ?
Our meter install was covered somewhat in this thread: https://ericsonyachts.org/ie/ubs/new-hour-meter-halon-status-light-part-1.671/
 

Unr8tedsaw

Junior Member
Greetings, I had recently acquired an E27 and wanted to replace the toilet and clean the waste system setup.
Will a Jabsco toilet work/fit on an E27? Does the holding tank have to be lower than the toilet?
Many thanks
 

Chris Mc.

Member III
I would suggest buying a good quality Hour Meter (aka Hobbs meter). I added one to our boat when i repowered, since the hour readout in the new little digital window in the panel is really difficult to read. As Christian points out, it will record whenever the engine panel is powered.
Note B: that new meter can be mounted anywhere handy, since it is normally used to asses a need for an oil change, or just to commemorate any engine maintenance like a valve adjustment or heat exchanger cleaning or ?
Our meter install was covered somewhat in this thread: https://ericsonyachts.org/ie/ubs/new-hour-meter-halon-status-light-part-1.671/
I’d like to mention that in my early experience of being around sailboats, I’d suspect a lot of the Hobbs meters indicate higher than actual hours due to the operators failing to turn off the keyed ignition after pulling the engine cut-off. I’ve seen it with aircraft (guilty) and am sure I’ll likely do the same with my boat.
As mentioned, it’s definitely a good idea to have a Hobbs for your own sense of record keeping for maintanence, et cetera.
 

Sean Engle

Your Friendly Administrator
Administrator
Founder
Couple of comments:

  • If your boat is in salt water, you want to flush the lines out with fresh each time you close the boat up. Never, ever leave salt water in your lines, as the little critters in the water die, and then the hose itself becomes rancid. If you are wondering if your hoses getting impregnated with stink, simply wet a cloth, wipe them down and take a whiff. On my boat the sink was rigged to be a port to drain to holding tank so you could charge the lines with fresh water.
  • Strongly recommend placing an access port on your holding tank. Port should be stout and either factory set (recommended) or set in with 5200 so it is sealed (should have an O ring, etc). At regular intervals you want to put on mask, have someone on the dock sucking it out while you hose out the inside of the tank. If you do that, and keep your lines charged with fresh water, your tank will go a long, long way toward not stinking.
  • Don't allow your tank to be overloaded - else the effluent will make it's way back up into the vent line, pack into it, dry and harden, killing the vent. Then you try and suck the tank out, and it will start to implode. I always shot water into the vent line from the dock to back flush that line as part of my closure of the boat.
  • Agree with the others on sitting and rules. Everyone on your boat should know the rules, so be explicit with about them. I found that having a humorous laminated card with head operations in the head was useful as people are bashful, etc. Rules/information transfer to guests is critical - and goes beyond the head (a safety briefing should also be given if new guests are on board who are not familiar the boat).
    • Things like:
    • With exception with small amounts of marine grade tissue, "...nothing goes into the bowl that has not gone through you first...".​
    • This includes tampons, etc. I have a friend who got a tampon into his macerator and it was not pleasant. I always kept a box of small vanity-sized trash bags below the counter, with closures, and call them out on the instruction card (with instructions for the guest to please take them with them or ensure they are put into the main trash).​
    • They should understand that they are pumping into a box - so they cannot pump gallons and gallons and gallons of water through the head (I've had this happen as well).​
    • They should understand why they need to leave certain valves closed after use and the bowl empty/dry if you are underway.​
After I got my boat, I was at West Marine one night and a clerk came up and started talking to me about my boat. I told him that I single handed a lot as it was hard to get people to break from their schedules without warning and go evening sailing, etc. He said something to me that I always remembered: "Yes, it's excellent to learn to do everything yourself; to plan on doing everything yourself". Then I said, "...well, you mean for when you don't have crew..." To which he replied "No! It's ESPECIALLY for when you have crew and guests on board. That's when you really need to be able to do everything yourself - as they often become impediments and safety hazards, as they either don't know what they're doing, or do it wrong, etc. If you train for only counting on yourself as a baseline, you'll always be good."

:egrin:

//sse
 
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