More toilet fun
Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 5:16 pm
My partner is not happy with the the headroom and difficulty maneuvering into the Ballad's head. (She is quite tall.) We knew it was tiny and awkwardly placed before buying the boat; it is even smaller than we thought! And I am not excited by the idea of staggering all the way thru the salon in wet foulies to use a head that is bouncing up and down like crazy. So we are thinking of combining the nav station with an aft head. You get more headroom, don't have to walk down the length of the boat, and all the on-watch stuff (nav, logbook, comms, toilet) are in one place. 
We are also very attracted to composting toilets. They do away with the need for a holding tank, pumpout, Y-valves, and stinky hoses. Also no thru-hulls to sink your boat. Most owners report much less odor than a holding tank system. But they are very tall. We could also use a standard manual or electric head in this place. Basically, we want to replace the nav station seat with a toilet seat. We would move the settee bulkhead forward 3" for more room (that bunk is 3" longer than the starboard one, for some reason.)
Here is a mockup of the design so far:
The buckets are the height of a composting head; regular head would be much shorter. The chart table would slide partway into the cockpit locker for more knee room, and radios etc. could mount under the bridgedeck or in the fiberglass panel back there. We would still need to step outside the head to dress, but at least there is nearly 2m headroom to do it in!
For whatever reason, few builders combine the head and nav station. Someone pointed out the Bene 235, which has the exact same design solution we envision:
Has anyone else tried moving the head on the Ballad? Do you think it is a workable idea? (I do love the idea of converting that forward compartment into storage, too.
)
We are also very attracted to composting toilets. They do away with the need for a holding tank, pumpout, Y-valves, and stinky hoses. Also no thru-hulls to sink your boat. Most owners report much less odor than a holding tank system. But they are very tall. We could also use a standard manual or electric head in this place. Basically, we want to replace the nav station seat with a toilet seat. We would move the settee bulkhead forward 3" for more room (that bunk is 3" longer than the starboard one, for some reason.)
Here is a mockup of the design so far:
The buckets are the height of a composting head; regular head would be much shorter. The chart table would slide partway into the cockpit locker for more knee room, and radios etc. could mount under the bridgedeck or in the fiberglass panel back there. We would still need to step outside the head to dress, but at least there is nearly 2m headroom to do it in!
For whatever reason, few builders combine the head and nav station. Someone pointed out the Bene 235, which has the exact same design solution we envision:
Has anyone else tried moving the head on the Ballad? Do you think it is a workable idea? (I do love the idea of converting that forward compartment into storage, too.
)