A serious HEAD question...

[Dennis Truett]

How can one determine the level of substance in the holding tank at any one time. I ask the question considering the consequence of not knowing.

Thanks for any experiances you might want to share.

Dennis
CD26D



truettdc@frontiernet.net

[Jeff Partington]

Dennis:

There are essentially three methods:

1) Open the inspection port on the holding tank (peeee EWWWW)
2) Install a "Tank Tender" found in the classified section of Cruising World magazine monthly. or
3) Assume a gallon of water is used for each flush and count the flushes used by the crew divided by the capacity of the holding tank. You should be close to full on a typical 15 gallon tank by 15, with perhaps a few to spare.

You may want to employ the "pee to sea" and "stank to tank" method to cut down on volume, although the laws where you are may be more restrictive.

Hope this was helpful and happy sailing


Jeff Partington
s/v Whisper

How can one determine the level of substance in the holding tank at any one time. I ask the question considering the consequence of not knowing.

Thanks for any experiances you might want to share.

Dennis
CD26D

CaptJester@AOL.com

[Matt Cawthorne]

Dennis,
On our CD36 we employ a method of counting person-days. The first few months we had the boat I would open up the inspection port at the end of the weekend (YUK!). If we had 3 people on for the weekend we would count that as 6 person-days. We found that we could go for 16 person-days with a comfortable margin. That way you account for the habbits of your regular crew. I think that we could have gone for 20 Person-days, but I just didn't want to open that tank again. You have to be very careful when you have crew that is unaware of the limitations of holding tanks. A friend of mine had his flexible tank fittings blow off last year when he had two land lubbers aboard. I suggested that he just sink his boat.

Matt

How can one determine the level of substance in the holding tank at any one time. I ask the question considering the consequence of not knowing.

Thanks for any experiances you might want to share.

Dennis
CD26D

mcawthor@bellatlantic.net

[john churchill]

do you have a rigid tank? my cd 26 has a black rubber flexible tank under the starboard side of the v berth. if we are using it (generally only in nontidal or heavily occupied anchorages), i just lift the bunk cushion and lid and see how full it is. if you had a rigid tank you might considera sight glass (translucent rather than transparent out of decency please) to keep an eye on things. that would be one job i would consider hiring out.