If so which toilet ?

Paul Burton.

Parker 21 Papillon.

I replaced it with a Blakes Lavac marine toilet, which I think give a very neat installation. This relies on the waste exit pump creating a vacuum in the bowl which draws in fresh water. Crucially, the pump can be remote from the bowl (whereas in all other toilets the pump is attached to the bowl which requires much more width for installation).

The porcelain bowl sits in the same position as the Porta Potti. The waste pump is on the forward side of the small bulkhead at the front of the starboard berth/bench and is hidden by the curtain. The Blakes sea cocks are located in the locker to starboard of the bowl, and the various hoses pass through holes at the top of the locker, well above sea level. This means that any leaks from the sea cock would, at worst, only partially fill this locker and not spread into the rest of the boat.

Have you got any pics of your Lavac installation? I am thinking of installing one to replace the portapoti on my 235 and would be interested to see how its done.

Thanks

Chris Cobb

235/48 "Tarakihi"

I am trying to attach 5 pictures which should show the installation. Hope this works, please contact me if I can help more.

Jeff

ihttp://picasaweb.google....94/Loo?feat=directlinkmg ]

They make your cabin look very inviting.

Regards,

Brock

Geoff P21/30 Cygnus

Thanks for the links to your pics of the Lavac installation. It looks a very neat installation and gives me food for thought on installing ine on our 235. A few questions though: (1)did your glass in the reinforcing blocks for the seacocks - I assume they are wood - and is the use of blocks recommended? (2) how far below the waterline are the seacocks and is this dimension crucial? (3) have you had any problems with the toilet's operation.

Many thanks

Chris Cobb

235/48 "Tarakihi"

The valve hull apertures are round 8" below water level. Ideally they should be lower, but the locker gets narrower lower down and there would be insufficient room for the valves. It was a compromise. It means that when the boat heels to port, the fresh water intake aperture is likely to be out of the water.

I tend to be in a marina at night rather than anchored, so cannot claim to have made massive use of the loo, but have not had any trouble. Overall I like it a lot, and am happy to recommend it.

A further comment on the valves. I opted for the Blakes seacocks/valves, because they are compact and I could fit them lower in the locker than with the flanged thru hull fittings and ball valves. But I thought they were very expensive, and I was disappointed that are now were made from DZR (dezincification resistant)brass rather than bronze - no real evidence but DZR sounds new fangled and not as good as bronze. Also the traditional design means that lots of laminate edges are exposed where the holes are drilled through the GRP, potentially allowing water ingress. They valves make no attemtpt to seal against this, whereas the flanged fittings aim to seal on the outside of the hull. I tried to overcome this by painting all surfaces with epoxy and then using lots of marine sealant when fitting the valves.

Thanks for info and comments about Blakes seacocks. We will make the decision on the whether we use them once the actual location in our hull is decided - the layout is quite different to your P21 and have got to decide whether they go in the "watertight" locker where the log and sounder transducer are or somewhere else where we might have to create a new locker in the heads compartment.

Chris Cobb

235/48 "Tarakihi"

We've had Frazzle (P21 no 51) for a season and are delighted with her. We're considering fitting a marine heads over the winter and I'd be grateful if anyone can share their experiences (and ideally photos) of a successful installation. (I've noted the forum entries above but the link to the photo's doesn't seem to work any more).

Thanks in anticipation

Julian