So your boat stinks

It happens all the time and the culprit is usually a clogged vent line. Does the smell come back at you when you flush the head?  Its the vent. The holding tank needs to let the air get out. Soooooo ...Your going to have to clean it ... try this first

Open the deck fitting first. Then if you have a dry vac or a vacuum cleaner with a round connection, put the end over the vent on the outside of the boat. Hold it up against  the boat so you get a good suction, then have someone at the open deck fitting listening for air. It may take a few seconds to clear before you hear the air. If you don't hear air. You'll have to do the next step.

1:  disconnect the vent from the holding tank.  It's on the top of the tank and is the smallest hose. You should hear air coming out of the tank. 

2: Have someone try to force water down the line from the thru hull fitting outside and someone at the other end to see if the water comes out the line. If so, make sure all the water is out of the line , clean out  the fitting on the tank on the tank and reconnect the hose. You vent it now clear. If water do not come though  the line... read on.

3:  Follow the hose to the other end where it goes thru the hull and disconnect it

4: Now blow on the hose..........NO WAIT don't do that...use a garden hose or something. But clean it out and make sure it's clear of all water.

5:  Before you put it back on, make sure the connections that you disconnected from are clean too. Use a bobby pin or a coat hanger ( the universal tool )

What to do to prevent it

Don't fill it up so much... : < ( 

If you take the boat out , don't do it with a full tank The wave action can cause the tank to splash up and down and can clog the vent. If it's a hand pump, it will let you know it's full when it gets harder to pump DON'T pump anymore or it will go up the vent and the deck fitting causing the boat to stink. If it's an electric head it let's you know when it comes back up the toilet, but by then it may be to late. You can install an indicator on the tank...but don't ask me how... but they do have simple kits out there?

You can also try using probably the best stuff that's come out in 20 years to get ride of odors   click here for more info

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Who fixes heads?

That's a good question.  In Sausalito, there's a guy they call Harry the Head but don't call that to his face. He would rather you page him at 415-303-3407 or can try Charles Barnard at 415-710-0039. In Redwood City call Larry Kaplan at 650-922-4081 ( Cleaning and fiberglass repairs also ) You could also also ask at your closest boat yard. 

But I can help you a little. If the toilet works don't fix it. The problem is usually the hoses. Most boats use sea water to flush the head. After a while the salt turns to rock salt and clogs the hose. You can do a few thing to un salt it.

1: send boiling water down the toilet. A few gallons. You can also use channel lock pliers to crunch the hose to brake up the salt while someone flushes the hot water.  If the hose collapse with the pliers then the salt build up ( or clog )  at that point is not to bad, continue down the line until the hose is hard....there's a clog. CRUNCH it with the pliers. When your done rinse with vinegar. If you do that once every few months, you may get away without the pliers part of the routine. You can also switch to a fresh water flush. It will get ride of a lot of the smell and no more salt build up.

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 20 gallon tank and it only holds 15 gallons? 

If you put anything but water in a tank, it start to pack up on the bottom. When you have it emptied that stuff doesn't all come out. Unless your tank is on a slight tilt towards the exit hose. Most boat builders don't think about that so I bet yours isn't. So after a while you loose space in the tank. You can use a few cups of bleach after it's been emptied. Or buy holding Tank Cleaner but make sure it's WITHOUT the deodorizer, other wise it looses it's potency. 

You can also put about 10 gallons of fresh water in the tank then go hit some good wakes and slouch all that stuff up then empty it again. Our go to a pump station and rinse the heck outa it.

Do we do that? We do offer what we call " THE ROYAL FLUSH ". 

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Did we get your boat?

Yep.......

We used to leave cards way back in the beginning but sometimes I'd run out or forget to grab a handful and after work I'd come home to 10 or more regular phone messages and 50 more from people calling to say we missed them. No we didn't ... we forget to grab some cards. So after awhile I was working more at night calling people back to tell them that.... It's easy to know if the garbage man was by but not so easy to know if the shi*..man was by.  So one thing you can do is to remove your cap and see if it's been put back on, or put something on the cap and see if it was moved, on your pump-out day. I prefer the " take the cap off " idea myself. That way if craps gona fly ... it's gona fly at you and not me. 

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 If it's a stormy day out , don't be expecting us. We'll be there the next day  or if it last two day then we'll be there in two days BUT if it last three days we have to just start over. There's no way to make up for lost days at that point so your on your own until we get back. In other words...you wont get pumped out that week. So lets all hope the storms are short ones

 What do we consider a storm 

 When the wind is over 35 knots and the rain is sideways.. .that's a pretty good storm. I'll be home with a nice fire and a good movie, if the power doesn't go out.

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Nothing here but this drunk sailor

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