OK, here is a subject that you are probably thinking, “I don’t need to read anything about the toilet on my boat!”
But you are mistaken, because here is something I found on a boat and it has turned out to be a fantastic remedy to a difficult situation, AND it is a great idea that really works!
Here goes. (I hope you are still with me!) What is it like sitting on the toilet seat of your boat, doing what you have to do, or perhaps just reading a good yachting magazine?! (Come on, we all do that!)
Your boat is sailing along, and presumably, if a monohull, heeling over nicely on one tack or the other. While sitting on the toilet seat, you have to sort of balance your legs and maybe even your elbows and hands to keep the slippery toilet seat from sliding to one side or the other. A nuisance, but one you live with all the time.
Eventually, perhaps, the hinges on your toilet seat break because of all the sliding around of the seat on the toilet bowl rim. And then, you either have to replace the hinges, or buy another toilet seat complete with new hinges, and where in the Bahamas will you find that, please tell me?
Well, we visited friends on a boat that had solved that problem, and we converted our toilet seat with this great idea!
Here is what you do. Remember all toilet seats have the little slippery plastic spacers on them to raise the toilet seat off the bowl. This is what slides around on the toilet bowl rim when heeling or even thumping into a steep head sea while on the wind! BUT, if you mark on the bottom of the toilet seat exactly where the inside of the bowl is, and then glue and fasten on a stopper fiddle on both sides of the toilet seat that go down alongside the inside of the bowl tightly, well, Bob’s Your Uncle, and the toilet seat cannot longer move at all!
If one picture is worth a thousand words, look at the toilet seat after we made this simple addition that we made out of wood, fastened with glue and screws, and coated with resin! It works a miracle!!!
Just in case you are wondering what that hose is sticking out from under the back of the toilet seat, here is another good idea if you do not want a lot of thru hull fittings on your boat. The hose in the picture comes from the drain of the sink in the head compartment. We have a good strainer in the sink drain to catch anything that might clog up a toilet. All the water from the sink just empties into the head, and a quick flush and out it goes through the toilet plumbing outflow hose! No special thru hull fitting or seacock needed for the sink! One less hole in the hull of your boat to keep an eye on and no need to maintain another seacock!
Pam Says this is a great addition to the comfort of your toilet seat. I hope you agree! And your head’s sink drain!!!
P.S. Another quick pearl of wisdom about marine toilets. They should always be installed facing either forward or aft! If they are in a head compartment, facing inward athwart ships, then when on one tack you are leaning against the cabinets or hull and thrown backwards, and then when on the other tack you are being thrown out the door of the head compartment!!! It only makes sense to have a toilet facing fore and aft with a bulkhead on one side and a counter on the other side, that kind of nicely keeps you sitting tall!
-Pam
[Click here to see more articles in my ‘PAM SAYS’ series of blog posts featuring helpful hints and tricks: https://www.pamwall.com/category/pam-says/]
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