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When
we laid our hands on Web Commander she had a holding tank in plastic
mounted on the port side of the port engine. The obvious benefit of this
location is that it is close to the head (which on the Commander 31´is
located in front of the port engine and below the helm area). There are
however two disadvantages as well.
First,
as we were going to mount new and larger engines there would be less space
available. Secondly the level of water in the tank would be above the brim
of the bowl. This increases the risk of very nasty backflow from the tank
back into the bowl and over the brim if some of valves connecting the head
and the tank are not operating properly. I
have seen it happening on other boats and it is not a pretty sight. Or
smell for that matter!
We
decided to put a new stainless steel tank in the unused area of the bilge
between the engines and below the foot board. The tank is custom made to
fit the shape of the bilge and has a capacity of around 13 gallons.
It
is an ideal place to put it. It is not in the way of anything else. Even
when full the grey water level is below the brim of the bowl and thus
making any extra valves superfluous. It is not in a compartment where the
crew will spend time, which is nice.
The
tank can be emptied through an electrical macerator pump mounted below the
cabin sole in the head. It can also be emptied via dock side vacuum pumps
that are becoming increasingly common in Swedish marinas. The vacuum pump
hose is connected to a filler cap very similar to the gas filler cap on
the port gangway.
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