For lack of a more pithy word – BLECH!

The head is of course the worst part of the boat to deal with. Outside of losing a couple of fingers in a fan belt, which would no doubt suck, what is the worst that can happen anywhere else? Oil, dirt, grease, stinky critters, sea slime and various toxins?

Only in the head projects do you get a lovely melange of all of the above PLUS the added joy of human waste!

We’ve had some…issues…in the past. Mostly because Evenstar was hardly used and the head valves were frozen up when we bought her. And because maybe we didn’t totally believe the boat manual when it said to make sure to close all valves when not in use. Never had to do that on any other head before, right?

This boat has an interesting system for the heads – basically it’s gravity fed. The tank is the highest point, with a pipe heading straight for the overboard at the bottom of it. Two valves act to prevent this from happening. One closes off the outflow over board (or allows outflow), and one diverts the waste from overboard up to the tank. If you open them boat together and the through hull is open the whole tank empties with a whoosh! Not a good thing to discover accidentally for the first time in a Florida marina with crystal clear water BTW.

If the top valve is left open too long and the tank is pretty full then the weight of the column of ick overwhelms the back flow valves in the toilet with predictably repulsive results. Bowl O’ Sludge, which will slosh burble and bubble if you try to pump it back in too enthusiastically. If you try to pump the head with both valves closed the back pressure can blow the seals on a cheap Jabsco head in no time.

The worst trouble has been the valves themselves. WD-40 and perseverance got them working the 1st season, WD-40 and vice grips kept them so the kids could still operate them in the second. Now I have to replace them. It’s not going to be pretty.

The forward head valves refuse to turn any more and I think one is stuck open; it always drains back into the bowl and nothing can go in it. In the mean time the only fully functional head is acting up – back fulling and not flushing – and I need to “debug” that one so we have at least one in working order.

Lovely.

I will do all three of you loyal readers a favor and NOT post any pictures.