hole when not defecating. It is opered, the user would face the bow. ated by using a lever mounted next Unfortunately, the Lavac on our to the seat. When shut, the door Westsail 32, Calypso, was posiseals off composting fecal matter tioned very differently. It was from the bowl and directs urine mounted on a custom platform and toward the liquids bottle. A stainless locker against the port side of the steel auger inside the solids bucket hull. With this arrangement the is connected to an external handle. user faces starboard when seated. This helps mix the fecal matter with If our only option was to orient the an organic composting medium. composting head the same way as Here, with the help of an exhaust the examples we saw, we would fan to remove moisture, is where need to make a major modification. composting takes place. We needed to find a way to install Depending on how often the it to fit on the same foot print as our composting toilet is used—and Lavac. Positioning, and any modiprobably depending on diet—the fications, would need to be solids container will need to be planned out before we decided on emptied from every couple of weeks what brand to install. to once an entire cruising season. Calypso, like many Westsail 32s, is We calculated our use when we are a professionally finished and cuscruising at 60 deposits per month. tomized kit boat. She differs in That’s a lot of waste. How do we get many ways from the factory-finrid of it? When sailing offshore, disished Westsails. In the head area, posal of liquids and solids is like where you would normally have a any other marine head or holding shower pan, we have a large bilge tank. In fact, we think that it’s better access, which allows us to stow our since there are no holding tank anchor chain. We can fit almost 300 The platform made out of two pieces of 3/4” maple chemicals to discharge. feet of 3/8-inch BBB chain there, epoxied together and painted. It is ready for the toilet Like most boaters, when dockbut that is another story. If we to be installed on top of it. side, we mainly use the marina changed the location of the head, it facilities. Just like boat owners with standard marine holdwould cover the access, and we would no longer be able to ing tanks, using dockside facilities greatly extends our get into this locker. time between emptying. For us, it also gives the solids additional time to compost. Solids compost quickly, so an Let’s Think About This! infrequent user will find that composting takes place while With the position of the head in question it was time for they are off the boat. Once the fecal matter is composted, it more research. We went back to the four boats we looked at resembles a dirt-like mixture that can be sealed in a plastic earlier but this time taking measurements. Then, we bag and deposited in the Dumpster or used on non-edible searched the Internet and used the Westsail Owners plants as fertilizer. Association Bulletin Board (www.westsail.org) to look at composting head installations on similar Westsails. We started leaning toward the Air Head for several reaHow will it be Installed? sons. First, it would mount on the existing platform without We were replacing our 20-year-old—and very reliable— a major modification to our head cabinetry. The Air Head Blake Lavac head and wanted to make as few structural stands 19.25” tall. This is taller than most marine toilets, but changes as possible. We looked at four boats with compostour critical dimension would be overall diameter. The Air ing heads as examples in order to get an idea on how other Head’s diameter of 17.5” would fit nicely. units were installed. Two boats had the Air Head and the Another way that the Nature’s Head differs is that it other two had the Nature’s Head. In all four cases the heads requires several inches clearance behind the seat assembly. were positioned slightly off the centerline, and, when seat-
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www.thenauticaltrader.com News & Views for Southern Sailors
SOUTHWINDS June 2013
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