We had the same issue, and installed a value inside the cupboard behind the head. Having one down on the floor seemed like one more area to clean around, and meant you had to lean over the toilet to open/close the value.
I will get a picture when I get down to the boat again.

This is a problem on nearly every boat I have ever seen under certain conditions. Don't tell me the 375 doesn't have a seacock that you can close on the intake water line?

Rod, the photo tells the tale! An elegant solution, much better than - on my boat - reaching the thru-hull. I'll keep that one in mind. Thanks!

Thanks for sharing that, Rod. Very nice.

Jason, I think Rod mentioned one could always shut the seacock, but implied that it was not the easiest solution for a guest aboard.

So far, we just open and shut the seacock in the head, but I agree it is a little awkward to reach, especially when pounding underway.

I've been following this thread with interest. I've only once had water fill the head; that was on my '88 C30, at anchor, when a child left the flush valve in the 'wet' position. Other than that, I've never had water in the head, even after extended sailing with the port rail down. I do get water in the head sink, and usually close that through hull if the wind's up and I anticipate rail down conditions.

Have I just been lucky? I usually feel like I find problems that other people [I]DON'T[/I] have, not the other way 'round.:rolleyes:

I too have not had the issue with the head as long as the lever is in the proper location. It has always been the lavatory sink that brings in the water!

I think there may be a difference between the plumbing on the 36 & the 375. The inlet for the C375, is on the port side, just below the water line. So when healing on the port side, the motion of moving through the waves, pushes water up the inlet pipe. Being an electrical toilet may also make a difference.

The outlet for the shower and head sink, is on the centreline of the boat, just in front of the keel.

Hope that makes it all a little clearer (had to come home from the boat early today, it was 40C and 90% humidity - cannot wait for autumn).

Cheers
Simon

Having moved in April from multihulls to our Catalina 375, Haru, there is much that I didn't know about sailing Catalinas, so I listened carefully to all advice. And if I had done a word cloud of what I heard, boat smell would surely have been big, really big, especially since Haru was picked in large measure because my wife loved her.

But she didn't want to go anywhere near anything that would later smell like . . . well, you know.

So we had a fresh water line installed with a check valve and isolating solenoid to our electronic head and disconnected the through-hull water supply. The work was done by Alan at BoatGuys in Alameda, CA.

Little did I know that this would also solve the problem of flow into the head when sailing, for this is a problem that I hadn't heard about at all. I guess I should have figured there might be a problem since there's a prominent warning on the sink cabinet to close the sink valves so that water doesn't surge in on a starboard tack.

While the $20 valve seems reasonable, how does one use the head when sailing without worrying about unexpected surges?

Which reminds me of my time in the Peace Corps many years ago in Palala, Liberia. The outhouse in the back was a hole in the ground where more cockroaches than I could possibly count loved to live in hope. Indeed, Liberia is known for its many different varieties of small and large cockroaches.

My approach was to bang on the enclosure, then on the outhouse seat, and to listen for silence after the scurrying hoards moved deeper into the pit. Only then would I sit down, but quickly, remaining focused, for there was always the threat of an unexpected surge. :eek:

I am loving my new Lavac vacuum flush ..no siphoning or undersized pumps.Keeping it simple.

I would like to hear if a plumber can comment on my solution. That would be a hose from the seawater intake that makes a loop well above water line then back down to the toilet or to the sink as before. I would think that any excess water in the hose will flow back to sea after it is pumped and since the upper loop of the hose is well above water level - even when the boat is heeled - the water will not be high enough to form a siphon. In my case - I always use the fresh water from the sink to flush. I fill the sink then pump into the toilet. This cleans the sink hose, flushes the toilet and the fresh water eliminates "toilet" smell from the boat.

Haro,

Not really. A plumber is not needed, but a “Head Mistress” certainly is. Peggie Hall is a wonderful resource for “head” issues. Over the years we’ve all learned from and about her, and she’s written a book that is a pretty good best seller.

A loop above the waterline for the intake is not necessary. It goes to the head’s pump. It won’t flow back because the water pressure from the thru hull is almost equal to that and the water won’t flow back to the thru hull.

Siphons are a bit too complicated to discuss here.

If your head is not smelly, then continue doing what you are doing, but what you're doing is not cleaning out the line from the seawater thru hull TO the head (head pump). I used to think so.

The solution is to tap your sink outlet to the head intake, for the LAST flush of the day.

A good review of these issues is covered in our “Head 1010” topic (it's 3 pages long, but read 'em all, please):

[url]http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,5755.0.html[/url]