Blair --

I spent most weekends aboard my boat so I shower in the head quite frequently, with no major modifications (and my boat is missing the curtains over the sink and the head!)

It's important to realize that you don't use it like a shore shower. Don't think of it that way. It's designed for maximum clean with minimum water usage -- something we all (especially you folks in California!) should think a lot more about.

Step 1: Temperature and prep. Get the temperature just as you like it, then turn off the water at the shower head (little button on the side). You get a nicer spray by pulling out on the nozzle (my shower head has two speeds: sink and shower). You're also going to want to pull out all of the shower hose; you can leave the shower head and most of the hose in the sink. Check underneath the sink to ensure you've got all the hose, as it might be getting caught on your plumbing. I thought my hose was about 2' shorter (this was a huge pain!) for the first few months I owned the boat.

Step 2: Rinse down! Standing with your back to the curtain, and holding the shower head no more than a couple of inches from your skin to minimize spray on your other components, get yourself good and wet from head to toe. Where you stand and how you face is key. I've found if I have my back to the curtain by the door entrance, most of the spray goes on the curtain that covers the door to the salon [I]especially if you minimize spray by keeping the nozzle close to body[/I]

Step 3: Shampoo! This step should be mostly self-explanatory. You can rinse the shampoo now, if you want -- like for rinsing down, hold the nozzle close to your scalp.

Step 4: Soap up! During soaping up, you can stop the water at the nozzle (but not at the sink, as this screws with your carefully set temperature) and place the nozzle in the sink. [B]Under no circumstances should you be using bar soap.[/B] This will clog the shower sump. Instead, get some nice, fresh, clean-smelling man-soap body wash (Dove for men was on sale at Target so that's what I use) and a nice masculine colored synthetic loofa. Mine is navy colored; matches all my canvas. This also has the side effect of keeping your head smelling nice and clean! :-)

Step 5: Rinse off! Rinse soap. Again, keep the nozzle close to your skin.

Step 6: Dry! I use REI camping towels because they absorb and lot and dry quickly. I also keep a shammy handy to wipe down all of the wood in the head. Don't forget to wipe under frame of the door to the v-berth. I usually prop open the v-berth door for a few hours after I've showered to ensure everything dries correctly.

Let me know if you have any questions! :-)

Another option is to put up some towels at the rear of the cockpit for privacy and use the shower back there. Pretty much zero clean up, but no substitute for the inside shower in off-season weather. If we were European we wouldn't even bother with the towels, but we're modest North Americans. You can pretty much guess were someone's from if they strip off the clothes and pile right into the lake bare a$$ed or shower naked on their transom.

After several years of hassling with the shower curtain, we decided to take them off of the boat. They were hard to dry off and easy to mildew. They also seemed to make the shower smaller. Now we just have a separate towel to wash down the head area after a shower. It only takes one minute and cleans the area at the same time.

The shower procedure used to be called a "Navy" shower. Wet down, then turn off the water. Lather up and then turn the water back on to rinse. Some people have found a shower head holder which glue on the side so it can hold the shower up in place. That would tempt guests and teenagers to just take long showers and drain the tank, but if you are frequently at a dock and have unlimited water it could work.

[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navy_shower"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navy_shower[/URL]

My set up has a bracket on the inboard bulkhead to hold the shower head. I have never showered aboard the boat, have nice showers at the marina with plenty of hot water. I always take Navy showers even at home it seems pointless to try and lather up with the water running.

Another option I am told works as well as the shower aboard is to lock yourself in the head with a wet dog and a bar of soap.

Nice. I didn't know my shower procedure has a Wikipedia article. Awesome!

I wish I lived somewhere where I could use the shower in the boat and then have the boat actually dry out inside within 3 months. We run a dehumidifier 24/7 for much of the year at the dock.

Shower curtain? What shower curtain? Never noticed it. Shower with a friend....save water.

[QUOTE=Nimue;14532]I wish I lived somewhere where I could use the shower in the boat and then have the boat actually dry out inside within 3 months. We run a dehumidifier 24/7 for much of the year at the dock.[/QUOTE]

You're scaring me Jason. The weather in BC isn't so much different than the weather in Seattle. While I've been showering without a hitch since April, I am worried for winter.

I will say that each time I shower, my dry-out-the-head method involves venting the hatch, pointing my Vornado heater/fan towards the head from the v-berth, and closing closing the doors so that the hot air has only one place to go (out the head hatch). It worked reasonably well in the wet spring weather we had in Seattle.

I did away with the pull out handle in the sink and put in a single lever faucet in sink and installed a new small mixer scandig for the shower. My wife loves it and you can set the temp better

Here are some shots of GWTW Head/Shower Shows where I converted to single lever at the vanity sink added a shower mixer with on/off switch at shower head. Also shower curtain that I had made with waterproof nylon to replace original plastic. Also not how curtain is tucked up when not in use (vanity shot).

[QUOTE=TomSoko;14534]Shower curtain? What shower curtain? Never noticed it. [/QUOTE]
After not using the shower at all for the first season we owned the boat because we had no curtain (and we thought one would be necessary), this season we discovered that its perfectly fine to use it curtainless. Granted, we're not in the Pacific Northwest, so things dry out reasonably quickly, but it is, after all, a boat. Never seem to have a problem with anything getting wet inside the cabinets.

When cruising, we often use a solar shower, heated up on the deck during the day, and suspended over the head hatch from a halyard.

[QUOTE=FlyMeAway;14537]You're scaring me Jason. The weather in BC isn't so much different than the weather in Seattle. While I've been showering without a hitch since April, I am worried for winter.

I will say that each time I shower, my dry-out-the-head method involves venting the hatch, pointing my Vornado heater/fan towards the head from the v-berth, and closing closing the doors so that the hot air has only one place to go (out the head hatch). It worked reasonably well in the wet spring weather we had in Seattle.[/QUOTE]

Get yourself to the hardware store and pick up a dehumidifier. We are in Seattle and run our dehumidifier year round. The only time it comes off the boat is when we are cruising.

Keeps the boat dry, odor free and no mildew. An earlier version was set to drain directly into the sink. The current version has a sump that must be emptied once a week. Its amazing how much moisture is in the air.

Thanks Bruce! You and I are neighbors at EBM -- we've "raced" against one another in the Downtown Sailing Series earlier this summer.

What model / type dehumidifiers do you have? I'd probably go for the sink-drained version first. Are they completely necessary?

I haven't needed one since I've gotten the boat (in April), but I have been sporadically using DampRid ([url]http://www.amazon.com/Barr-FG30K-42oz-DampRid-Refill/dp/B000ZZWSVY[/url])

I've also looked into H2Out:

[url]http://www.h2out.com/[/url]

Has anyone used these?

My Dehumidifier is set up to drain through a hose into the keel sump, and then the bilge pump cycles the water out. This keeps fresh water in the sump rather than salt and I think it stays cleaner, although I'm sure with some effort I could keep salt water out of the bilge anyway (most of it comes from the shaft packing).

Does the shower drain pump send the water to the sea cock in the head or under the galley sink?