Showers

[wallace8585]

My husband and I are looking at a Colombia 30 that doesn''t contain a shower, but has room for one. We were wondering what the costs run for a standard(nothing too fancy) shower? Also, does anyone have first hand experience in installing a shower, if so, was it complicated? Thanks in advance for your suggestions and help.
-Kelly & Jeff Hall

[WHOOSH]

K&J, you don''t tell us if the Columbia 30 has a pressure water system, and if it has a hot water heater. Both of those would need to exist in a conventional shower system, and are the most costly things if we don''t count some sweat equity on your part to set everything up. The additions would be to plumb in the shower faucet (change the existing sink pressure faucet?) and prep a part of the head or passageway sole to accept shower water plus a sump pump of some kind to send it all over the side.

The bits and pieces can all be found in the WM catalog...or you can devise clever ways to shower with garden sprayers, bags of hot water, etc. - but a place you can close off enough to keep water from going everywhere is a universal need unless you''ll be out in the cockpit with water & soap and the companionway crib boards in place.

Jack

[pirateofcapeann]

I always fancied having a shower aboard my Jesse Boyce. Its been jump overboard, climb out, lather up (overstated) with castle soap, jump back in for a salt water rinse and climb up for the final rinse from the Sun Shower bag hung off the boom. Sometime modesty needs to go to hell whilst standing there in the cockpit but cleanliness takes precedence. Still, I keep thinking of ways to get this done below,

I haven’t done it yet but I’m leaning towards lashing down two 6 gallon Sun Showers and connect them together and through a deck fitting to a valve and a low flow shower head, perhaps even one that comes supplied with the Sun Shower, below. In your case, you already have a “water closet” to lead it all to.

For boats in the size range of ours, that may the best space conscious option.

[capttb]

The shower on my Catalina 270 goes from drain in head floor to bilge & bilge pump removes (eliminates need for separate sump pump). I don''t know if sump goes to holding tank on other boats but suspect most just discharge overboard. It also has shower fixture in walk thru transom so I usually shower in cockpit rather than cramped head.

[WHOOSH]

TB, you may not be using your shower much and so don''t notice the consequences of putting that nice mix of hair, soap, body fuzz and other biologics in your bilge, where a portion of it sits, breeds and begins to stink, given that almost every bilge fails to totally empty. The Columbia 30 owner was, I believe, thinking of more frequent use. In such cases, it''s worth the effort to install one of the integral shower sumps or put one together on your own (mini-float switch, sump body and in/out tubing run). It will seal in odors, be more accessible for cleaning, and is a much smaller cleaning job.

Plumbing shower grey water into the head holding tank is...well, let''s just say a ''science experiment'' in multiple disciplines.<g>

Jack

[capttb]

Truth be told I''ve never used shower in the head, only in cockpit. Head is really cramped, I really like having a shower up on the transom and would recommend if possible. You don''t come out with your elbows all bruised up. I don''t have enough hair left to clog the bilge but never liked idea of spitting soap out the bilge pump anyway.