SCUMBAG BOATER

[David Schweizer]

Well we have one member who admits to pumping out into manholes...

If it is a mains drain manhole, and you have the consent of the person ob-n who's land it is sited, I cannot see the problem. It was normal practice at Bradford Wharf when I worked the K&A Trust Trip boat, we would pump out the trip boat at least three times a week and charged £5 to other boaters for us to pump their tanks out.

 

Of course if it is a surface water drain then it is seriously out of order.

[ditchcrawler]

Is there a reason not to do this then? I have done it and empty my MH one when I get ome in the outside loo, and many motorhomes wildcamping do it.

Surly that is up to the toilet owner.

[Biggles]

Not allowed at Mercia marina as the local water co. (severn trent) had concerns about chemicals as in 'blue' getting in the sewerage system.

 

Hence they had an elsan that emptied into a cess pit that had to be emptied...still the same AFAIK...

 

 

Arr I see, well I'm ok as I use bio washing powder not blue or even the "green" blue stuff. I also have a ces pit at home so not on mains drainage.

[Bat & Frog]

Had this a couple of years ago. I was working on bridge strengthening works on the Brigg freight line and a boat chugged off down river, to come back about 20 mins later. A while later it was noted that there appeared to be some floating material in the cut. As I was the ecologist on site I questioned if something was being dropped from the bridge as this is a serious no no, quick inspection ( not to close) and all became clear. Unfortunately boat had disappeared by this point so no chance of figuring out who it was but was reported to EA.

[Laurie Booth]

That has answered a question I have been wanting to ask for a while as in -

 

'If we take our boat to France or buy one over there which is our best option PO or cassette?'

 

I guess then it depends on which method you are most comfortable with....

If you bought a boat in France, I expect it would have a marine loo.

[Guest]

If you bought a boat in France, I expect it would have a marine loo.

 

Indeed - but there are lots of boats made in GB taken over there that would be for sale.

[Phil Ambrose]

In my opinion, in the absence of any disposal facilities, a sea toilet would be best.

 

No chemicals and no large quantities dumped at any one time.

 

Absolutely, a litre or so of brown liquid that quickly disperses, however I seem to recall that the French are attempting to change things but I guess it will take a long time to implement. Tam and Di would be able to clarify this.

 

Phil

[carlt]

I seem to recall that the French are attempting to change things

Yes except, in typically French "arse about facedness" they outlawed sea toilets before providing any alternative.

[debbifiggy]

Stood on the front of my boat this afternoon when a passer by asks if there are any BW people on duty in the area. I laughs and explains the facts of life and asks if he has a problem I can help with and he says that there is a boat up at the next lock ( Very quiet area ) and he is concerned at the smell and something being pumped out of the boat ?

I takes a walk up expecting some arsehole to be pumping oily bilges out and comes accross a narrowboater with a pipe and small pump affair plugged into his PUMPOUT tank slowly pumping by an electric pump the contents of his obviously large black tank. Now I know this is probably done on occasion by cassette users so for once I am not getting at pumpout users but what a T----r this pratt is. No name on the boat, no index number no obvious licence etc and he scurried inside his boat. Large pool of you know what in the cut.......

No I didnt wait for him to reappear or knock on his boat I am getting too old to deal with scumbags like this at my age...

 

 

This is environmental pollution, a very serious matter. It is the Environment Agencies remit. If you see something like this happening try and take a photo if poss whilst avoiding a conflict situation and call the EA incident hotline immediately on 0800 80 70 60.

 

D

[cotswoldsman]

I think this is more common than some people think. Yes I have only actually seen it happening once in 5 years cruising but have seen evidence that it has happened plenty of times, the last being in October on The Shropshire Union as I approached a lock the evidence was all around the lock gate and what was worse is it followed me into the lock as I filled it.

[Naughty Cal]

This is a lot more common than most people think, or would like to think. Just one example for you, according to the staff at our marina, only a third of boats on the marina have a holding tank/cassette loo the vast majority, being sea boats have just a sea toilet. Now you would like to think that as law abiding boat owners the owners of these boats would use the shore based facilities but I have strong suspicions that most of them dont.

 

Now that is just one marina. One the Trent alone there are a few more I can think of that have a lot of sea boats in their ranks. It isnt an un common occurance but that doesnt make it right of course.

[Barry]

Ooh can I have a halo then?

 

I'm in the same marina as phylis and fitted a holding tank precisely because I was not happy using the sea toilet my boat had when I bought it

[Neil2]

On the Caledonian Canal there are very few facilities for cassettes/pump out. Most of the sewers discharge into septic tanks and it is definately not ok to empty an elsan into one of these as the chemicals interfere with the operation of the tank. It's the same reason you should not use bleach in a septic tank system. I onced asked BW Scotland what boaters do to which they replied don't know. Well I do. No-one is going to go miles down the canal to find a disposal point or alternatively out to sea to pump it, I have my suspicions that the same thing happens on Windermere.

 

Nothing wrong with emptying your elsan down a wc connected to a mains sewer by the way.

 

You'll find this sort of thing is commonplace in coastal marinas as well. You pay thousands a year for the privelige of floating in a large toilet.

 

It doesn't surprise me in the slightest that this sort of thing happens on the canal network, eg I have seen many dog owners casting their dog's excretia into the canal, & I think many see the it as part of the general drainage/sewerage system.

 

What most of us on this forum see as a disgusting & unlawful practice is probably given little thought by those who practice it, I honestly don't think they realise it is wrong.

[Albion]

Yes except, in typically French "arse about facedness" they outlawed sea toilets before providing any alternative.

 

The situation in France as far as I understand it is that new build boats arriving there should have black tanks installed ready for use, but they cannot be used as there are very few facilities for pump out available. In my case, on Phoenix, I have a black tank which is used but can be pumped overboard by our own on-board pump. It also has a big diverter valve which can be swung over and locked/sealed if required so that only external pump out can be used ready for the day France is set up with the infrastructure or if we go to another country where it is forbidden. We pump overboard every day or two rather than wait for a full tank. This situation, and especially where there is river current can lead to an interesting frothy cappuccino-coloured foam building up round your bows.

On our several years boating there I have only seen a few pump out facilities installed, so few that you could count them on the fingers of one hand. On our last 3 month trip this summer we only saw one that appeared to have had any use and that was on the River Saône. One, that was sited in Clamecy, on the Nivernais, had actually been removed after sitting dormant for several years and had been dumped behind a wall close by.

Someone told me, but I have no idea if it is correct, that the legislation specified Dec 2005 as the date for mandatory pump out requirements but the only one that we, in our travels, have seen that had been used was the one on the Saône.

Roger

Edited November 24, 2011 by Albion

[debbifiggy]

Ooh can I have a halo then?

 

I'm in the same marina as phylis and fitted a holding tank precisely because I was not happy using the sea toilet my boat had when I bought it

 

No halo but you can have a greenie for being a good boater.

D

[Athy]

That has answered a question I have been wanting to ask for a while as in -

 

'If we take our boat to France or buy one over there which is our best option PO or cassette?'

Our first-ever boat hire was on the Canal du Nivernais. The (English) boatyard chap explained the snitary arrangements in three seconds:

"Everything goes straight into the canal".

But that was in 1994 and things may have changed since then, though in general the French have been content to live on closer terms with their droppings than the Biritish have.

[bizzard]

When the river here freezes you see lots of folk waddling about cross legged.

Cut up old bed sheets to make nappies is the thing to do.

[JerryP]

I study Tom and Jerry. That's the kind of 'orrible and painful stuff I was thinking about. Non of this Chainsaw Mascara, tripe for kiddies.

 

If i catch you studying me i'll report you, what are you ? some kind of wierdo

[Tam & Di]

Absolutely, a litre or so of brown liquid that quickly disperses, however I seem to recall that the French are attempting to change things but I guess it will take a long time to implement. Tam and Di would be able to clarify this.

 

Phil

 

Yes, there are pump-out places in France. There's one at Châtillon Coligny on the Canal de Briare south of Montargis. Oh, and there's one at ......... er .. Châtillon Coligny - did I mention that? Oh, and Châti...... Ah, and I forgot to say, but it does not have have standard size hose connections, and I don't think it has ever been used.

 

In reality I believe many hire bases have them, but they don't welcome private boats. Don't forget too that the maximum permitted size of a hire boat was 15m till very recently, so they are not going to be set up to have access for larger craft anyway. Other than the Canal du Midi the number of boats per kilometer is negligible and the waterways much wider and deeper than in the UK; the cows/birds/fishermen add more pollutants to the water than the handful of boats do.

 

We advise anyone having a boat built to bring to France to have a black tank fitted, but to have a diverter valve so the loo can pump straight overside until the time there are facilities available for emptying it. Far better to allow overside pumping as the loo is used, rather than filling a holding tank, sterilising the contents, and then pumping it all out in one dollop. They will eventually come about, no doubt, but at this point it has not even been possible to get the French to adopt the standard hose fittings in use e.g. in the UK.

Edited November 24, 2011 by Tam & Di

[calamity507]

When we get frozen in..the boater next to us comes home from work at 11.30 every night and smashes the ice..and again at 7.30 am. We couldnt work out why..until we realised..we have never seen them empty a toilet..What can you do when you have to live next to them? Would prefer not to be woken every night..and not have their waste dumped in the cut..but to say anything would cause..bad feeling.

[Athy]

When the river here freezes you see lots of folk waddling about cross legged.

Cut up old bed sheets to make nappies is the thing to do.

Wees of the Week, eh?

[Paringa]

Some boats on the Thames never use a pumpout station but never seem to fill their tanks...

[Higgs]

If i catch you studying me i'll report you, what are you ? some kind of wierdo

 

_________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

The Canterbury Tales lives on.

 

 

PM. Martin G. Yes, it's the same one.

Edited November 24, 2011 by Higgs

[FadeToScarlet]

Stood on the front of my boat this afternoon when a passer by asks if there are any BW people on duty in the area. I laughs and explains the facts of life and asks if he has a problem I can help with and he says that there is a boat up at the next lock ( Very quiet area ) and he is concerned at the smell and something being pumped out of the boat ?

I takes a walk up expecting some arsehole to be pumping oily bilges out and comes accross a narrowboater with a pipe and small pump affair plugged into his PUMPOUT tank slowly pumping by an electric pump the contents of his obviously large black tank. Now I know this is probably done on occasion by cassette users so for once I am not getting at pumpout users but what a T----r this pratt is. No name on the boat, no index number no obvious licence etc and he scurried inside his boat. Large pool of you know what in the cut.......

No I didnt wait for him to reappear or knock on his boat I am getting too old to deal with scumbags like this at my age...

 

There's a large, 90' trip boat around here that, in six years of being on and around the river, has never once been seen to go to the pumpout. A friend who used to work there explained that they have a weighted hosepipe.

 

It's a bit of a tricky situation, because if a fuss is made, all boaters will be tarred with the same brush, and everyone will assume that all boaters do it- which is untrue, only a small minority do.

 

It's against some local byelaws, I'm tempted to email the Conservancy and ask them which of their byelaws they're going to bother to enforce.

[Tim F]

If it is a mains drain manhole, and you have the consent of the person ob-n who's land it is sited, I cannot see the problem. It was normal practice at Bradford Wharf when I worked the K&A Trust Trip boat, we would pump out the trip boat at least three times a week and charged £5 to other boaters for us to pump their tanks out.

 

Of course if it is a surface water drain then it is seriously out of order.

 

 

The pumpout installed at Bradford empties into the same drain that you used to use.