Narrowboat urinal?

[Jerra]

you do that all the time, what with cattle, rats, fishes, whatever.

The volume from any of those listed isn't high the volume if it became common place on boats would be high. The places cattle have access to stand in the water as opposed to being fenced off and drinking from a trough are limited. I am not sure how the rats poise above the water to urinate but I will take your word for it.

 

Fish urine by its very nature and due to osmosis is extremely dilute when produced and compared to the water in the canal minute in quantity.

 

Imagine half a mile of moored boats all with a single male occupant and a urinal there is the chance for it to be quite high.

 

Do you know if it is covered by the regs about discharging black water into the canal. I would suspect it is..

[ditchcrawler]

I take you back to http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=62036

[Murflynn]

I am not sure how the rats poise above the water to urinate but I will take your word for it.

 

 

err ........................ have you never heard of Weil's disease?

 

if not I suggest you research it before you put your hand down the weedhatch.

The places cattle have access to stand in the water as opposed to being fenced off and drinking from a trough are limited.

perhaps on most canals that may be the case.

 

on most rivers the cattle have frequent access points where they paddle around and drink the river water and inevitably they pee in it - one cow's urine is the equivalent of many single men.

 

in any case their urine reaches the cut by surface run-off.

[Chertsey]

What I've never managed to get my head round is how some people think that shovelling it into the canal constitutes 'clearing up' after their dog. Many boaters do this, quite possibly the same people who would throw up their hands in horror about a drop or two of human wee.

[ditchcrawler]

What I've never managed to get my head round is how some people think that shovelling it into the canal constitutes 'clearing up' after their dog. Many boaters do this, quite possibly the same people who would throw up their hands in horror about a drop or two of human wee.

I'd rather they did that than put it in a black bag and then chuck it in

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

Imagine half a mile of moored boats all with a single male occupant and a urinal there is the chance for it to be quite high.

 

Given any half mile of boaters, I'd guess most pee in the canal. Either directly or emptying a container.

[Jerra]

err ........................ have you never heard of Weil's disease?

As a canoeist in a previous life I was aware of Weil's long before many. Many think Weil's is purely a result of rat urine which is wrong it can be caught for almost any infected mammal e.g. cattle, pigs, dogs. It also doesn't prove that the rats are urinating in the water just near it.

Given any half mile of boaters, I'd guess most pee in the canal. Either directly or emptying a container.

Really they must be different to the boaters I know. I notice nobody has addressed the legality (or not) of permitting urine to enter the canal.

[Alan de Enfield]

I notice nobody has addressed the legality (or not) of permitting urine to enter the canal.

 

Yes they did 29 posts ago.

[dor]

Let's say you've had a skinful and you have a litre to spare (believe me, as someone who has had to monitor liquid in/liquid out, that is a lot. Now take a typical narrow canal and call it 10 metres wide with an average depth of 1 metre (erring on the low side here). Then in 1 Km of canal you have 10,000 cubic metres of canal. That's 10 million litres. Your one litre of wee, plus your neighbours' who might not be endowed with such a large bladder, is going to be so dilute, London tap water probably has more urine in it.

 

It's not really a problem! No. 2s is a different matter, whether it is yours or your dog's.

[Chertsey]

As a canoeist in a previous life I was aware of Weil's long before many. Many think Weil's is purely a result of rat urine which is wrong it can be caught for almost any infected mammal e.g. cattle, pigs, dogs. It also doesn't prove that the rats are urinating in the water just near it.

Really they must be different to the boaters I know. I notice nobody has addressed the legality (or not) of permitting urine to enter the canal.

The boaters you know just don't tell you.

[Jerra]

 

Yes they did 29 posts ago.

By maths 29 from 33 is post 4 there is no mention there of what is and isn't legal. What am I missing?

[the barnacle]

it wouldnt take up much room you could attach a funel on the inside the kitchen sink cupboard door, a length of flexable hose into a T connector on the sink waste outlet - job done

[Murflynn]

It also doesn't prove that the rats are urinating in the water just near it.

 

I wasn't trying to prove anything of the sort, but by your own admission, rat's pee enters the canal water.

 

However I'm sure a rat doesn't make any effort to hold on while he is swimming.

[Stormbringer]

Can't see a bit of wee being in the same league as the industrial strength fertilizer, pesticide spray, cow wee (have you actually seen how much 1 cow pees? Quite impressive and there are literally thousands of em round here too...) and all the other pollutants (grease , oil, diesel , chip fat , plastic bottles) etc etc....

 

Dog poo is best moved to the underneath of a hedge where it naturally degrades, like all other animal poo does in the wild. No bags required, just a small shovel!

 

Edit to close parentheses...

Edited September 18, 2016 by Stormbringer

[haggis]

Am I the only one who finds it disgusting that some males pee in the wash hand basin on their boat? I must have led a sheltered life as the possibility had never occurred to me!

 

haggis

[dmr]

Just spent a couple of days moored just above Barlaston on the T&M. The offside is very shallow and the cows like to paddle in the canal, I was appalled and disgusted at what they do whilst paddling in the canal, much worse that a boater or two having a wee!

As we left I tried (and failed) to turn in the winding hole next to that field, it was totally full of soft brown mud, I really hope the two are not connected.

As an aside, all the winding holes towards Stoke are pretty bad, had to go almost into Stoke to find somewhere to wind, I was half tempted to go up the locks and turn at festival marina but that would be dangerously close to the Holy Inadequate.

 

...............Dave

[Jennifer McM]

Let's say you've had a skinful and you have a litre to spare (believe me, as someone who has had to monitor liquid in/liquid out, that is a lot. Now take a typical narrow canal and call it 10 metres wide with an average depth of 1 metre (erring on the low side here). Then in 1 Km of canal you have 10,000 cubic metres of canal. That's 10 million litres. Your one litre of wee, plus your neighbours' who might not be endowed with such a large bladder, is going to be so dilute, London tap water probably has more urine in it.

 

It's not really a problem! No. 2s is a different matter, whether it is yours or your dog's.

 

You might think this isn't a lot - but ecosystems can be very sensitive. Imagine suntan lotion washing off bathers and causing problems in the Med https://www.mysciencework.com/omniscience/sunscreen-while-protecting-skin-pollutes-water

[Midnight Rider]

Am I the only one who finds it disgusting that some males pee in the wash hand basin on their boat? I must have led a sheltered life as the possibility had never occurred to me!

 

haggis

Oops -- have done that on the odd occasion. As someone said, it goes back to hotel rooms when they just had a basin in the room. If I may quote a verse from Foster & Allen's, Seven Old Ladies Locked in the Lavatory

 

The next old lady it was Mrs Mason

She couldn't get in so she used the basin

And that was the water that I washed my face in

And nobody knew they were there

 

Edit for typo

Edited September 19, 2016 by Midnight Rider

[Chewbacka]

Oops -- have done that on the odd occasion. As someone said, it goes back to hotel rooms when they just had a basin in the room. .....................................

You should not have said this, I can imagine a few people on here remembering all the times they stayed in a room like that and washed their face and cleaned their teeth in such a sink......................

[Athy]

Am I the only one who finds it disgusting that some males pee in the wash hand basin on their boat? I must have led a sheltered life as the possibility had never occurred to me!

 

haggis

Perhaps you were never a student? Many of us would not now care to do some of the things which our 20-year old selves used to find commonplace.

 

What did crews of working boats do? I know that some such boats had a bucket with an attached seat which was kept in the engine room and (presumably) emptied into the water or into a hedge when full. But I suspect that some of the men simply aimed over the side when required. I also remember reading a comment that the toilet on the Grand Union began in London and ended in Birmingham. Don't pick the low-growing blackberries!

[Canalwatcher]

Slightly off topic at Crick 2015 we spoke to a guy at a composting loo stand. He explained males have to sit down to pee as there were two receptacles - poo got composted and pee ran into a tank
I asked was the pee treated as part of the compost process he said no you can dispose of it in undergrowth vegetation which did surprise me

Mick

Edited September 20, 2016 by zodiak

[system 4-50]

Is there a business opportunity here? Convert a narrowboat to have a row of urinals along each cabin wall draining to a holding tank, with a way-in door at the stern and a wayout door at the bow. For use at events?

[Athy]

Is there a business opportunity here? Convert a narrowboat to have a row of urinals along each cabin wall draining to a holding tank, with a way-in door at the stern and a wayout door at the bow. For use at events?

What would you call it? N.B. Splash? N.B. Slash?

 

Edit: a look at Jim Shead's site reveals that there are already a few boats called 'Splash', so perhaps the idea has been tried out. For less continent boaters, there's one called 'Great Drip' too.

Edited September 19, 2016 by Athy

[Murflynn]

traditional ocean going loos were fun.

 

Arab dhows have a seat of leisure like a barrel with a grating floor hanging off the rear deck into which the depositor would squat and do his business, shielded by the sides of the barrel.

 

The 'heads' is a reference to the head of a square rigger in front of the point where the bowsprit meets the stem post. A grating is provided for the crew to manage the ropes controlling the sprits and the foresails, and the structure was also used as a latrine. In a swell the latrine was self-cleaning but you had to keep a good hold of something to avoid being washed away. Must have been a right mess when the cooks served up something less than salubrious and up to 1000 men (837 in the case of HMS Victory) all had to relieve themselves in a hurry in a flat calm when there was no cleaning mechanism.

[Athy]

.

 

The 'heads' is a reference to the head of a square rigger in front of the point where the bowsprit meets the stem post.

I have, I'm sure, read an alternative explanation of the term: the row of loos on a ship had partitions which did not extend all the way to the ceiling, so when you were sitting there you could see the heads of the other performers above the top of each partition.