Summary
(please click on any of the pictures for a larger one - use the BACK button to come back)
This is the construction and ideas page for the head portion of the boat. This page will be continuously updated with progress pictures as thing progress.
This was the starting point.
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The first task was to strip everything out.
Yes, that really is a SHOVEL. There is sand EVERYWHERE that has to be removed. |
I wanted to do a few things here. First, I wanted to increase the size a little so that there was a bit more "shoulder room" (at the cost of a little engine room space). Next, improve the shower drain/sump situation so that it isn't just saturating the inside of the boat!!!! Finally, I wanted to raise the head up a little so you don't get black and blue marks on your chin from your knees hitting it when sitting down!
In this picture, you can see the "extensions" which will increase the size of the compartment a little. Also, the cutout in the foreground will house a shower sump/pump combination.
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There is no real bilge in the Nimble's sharpie hull, so the shower pan has nowhere to drain as is.
I built up the floor by about 3 inches, and sloped it toward what will be a side-exiting drain, into the compartment shown in the previous picture. While this doesn't make the maximum use of the off-the-shelf sump unit, it will be enough to fill up and pump out a reasonable amount (around 4 inches of depth).
Here is the base of the floor with sloping "joists" toward the drain location. |
After bending a 1/4" plywood sheet onto the sloped floor runners, I made a small "stoop" for the head to sit on to help the knee-to-the-chin problem.
This also helped with the head output level feeding the new holding tank which will be just behind (on the left in the picture).
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Here is the location of the holding tank behind the head. As you can see, the head-to-tank hose will be a whopping 12" long!
The large circle cutout is for an access hatch in order to operate the overboard pump-out through-hull. |
Here is the head ready for painting and finishing. I still have to put some epoxy non-skid on the pan floor before painting.
The hot water tank will sit on a shelf mounted above the holding tank. The shelf will do double-duty as a tank restrainer also. A removable panel will cover both tanks along the backwall of the head.
You can see that I gave up about 6 inches along the port side of the engine. All of the maintenance stuff is on the other side, so it shouldn't be much of a problem. The front access will be very good. I will also build in a removable panel in the bullkhead that goes along that side, so that a little more cumbersome access can be had.
The upright section on the right edge with the cutout is where the manual holding tank pumpout pump will be accessible.
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Here is the epoxy non-skid on the pan floor after taping off a pattern and rolling it on. |
Here is the final 'basin' after 4 coats of Brightsides. A little hard to see the non-skid, but I didn't want it to be too "aggressive" in here.
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Here is the overall head area after painting. |
Here is some of the components going in. There is a removable panel behind the head for access to the holding tank.
There is still no moulding or trim installed on the panels.
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I installed access hatches for each of the thru hulls. Not the most elegant-looking, but very practical.
I chose the clear covers so that a visual inspection can be done without much hassle. |
This is the panel removed. There will be a shelf installed over the tank that will serve both as the tank hold-down and will hold the 6gal water heater.
The blue pump on the right edge is a manual overboard discharge pump.
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Here is the pump behind the removable panel. The pump handle and cover are all that is visible from inside the head. |
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There was a little bit of an "issue" with the shower drain. I needed to get from the 2" raised shower pan into the a sump.
I had originally planned to put the sump right behind the wall with the drain, but there just wasn't going to be enough "slope" to allow it to work.
There was room in the bilge for the sump box, but with the sharpie hull, there was no way to get there!
There is a 3/4" sub-floor that will lie underneath the sole. This is bonded directly to the hull. It just so happens that the O.D. of a 1/2" hose will fit within the height of the sub-floor!
I routed out a channel that allowed the hose to go from the shower drain (sidewall) down into one of the bilge compartments! |
Another picture where you can see the side-exit drain fitting and a filter I installed in-line.
There is a tee fitting in the line so that I can run the air conditioner condensation line into the same sump.
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Here is closeup of the neat fitting that will allow compete drainage. |
A shelf sits over the holding tank and that holds the 6gal water heater. I built everything about the water heater for (semi)quick removal so that access to the holding tank can be had without too much trouble.
There are still some hookups to be done - waiting for the side engine bulkhead to then get access to the cooling water bypass circuit.
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Here is a picture of the finished head - the shower has a thermostatic mixing valve that allows the temperature to be set and then just turned off and on. |
Here is the floor and drain finished. Some other "finished" pictures can be seen over on the navstation page.
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Here is a picture of the finished shower sump under the sole. The neat thing (by accident) is that any overflow automatically drains into the next sole compartment which is the bilge.. |
Lessons Learned
Better to cut away what you don't need right from the start, rather than try to come up with a "scheme" to work around it.
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