More tanks

Sunday was spent clearing the boat further and some cleaning.  May be boring but has to be done.  All UPS boxes are now dismantled and out of the wheel house.  Dave has fitted all the windows and its a different room with all the windows in.  Completely different.  The ship originally had a complete set in and without them is felt a little odd.

The pictures below now show the new windows in place.

Dave had also taken out the second bathroom door and welded a plate over.  Great job.

Now we have one big bathroom.  See the welded door on the left.  The centre dividing wall removed,  this room is now plenty big enough to put in a walk in shower and the rest of the normal bathroom furniture.  The shower going on the end as you look at the picture immediately below.

The view from the shower end.  The original issue was that the two original rooms were not individually big enough really to put in a shower in each and a sink.  

I did manage to do a survey of the tanks to make sure I could do what I needed.  Turns out there is a lot to work with in terms of piping.

There are two basic circuits connecting each tank.  One large pipe comes from the deck and runs around each tank as was used to fill each tank.  The second circuit pipe had a spur off it into each tank and a pipe that reached into each one to extract water.  This pipe then goes through to the engine room and the existing water pump.

This is good news as these pipes can be used and the more reuse the less additions I will need.

So the plan is

The first two tanks (at the rear of the ship) that will be fresh water will be disconnected from the two main circuit pipes (fill and empty pipe to give them crude names).   I will then use the existing tank draining valves at the bottom of the two tanks to connect to the water pump (s eventually as I will fit two).  There is a clear stand for the pump in the hull.  So that should be easy.  The only consideration may be the noise of the pump so I will need to look at that (test when I get the pump) as the tanks are below the cabins.

The other two tanks will reuse the piping in place.  The current exit pipe (currently used to feed the water pump in the engine room) will be used to pump out the grey water and macerated sewage.  This piping is in good condition and runs through to the engine room.  From here (taking out the old pump) I can put a three way valve.  This will let me direct the raw material out one side of the boat (the engine room has handy exit ports on both sides) or the other or direct it to a pipe that will have a coupling that will allow me to connect to a pump barge.  This will future proof the system.

The existing fresh water filler pipes will also remain.  These will only feed the sewage tanks and allow me to flush fresh water into the sewage tanks to clean the out.  That pipe is up in the rear deck. So it enables me to put in cleaning fluids etc without having to access the tanks directly.

Two challenges to look into.  The first is whether the copper piping will handle grey water in this way.  Sewage piping is normally plastic and there may be a reason for that.  Of this is the case then the piping will need to be replaced.

The second challenge is venting.  There will need to be a fresh air vent out to the sides of the boat to ensure that there are not airlocks and that the tanks can breathe.  I have been led to believe that build up of gases etc is not good and actually tanks smell less if they are able to breathe.  Getting an air pipe down there should not be a major problem.  There are two sounding pipes into those tanks which could be intercepted and fed out to fresh air.