An indoor shower for a boat that lacks one
Issue 100: Jan/Feb 2015
Afew years ago, a friend told me a story about taking a hot shower as the boat he was helping deliver passed through Hell Gate in New York’s East River. A hot shower, I thought. How can I make that happen on my 26-foot Paceship?
I’m familiar with the practice of bathing in the cockpit. For just that purpose I adapted a 2-gallon pump-up garden sprayer with a kitchen spray nozzle. That works pretty well, but bathing au naturel has the potential for revealing too much information. And it’s chilly. I prefer privacy.
Whenever I was aboard other boats, I paid special attention to their shower arrangements. Some are elegant. One boat had a shower stall lined with tile. The Pardeys built a wooden tub into their boat, which is nice, but it’s in the place where an engine would normally live. Most boats seem to have dedicated fiberglass pans from which gray water drains to a tank or is pumped overboard. One guy I met plumbed his gray water into the head as flushing water. Brilliant! But there was no way that would work on my boat.
Meanwhile, my outdoor grill was due for replacement. The new grill was physically larger, so the reasonably new cover for the old grill was too small to fit. As I turned the water-resistant cover in my hands, I held it upside down and suddenly remembered the scene in the movie MASH, when they rig the disappearing shower enclosure to reveal Hot Lips Houlihan in all her glory. In the scene, one of the characters is taking a bath in a military-issue portable canvas tub. Aha!
Finding two 4-foot-long pieces of leftover 1-inch PVC pipe in the garage, I sewed them into the long sides of the cover as stiffeners. Next, I put grommets into each corner. I tied a length of parachute cord into each grommet and hung the resulting tub and shower-water catchment basin from the overhead handrails in the main cabin. Depending upon how it’s hung, the stiffeners aren’t absolutely necessary, but they keep the sides from collapsing in. The object is to catch the water and protect the berth cushions from spray. Now I can rig the tub, heat my shower water, and have at it. It takes longer to boil the water than to set up the tub.
If you buy a new grill cover, size it to fit the space allotted. Mine’s a little too large, but the price was right. A 2-gallon garden sprayer is generally good for three users. Although it’s possible on my boat to tip the tub into the sink after a shower, it may be easier to empty it with a dinghy bailer. Place a cushion under your bum for more comfort. Finally, if you care about privacy, as I do, or don’t want to bathe in a cold draft, close the hatches before you get into the tub.
Ciff Moore’s first boat was a Kool Cigarettes foam dinghy with no rudder or sail. Many years and many boats later, he’s sailing a 26-foot AMF Paceship 26 he acquired and rebuilt after Hurricane Bob trashed it in 1991. He is the editor of a community newspaper.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
