Deconstructing and rebuilding the heads in a Victoria 34

Duncan_Hill · 2019-06-11 15:20:53

Blue Opal is a master cabin variant of the Victoria 34; I have what works out to be something like a double bed in the forepeak, two lockers in the cabin, the saloon space, a chart table with a too-small stool, and the head is on starboard where you would expect the quarter berth on a "normal" V34.

The old while hoses from 1998 have picked up a pretty good pong, so I sourced some replacement modern butyl rubber type non-permeable hose made by Vetus, a lot of size 50 hose/jubilee clips, and asked Dad to come over and give me a hand (there were plans to do a bunch of electrics work to move batteries etc, but that went out the porthole).

I will say this for the Victoria yard - they believed in #8 screws and Sikaflex (or the 1998 equivalent) in copious quantities. I'll get around to adding drawings of the construction at some point, but you'll have to make do with photos and words for now. It took us 3 days to get the head compartment to pieces (and only one of us fits in there at a time), get the hoses out, get the detritus cleaned up, get the new hoses back in, and then find that the diverter valve has died.

Friday - https://www.cricalix.net/2019/06/07/rep … se-part-1/

Saturday - https://www.cricalix.net/2019/06/08/rep … se-part-2/

Sunday - https://www.cricalix.net/2019/06/09/rep … se-part-3/

The new hose has its own pong at the moment; recent manufacture. I hope it goes away soon.

Duncan_Hill · 2019-06-11 15:26:31

I will also look at writing up a set of instructions for taking apart this particular setup of head, to submit to the V34 manual maintained by the association - somewhere in my copious free time as I manage the renovation of my house and live on my boat... (I've been a live-aboard for 2 months now).

Don_Smith · 2019-06-11 22:52:49

Duncan
We noticed a holding tank pong when we viewed Blue Opal the second time in Conwy. Triptych developed one too so all the sanitary hose came out this winter, much of it was seriously scaled from urate I presume rather than calcium. Date 1988 or 1998. The diverter switch was the worst for scaling. The holding bladder ponged no matter what we did with it so Its history. The lay out for the heads is conventional but still cramped.

I found a dose of steam down the pipes makes them softer and easier to work (see current PBO). We've not refitted the holding bladder as we never need it and hopefully we won't have to put it back later.
New hose, free from biofilm, should keep us free from H2S for a while but we fitted a Seasmart system to prevent it creeping back.
Best of luck with the reconstruction.
Don
Triptych, Conwy

Duncan_Hill · 2019-06-12 12:05:34

Steam! Yes, that would have helped. Unfortunately, we were doing this on the mooring a lot of the time, and my 300W inverter is not sufficient to drive the steam cleaning machine I have (if I could have even found it in the pile of boxes etc that comprise my house contents).

The Vetus hose is nice to work with; takes tight bends nicely, but due to the double helix of steel wire, it exerts a lot of force on anything you attach it to if you attach it with a sharp radius. The bend over the new pump is about as tight as I'd want to do it if going on to a plastic connector. I've got tighter bends where it goes through the wooden panels, but the panel is bearing the brunt of the force so it's ok.

That Seasmart thing looks kind of neat, and I might be able to fit it under the heads sink with a bit of thought; that's where the inlet seacock is. I'll add that to the list of "hmm, consider this". Would want to know what's in the liquid though, because biodegradable doesn't necessarily mean MARPOL compliant as I read it.

Will be interesting to see how well the Vetus hose works once it loses its own pong. At 20+/metre, it better work well!

Duncan_Hill · 2019-06-17 13:21:03

After a week, the Vetus hose isn't smelling anywhere near as strongly as it did before.

New diverter is in - https://www.cricalix.net/2019/06/17/rep … ter-valve/

The old one has definite signs of the O-ring failing in some manner. It's in the bin now, because there's no point trying to clean it and salvage it; Whale don't sell refurbishment kits.. I presume I could try just replacing the O-ring, but the new one is installed now, and I'm not in the mood to clean an old waste diverter. Instead, I need to look at replacing the water pump on the engine, because it's on the failure track (water leaking from the spindle portion towards the pulley).

Duncan_Hill · 2019-06-17 13:23:30

Worth amending that Blue Opal doesn't have a bladder - she has a stainless steel welded tank behind the head. Since I'm in a harbour, pumping solid waste overboard probably wouldn't go down well, so holding tank it is.

Duncan_Hill · 2019-07-17 07:44:43

Dad was back this weekend, and https://www.cricalix.net/2019/07/16/cha … d-seacock/ happened. New seacock on the head! It turns with one finger! (Ok, a strong finger)

Still need to order a bit of the sanitation hose to replace a run that's spliced, and put all the wood panels back, but she's "done". No pong in there at all now.

#1 2019-06-11 15:20:53

Deconstructing and rebuilding the heads in a Victoria 34

#2 2019-06-11 15:26:31

Re: Deconstructing and rebuilding the heads in a Victoria 34

#3 2019-06-11 22:52:49

Re: Deconstructing and rebuilding the heads in a Victoria 34

#4 2019-06-12 12:05:34

Re: Deconstructing and rebuilding the heads in a Victoria 34

#5 2019-06-17 13:21:03

Re: Deconstructing and rebuilding the heads in a Victoria 34

#6 2019-06-17 13:23:30

Re: Deconstructing and rebuilding the heads in a Victoria 34

#7 2019-07-17 07:44:43

Re: Deconstructing and rebuilding the heads in a Victoria 34

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