Electric/Automatic Heads?

Lodesman, I was just kidding. Better, worse, who cares. reality is that there are just some things that Americans, as a culture are not accustomed to. As is the case in any custom. Doubt that? Hand a Saudi an apple with your left hand.
Just a joke guys, keep smilin

[ssullivan]

A bidet would confuse even sophisticated, worldly people from Manhattan. It's a good idea, but I have to agree with Kai Nui here. The culture shock would be too much for the guests.

I know some people who really like them, but if you're not a "bidet person", you definitely would need another option.

[Jentine]

A bidet mounted alongside the head, what a great idea. One for each foot.

Anything more than a bucket is just there for the comfort of my guests and crew on my boat.
I will say that a television commercail that aired a while back comes to mind. It was for one of those online vacation sites. It showed an older couple whose kids had booked them into an upscale luxury hotel. Their brief experience with a bidet in this commercial was comical, probably because I could easily relate to it.
Then again, Sean, for your next charter boat, you could outfit for such luxries. Bidets, tanning booth, maybe a jacuzzi. You could use that towed support dinghy idea. A 20k genset, a desalinization plant, and just to be environmentally correct, maybe a waste treatment station.

[ssullivan]

Hillarious!

That's really all any of us need. Just a tow-along barge for the "necessities." Just think:

*20KW Genset
*Desalination (you could sell the salt to the US for road use!)
*Sewage treatment
*Sattelite transmission/communcation center (with your own sattelite)
*Oil refinery for diesel/LPG/etc...
*Small farm for fresh veggies, eggs and steer
*Certainly some tanning booths- you'll need them for the strippers that work at the strip club you have on the barge
*Housing for all the hired help
*A spot to park your car AND your Boss Hoss 350cu in. DAMN, that was a crazy bike when I looked it up the other day. I thought my old rice rocket was fast. (ZX-7). Not even close.

Yup.. the the bare essentials.

After 36 years of riding motorcycles, the boss hoss is the only bike that ever scared me. Broke the back wheel loose at 55. YIKES! Oh, and good luck keeping the cattle from getting seasick
All silliness aside, One of the issues here is perspective. I think, regardless of reliability, when people book a charter such as yours, I would expect that they are expecting a certain bit of saltyness. An electric head would be somewhat reminiscent of an RV. As in so many other areas you have concerns that would not impact the average cruiser. Trying to balance the things that make a cruising boat practical, with the things that make your guests comfortable will always be a challenge. It sounds like you have a very good balance going at this point. I am curious to here of any specific problems people have had with electric heads. Based on some of the comments here, I think allot of people including myself have misconceptions about them.

[marc]

Hi, I've owned 4 boats in the last 25 years, and my recent boat (7 years) has an electric Lavac head. Hands down, the best and most trouble free piece of equipment on the boat.

Marc

Top of the line! Might have something to do with it. Does the electric unit fill your holding tank any faster than the manual?

[Alan Wheeler]

Hey Sean, ain't that what you guy's call an Aircraft carrier

[Lodesman]

Whatever happened to American ingenuity? You know that "build a better mouse-trap..." ideal? You could be pioneers. Visionaries. Trend-setters. But noooo! Fortunately there are people like Mark Cuban, who BTW is involved with Brondell (sorry I typoed it the first time). So he'll make another billion selling Swashes at Home Depots all across the US of A. So it's only a matter of time before your most provincial guests will not only know what it is, but will be demanding a warm squirt for their whazzits. And maybe if this thing makes it to Saudi Arabia, they can stop using their left hands for you-know-what.

Kevin

PS - I'm still using paper, but then again I don't feel the need to bag it.

Well Kevin, we've gone conservitive. Change is bad. What can I say
I hear the Japanese have come up with a musical toilet that has a device that comes out and washes and dries you when your done. I'll stick with my bucket.

[Lodesman]

Kai - the Japanese you say? Sounds like something you Americans came up with - it's called a Brondell Swash - try to keep up

We must have copied their design. It is our turn you know

[ssullivan]

Lodesman once whispered in the wind:
Whatever happened to American ingenuity? You know that "build a better mouse-trap..." ideal?

What indeed....

We have had some changes here for sure. Not as many risk-takers, and a huge growth in low income people (who used to be middle).

It ain't what it used to be!

[Alan Wheeler]

Guy's Guy's Guy's, the idea of washing the southern end in the sailing community has been around for years. The ideaof parking your Bum over the rail in a heavey sea is one, the idea of parking yourself over the head of the boat was another, and where do you think the term Poop deck came from.