Could you live with a single head/toilet (family of four)?

[john61ct]

Talk about First World Problems. Can't believe how spoiled we've gotten.

Most beautiful crapper we ever has was a bucket up on a hill overlooking some nice woods and a dam.

[ssmoot]

Originally Posted by john61ct

Most beautiful crapper we ever has was a bucket up on a hill overlooking some nice woods and a dam.

I can't even get my wife to go backpacking (overnight hiking) with me. I'm pretty sure I'll be sailing alone if I suggested a bucket.

[budm303]

Modesty be damned. When you gotta go, you go. The shape of the container is irrelevant.

[Dsanduril]

Originally Posted by skipmac

If I had to choose I would prefer a single head and a separate shower stall over two heads.

+1

[JPA Cate]

To answer the question in the title, yes. My daughter, her husband, and their two kids, aged about 8 and 11, one boy, one girl, came to visit on the boat one time. The six of us managed okay, and the shower's in the same space as the toilet. They are dirt dwellers, who have a 3 bathroom home, and they are not campers.

It really depends on the people involved, I would say, bearing in mind that some places in the world still have communal toilets, and everybody gets by there, too. As long as everyone's needs are met, toilet space is a luxury, not a need.

Furthermore, it is two heads to maintain.



Ann

[Dockhead]

My answer would be "no", but then, my city apartment has four bathrooms, so I might care more about it than most. Two on my boat.

[Shrew]

I think a lot of it is just coordination and communication (consideration). We give each other a heads up if we're going to take a shower or, in general, take more than 5 minutes in the head. "Do you need to use the head or any hot water before I take a shower?"

[MJH]

I can't believe how pampered we have become. Multiple heads goes along with multiple wheels...do we really need them? Twice the cost and maintenance.

Mathematically:
24 hours / 4 people = each gets 6 HOURS!

One hour (60 minutes) / 4 = 15 minutes!

What's the problem?

On our trip to Hawaii one guy off duty needed the head and his duty partner was already in it. He came to the cockpit got on the rail and peed over the side...done! I've heard of ladies doing the same during the R2AK. There are alternatives.

As I recall in reading John Neal's book, he used the head of his Vega 27 for storage and the crew used a bucket instead...use it, you clean it.

~ ~ _/) ~ ~ MJH

[a64pilot]

A whole lot has to do with the size of the boat, that extra head eats room from somewhere else, smaller Salon, Stateroom or Galley or something.

[john61ct]

Originally Posted by ssmoot

I can't even get my wife to go backpacking (overnight hiking) with me. I'm pretty sure I'll be sailing alone if I suggested a bucket

The only reason I learned to happily live without mod cons as a teenager was my first wife, everlastingly grateful to her for that.

Then again, she got to keep the off-grid mud brick house we were building at the time 8-)

When I met her she was in a stone hut, no electric, water from an outside well & bucket, snowy winter only the open fire for heat.

But lovely orange groves and lavender farms, walking distance to empty beaches. . .

[Mithril Bham]

I would never have two heads on a boat under 60ft (unless it was a charter boat) but that's me. Waste of space. More complications, hoses etc.

[boat driver]

i grew up with a family of 5 and one toilet/bathroom in the house (3000 feet built 1902) .
I have lived/cruised/raced many sailboats around the world with one head.
I own a 70 foot motor vessel with one head, sleeps many.
Its called respect, we all fart, and utilization of space.

[seadago]

One is more than enough! Unless you want another as a backup. Besides, if you sail tropical/subtropical areas, who may want to shower in a tiny cubicle when there's so much room on deck on a cat??

In the prehistory of my life, I sailed up the Mozambique channel on a steel Island Trader ketch. 45 feet for eleven of us, boys and girls. One head behind the wheelhouse. Backup was a wooden toilette rim fastened to a ss tube frame hanging off the transom. When in use, everyone moved forward or looked the other way for a few mins. Best crapper I ever used and the views were superb!!