Laundry Aboard While on the Hook

[wryanddry]

Thanks for the great feedback, consensus calls for a longitudinal conical device towed by single line, on my way back to the drawing board, then capngeo went and found the solution. What I find interesting is that it is not so important to make the thing collapsible as I thought but to have multiple functions.

Pelagic totally see the concept you describe, and Senormechanico has the same ideas. Virtualvagabond has a great point about use of the device at anchor, will ponder that one.

Thanks again!

[capngeo]

I had used it at anchor by booming it out on the spin pole as far as I could.. rocking repeatedly dunked it which imparted a spin of sorts. It worked great towed! I suppose even rolling it back and forth on deck would work too. When not in use, I stowed my laundry soap and bleach in it.

[knottygurl]

I have to say, this thread has some excellent ideas, I was fully prepared for laundrymats.
kudos to all for the great ideas , thank a ton
Bill

[conachair]

A washing machine. The fully marinised version has a rope instead of a metal handle. Its all in the rinse cycle... ;0

[Bash]

has anyone used Wonderwash? It's getting some impressive reviews.
Portable Washing Machine
I understand that it uses a pressurized system, which makes it more efficient than agitation-only systems.

[mikereed100]

I used a Wonderwash for a while but I really didn't see any advantage to it over a bucket and feet. Plus, it's a single-purpose item that takes up space, 2 strikes against it on a boat.

Mike

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by wryanddry

Thanks for the great feedback, consensus calls for a longitudinal conical device towed by single line, on my way back to the drawing board, then capngeo went and found the solution. What I find interesting is that it is not so important to make the thing collapsible as I thought but to have multiple functions.

Pelagic totally see the concept you describe, and Senormechanico has the same ideas. Virtualvagabond has a great point about use of the device at anchor, will ponder that one.

Thanks again!

It was fun.

But after sleeping on it, I wonder how many people would want to actually do laundry while underway?

You have the softener, double rinsing and the drying to contend with.

Could make for slippery decks and lost clothes

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by wryanddry

By trade I am an industrial designer. I was considering this problem and read several posts on this and other sites with solutions ranging from a black bin liner with ammonia/water left to slosh around to buying and installing a purpose designed washer/dryer. Not able to help myself I came up with this idea. basically it gets towed behind the vessel, spinning on its axis on bearings mounted into each end cap. the paddles bite into the water and cause the pentagon shaped drum to revolve. the non cylindrical shape of the drum enhances the agitation of the waves. One end cap unscrews to afford access to the drum and the entire drum assembly is a concertina type arrangement allowing the unit to collapse. Extended the unit is about 2 ft long and collapses to approx 8 inches. Now I just have to thing of another use for this device because everything on board has to have at least 2 uses. Would anyone buy this? and if so what would you want to pay $US? Suggestions for improvements?

Pretty cool.

I drew pictures similar to that and showed them to a friend last year. Opinion was probably cost too much.

I did not have a collapsible one though. Mine was used to store stuff like a bucket like soap, brushes, rags etc. Mine also had small paddles inside to agitate.

Cruisers that do their own laundry are pretty frugal and most just use a laundromat or a local service it seems.

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by IrishLass

Japanese Plastic Washboard Washing Laundry Board #6094 - eBay (item 200529774929 end time Mar-09-11 08:55:43 PST)

Plastic washboard, plunger and a bucket.

A little on the small side.

[troppo]

Here's a couple of my travel principles;

The less clothes u wear, the less that you (or Joy) have to wash.

The longer u leave the washing, the more likely u will run out of clothing on the day you are too stuffed to do washing.

The easier the system to wash, the more likely u will do it regularly.

A good soak reduces scrubbing.

The more the soap the more the rinsing.

The more the washing the harder to move around on the boat without bumping hanging washing.

So, before too much washing builds up, I use a bucket or basin (which are multi-purpose so are space effecient), soak clothes in water and minimal soap stuff, rub dirty areas together by hand (I wear washing-up gloves), slosh around, wring, rinse using a small amount of water, then do the wring and rinse a couple more times until rinse is clean, hang 'em up using pegs which stop 'em from flying over the side with unexpected gusts.

One place I was at, on wash day, I would row to the public wharf and collect several buckets of water. Since the piping out to the wharf was black poly and in the sun, the water came out very hot. Nice for washing clothing and self.

[Edit: Oh, I discovered that red dirt on white clothing is extremely hard to hand scrub off so I reduce my washing effort by having clothing of a colour which hides dirt. And I also stopped rolling around on shore where there is red dirt.]

[matauwhi]

G'day, mates. Over the years, we have found getting the wash & rinse water removed to be the tough part of the laundry task. If you have the opportunity to procure a wringer, you won't regret it. Cheers.

[atoll]

our local marina pub installed a washing machine in the bar,within days the female counterparts were remarking on how many of the blokes were offering to do the washing.............

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by matauwhi

G'day, mates. Over the years, we have found getting the wash & rinse water removed to be the tough part of the laundry task. If you have the opportunity to procure a wringer, you won't regret it. Cheers.

And yet there are so few around.

It does save a lot on water doesn't it?

[kenny chaos]

Originally Posted by Therapy

And yet there are so few around.

It does save a lot on water doesn't it?

I posted a link for a place to get wringers, oil lamp parts, and other
assorted hard to find items but it was taken down as not enough about sailing.
PM if you want the link.

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by kenny chaos

I posted a link for a place to get wringers, oil lamp parts, and other
assorted hard to find items but it was taken down as not enough about sailing.
PM if you want the link.

Thanks,

I think I remember seeing that and thinking that it would be nice to see a newer one out of SS or aluminum - but with the wood rollers.