Head Case

Commonly called "the head" in boat terms, the marine toilet on a sailboat can be the source of many headaches.

There are basically three different types: pump, electric, and composting. Listening to boaters debate the pros and cons of each type can make your head spin. I don't know much about the composting type. We have a pump version on our mono hull, Star Dancer, back in Chicago. Bangarang has three electric heads, which I personally think are head and shoulders above the pump type.

A head shot

Sometimes I think we should have our heads examined for buying a boat with so many heads. They need periodic maintenance and have a well-earned reputation of being fragile and touchy. However, off the top of my head, I can't think of any problems we've had since we bought our sailboat last December.

Until this week.

Another head shot

Our master suite head finally reared it ugly head, froze and stopped working. We've made so many improvements, upgrades, and repairs on our boat since moving aboard, and we needed this like a hole in the head! Luckily, we didn't lose our heads over this; we could use the other two heads until we got the master head fixed.

All his various tools make my head spin.

Kent got it into his head that he'd didn't want to pay someone to do the repair. He has a head for mechanical work and decided to tackle the repair head-on, himself. I suggested that maybe we hire someone, but he's pretty headstrong, and didn't think it was over his head. (Kent's ability to fix anything himself is one of the reasons I fell head over heels in love with him, but I don't tell him because I don't want it to go to his head.)

He dove head first into YouTube and watched some marine head repair videos. Then he buried his head in his marine catalogs, looking at parts. He made a couple of phone calls, ordered some parts, and headed over to the local marine store.

Courtesy of YouTube

A couple days later, Kent had accumulated what he needed to fix the head. When he spread out his tools and the parts, I couldn't make heads or tails out of anything.

A head piece

The marine head joker valve

There were a lot of parts and he hadn't given me a heads up about the cost. Since he was doing the work himself, I wasn't about to go head to head with him about the expense. In fact, I even suggested that we get ahead of the game, and buy several spare parts and kits! The other two heads are noisy and need some work too, I pointed out. We put our heads together and decided to order extra parts. But now, he had enough parts to get a head start on the master head, and headed below.

Head to toe in the head locker

Repairing a boat head was not fun, but wasn't as bad as we'd expected. Kent laid out the parts and scratched his head. One look at the instructions was all it took for me to bang my head against the wall, but Kent kept a cool head and dove in.

An exploded head view

It took three hours. He says that, now that he's done it once, it will take two hours next time, as long as he puts his head into it.  

The old joker valve

Fixed and almost installed

Now that I've watched him do it, I think any knucklehead can do it, as long as he has a good head on his shoulders and he doesn't have his head in the clouds!      

Happy head, happy skipper!