Friends of Three Sheets Northwest

Do you pump out? (9 posts)

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Marty McOmber said 3 years, 1 month ago:

Deborah has a story up today about why pumping out is important. I know a lot of folks, myself included, wonder why we should make the effort when we read about millions of gallons of untreated sewage pouring into Puget Sound whenever a big rain storm hits. Is boat poop a drop in the bucket, or a significant part of the problem. What does everyone think?

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sv / We Be Jammin said 2 years, 8 months ago:

Mostly power yachters dump overboard I am told by older power boaters. is this really the case?

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Marty McOmber said 2 years, 8 months ago:

Hmm, never heard that before. I supose a lot more people than do that they they would care to admit.

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Daniel Leach said 2 years, 8 months ago:

When I was in Boat School the instructor, whom I love, always laughed at me and teased me for being the only person who pumps out. He is an “older powerboater”. But who knows. I would never think of sending anything overboard in an enclosed waterway, narrow channel, small bay, etc. In the middle of Juan de Fuca, miles from pumpout…tank is almost full….hmmmmm? I confess I would worry somewhat less.

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Steve Monrad said 2 years, 6 months ago:

I always use pumpout facilities. and I’m a “powerboater”!

Currently, on my boat that is the only means I have to pump out, other than the Y-valve just after the head. When cruising in the Puget Sound and San Juans, it’s really not an issue, because facilities are available. In Canada, it’s a different story, and I need to do what I can to conserve holding tank space. I intend to change my setup soon to allow pumping overboard, but don’t intend to alter my practices much…

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Al Felker said 2 years, 6 months ago:

I agree with Steve Monrad. Never pump out south of the border. We pump out while crossing Haro Straight. Once we are in Canada, Only pump out outside marinas or away from “no pump out” areas in Canada.

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sv / We Be Jammin said 2 years, 5 months ago:

We always use pump-out’s on inland waters but in the winter months here on the Columbia river in Richland they close all the pump-out’s , So what’s a sailer to do ? It’s going down to 1 deg F tonight even shit will freeze.

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Ken Bowles said 2 years, 5 months ago:

We pump out religiously. And with 5 of us on board with a 35 gallon holding tank, that means we can’t go more than a few days. And, yes, I suppose if we didn’t our contribution would be miniscule, but I see it as choosing to be part of the solution, rather than part of the problem. We make a point of using shore facilities whenever we can to stretch our holding tank mileage. Oh, and we’re powerboaters as well as you can see from my avatar.

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sv / We Be Jammin said 2 years, 5 months ago:

We finally had a Yacht club open there pump-out and cleaned our full tank. I learned that around here on the Columbia river you need a special adapter to hook up to most of the pump-outs, I made up the adapter that screws into our boat’s deck port and has a cam lock with a 2″ connector. Most advice I have gotten is use the gravity dump in the depest part of the river and that advice was from several local marinas and the local Coast Guard station, Yuck. Of course there are very very few boats on the river this time of year to be concerned about and except for last night’s lighted boat paraid the Coast Guard launched there only boat a 18′ trailerable that is winterized after the paraid untill spring.

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