E-39B Shower Pictures for Sven

Mike Tinder

Member II
Sven,

First thing to buy if you put in a shower is too get a 100% Nylon shower curtain, we got ours at one of those bed & bath stores. They dry fast, do not mold, light weight and tuck in where you want them for storage. Do not buy plastic whatever you do. I made the shower curtain holder/rod out of some extra copper pipe that I had, that way I could make it fit to the size I wanted, it is heavy duty and strong and most important for us was not having to try and slide a shower curtain around some slim little piece of tracking, with cheap little attachments on the shower curtain. They always break, do not last, and of course you have to pay big bucks for them and do constant maintenance on those stupid little sew on curtain hooks. I shined up the copper pipe and sprayed lacquer on it too keep it looking nice, it is four years old. Now for the shower valve I just bought a faucet and attached it too a 4 sided wooden box that I made, you can see in the picture. Wooden box has no bottom or back to it and was attached to the bulkhead with L-Shape brackets. I ran copper tubing to it, not pipe, but tubing. This copper tubing is attached to the hot & cold water lines that supply water to the heads sink. When water lines are exposed like the ones for my shower, just remember to use anything that sunlight cannot penetrate, this cuts down on the growth of mold. On top of the shower faucet you will see a brass adapter, I bought that so it would adapt to the small hose that comes off the shower head. We went with a shower head that slides up and down a rod, that way short people can shower too, like our grand kids. And of course the shower head comes off the holder for quick and easy rinse of the body. Forgot to mention that I bought spray paint that looks like cooper and spray painted the brackets that the shower curtain rod is attached too. My wife also marked the length she wanted the shower curtain to be and for a couple dollars she had a professional seamstress sew it, that way we had no excess curtain in the head, we have just what we need in length and width.
 

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Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Nice!

Mike, By Neptune, you've done it!
:egrin:
Finally a way to shower inside the head without flooding out the lockers and spreading a mess all around.

So, how did you size the curtain rod perimeters? If it's too close the curtain will be constantly sticking to elbows, knees, and ______ !
:rolleyes:

Let's see, for Glyn the rods would have to be polished bronze. For our boat they should be carbon fiber.
;)

Thanks again for the photos.
Loren
 
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Mike Tinder

Member II
Loren

We do not close the door to the head when we shower, we swing it back to where is closes off the V-Berth. This give you more room to shower. We slide the one curtain out of the way when we are done and step onto a towel on the V-Berth floor for drying off. Having the shower head come off the holder makes rinseing off easier after you have washed your hair. It can stick to you, but when you have a bit a room to move around it falls off you. Bottom line for us is we can take a shower in what is considered a fairley small head for a 39 foot boat without getting water everywhere, dry off and get dressed in relative comfort in the V-Berth.
 

chtaylor

Member II
I have been interested in putting a shower into my 32-2. Your idea for a curtain and the shower head is great.

My main question is where does the water drain out? Do you have an opening into the bilge in the head or does it just find its way into the bilge some other way? My nearest bilge opening is in the main cabin.

Sorry if this was covered in another thread, but I just now saw this one.

Thanks,

Charles
 

Mike Tinder

Member II
Charles

Yes I do have a drain in the floor of the head, it came with one. It also came with a shower that hooked up to the sink faucet and the cheapest shower rod I have ever seen that took you 10 minutes to open or close the oriningal plastic curtain because of the small track opening in the curtain rod. My drain is 1 1/4". I decided not to put in a seperate sump and another bilge pump for our shower drain. Instead I ran the drain hose from my shower drain all the way back to the deep sump in my bilge that is located right under my engine. That way I do not have another sump or electric bilge pump to worry about, that is just more money and my time for maintenance that I did not want to deal with. This way 99% of my bilge stays dry, except for the sump back aft. We have a screen in the shower drain and it catches everything. We allow nothing but clean water to go the bilge sump, you have to have a screen. Hope this helps.
 

Mike Tinder

Member II
John

Dam I have not laughed that hard in such a long time, but you are right, I should have worded it different, but then again I would not have had such a good laugh today.
 

Glyn Judson

Moderator
Moderator
Factory drain in the head.

Mike, Would you mind telling me if your head pan drain fitting leads to anything in the bilges like a sump or collection tank for the shower's gray water? We too have a factory (shower) drain in our head that leads directly to the raw bilge. In talking to Bruce years ago, the tone of his response about that was to suggest that our boat came from the factory with a collection box, which it didn't and for that matter neither did any of her sister ships. Our gray water simply falls into the bilge directly below the pan and eventually makes its way to the lowest part of the bilges where the automatic pump switch sees it and the pump dumps it overboard. Thanks, Glyn Judson, E31 hull #55, Marina del Rey, CA
 

Martin King

Sustaining Member
Blogs Author
Our gray water simply falls into the bilge directly below the pan and eventually makes its way to the lowest part of the bilges where the automatic pump switch sees it and the pump dumps it overboard


Glyn,

Our gray water falls directly on the deck and runs out the scuppers. I
don't think it's a factory shower but it did come with the boat.
For some reason, it doesn't work too well in winter.:egrin:

Marty
E31C
 
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Sven

Seglare
First thing to buy if you put in a shower is too get a 100% Nylon shower curtain, we got ours at one of those bed & bath stores.

Thanks for the pics and the explanation.

I had not considered putting the shower-head on that side so that's one immediate re-think I'll have to ponder.

Our shower pan also drains into the bilge but we will install a sump and pump before we use it. How did you manage to get the drain hose under the water and fuel tanks on the way back to the deep part of the bilge ?

Do you drape the curtain over the seat or does it get washed along with whoever is taking a shower ? I've been thinking of different fold-down seats that might keep the water off the seat and the surrounding wood which would be hard to always dry completely.

You are right that the head is really small for a 39 but I don't know what space we'd be willing to give up to make it larger ... not that we'd do that re-model, just thinking.

Thanks again !



-Sven
 
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