Fiesta Vee 250 (2002) - Macerator Installation Advice

jmasser

Hello everyone,

Is it possible for anyone one to give me some technical help on fitting a new macerator pump to my 2002 Rinker 250 Fiesta Vee?

Type of help needed is mainly:

Best location for the skin fitting / discharge hole to be drilled below the water line?

Any advice on best location for a macerator and plumbing?

Should a vented loop be fitted?

Plus anything else that may help with my planning for this project.

Thanks and I look forward to any help.

Jason.  

frenchship

First you should not have a discharge hole it is illegal to discharge black water  into the water it should go to a waste tank. And yes a vented loop should be installed  on the water intake hose for the toilet.

jmasser

Thanks for the post frenchship, I do already have a waste tank on my boat, but it's just fitted with a vacuum outlet for emptying. I live in the UK and it is legal to discharge macerated waste below the water line in certain coastal areas.
I was just wondering if anyone had fitted a macerator on a similar boat that could give me some advice about the installation etc.
Thanks again. 

raybo3

frenchship you are not correct. It is legal to discharge as long you are more than 3 miles off shore (assuming ocean). Your "Y" valve must be in the closed position at all times and secured. 

frenchship

Thanks
That I knew but how many of us venture that far on the ocean ?

raybo3

OMG.....LOL  I am out there all the time. 3 miles is not that far.

MarkB

3 miles is not that far out. It would only take you 5 minutes to get out that far on a good day.

MarkB

Jason, sorry, back to your post. I'm not sure how many of us will have experience with that. Maybe our Rinker family members on the estate coast of the USA. Is there anyone in your Marina that has done this to their boat? Even though it might not be a rinker, you can probably learn a lot of good stuff from another installation.

Cableguy Greg

I have a macerator on my boat, but the outlet is above the water line. The waste line comes from the tank to a Y valve. One leg of the Y valve goes to the pump out port on the boat. The other leg goes to the macerator pump mounted to the top of the waste tank. The "pressurized" side of the pump goes to a thru hull fitting about 6 inches above the water line. I am not sure how you would have the discharge below the waterline without it backfilling into the waste tank/boat. There should already be a vent on your waste tank, so I can't see a reason to add another.

raybo3

I find it strange that the discharge of your macerator is above the water line. I have never seen that before. I have always seen them on below the water line on the bottom of the hull.....

Britinusa

Sounds messy having it above the waterline

Cableguy Greg

All of the installations that I have seen done at the marina where I dock at are above the waterline.

jmasser

Hi everyone, thanks for all your excellent feedback, I've found it really useful.
I'll be down at the boat next weekend and as it a bit tight around the engine / holding tank I may well plan to fit a Y-Valve and macerator directly above / on top of the tank, not sure yet about above or below waterline yet for the discharge :-/
I did see one suggestion on the web where someone had fitting the black water discharge just above the waterline but underneath the swim platform? Any comments?

Stodge

I can get 12 miles from shore in Lake St. Clair, and way more than that in Lake Huron, but black water is not allowed to be discharged into either body of water.  I've been doing vessel exams for 4 years and only seen 1 boat with a Y valve installed.  It was originally a salt water boat.  

MarkB

Stodge - in Great Lakes you obviously are right, but I think OP is talking about salt water.

jmasser - I wouldn't put it under the swim platform for a couple of reasons. (1) the drives are right there and I would hate to think of that crap being sucked into the fresh water inlet.  (2) turbulence could pull the waste back over the swim platform.

raybo3

This was on a blog:
My current macerator is on top of the holding tank, and previous ones have been anywhere from under to mid way, so I would suggest that the location is not too important. In all cases the outlet has been below the waterline (you may have a problem with air locks if the outlet is above the waterline, not to mention the possibility of brown streaks on the hull)

TikiHut2

OMG. Please don't do an above the water line blackwater discharge. That'd be unreal and god awful smelly when you hit the switch. The very thought of the look on your crews faces when they get a wiff of that jiff shooting out of the side of your boat makes me smile.

Every offshore boat I've ever seen or been on in my entire lifetime had a below the waterline through hull fitting with a valve on the fitting and a Y-valve between the tank and a macerator. Reposition both valves and hit the switch, you won't be harming anything. Move them back and you're all set to do a pumpout if you're in-land or in a no pumpout area.

I hesitate to post this as a fix for your request because of the strong feelings from some of our in-land brethren and their opinions about a relatively organic and tiny amount of treated discharge from a boat in a legal discharge zone (even though municipalities in even the cleanest cities "accidentally" discharge millions of gals every year) but I digress......

Imho, you could either simply drill a dedicated through hull below the waterline, or plumb a T fitting into a genset raw-water pickup with a diverter valve AND a Y before the macerator. Standard operating procedure for anyone with any amount of hours cruising offshore. Good luck.

How do I take my toe off of this land mine of a topic?
Anonymously yours...... Not the Sierra club.