Trouper has rather clever Blakes Lavac toilets. Unlike the more common Jabsco marine toilets there is no change over valve between flush and rinse. The Lavac design simply has a large diaphragm pump on the discharge side, a high loop with a small vent on the inlet side and seals under the list and seat. When the pump runs it creates a vacuum in the bowl and draws seawater in to flush it. When the pump stops the vent breaks the seal after a little while and the lid can be raised. The beauty is in the simplicity – and is best appreciated by those who’ve tried to strip and rebuild the Jabsco ones at sea: they are not only full of small parts, including springs, but the pump itself is notorious for cracking at its base and they are prone to clogging, due to some small openings.
Trouper not only has two of these Lavacs, adding a little redundancy, as well as ensuring that at sea one is always on the downhill side at sea, but they are also electrically operated.
I rebuilt the aft one about 8 years ago, and the forward one’s motor failed in 2022. When the forward one failed I also rebuilt it with new valves and diaphragm together with repainting the aluminium body. It was looking as though I was going to have to replace the pump with the newer design they now supply as the parts are no longer available. This was going to be quite expensive and would need some new brackets and reorganised plumbing to accommodate it as they weren’t the same shape as the old ones. In desperation I looked hard at the old motor unit and spotted what turned out to be a Bosch part code stamped into its body. The previous owner had told me that he’d installed that motor and it had never seemed quite right to him as it operated very slowly – he’d even wondered if it was a mislabelled 24v version. Armed with Bosch part code I went internet shopping: it turned out to be the windscreen wiper motor and gearbox from a 1990 vintage Mercedes Sprinter van. I ordered a new one for about £40 (the replacement pump, that wouldn’t fit, was well over £250) and it fitted perfectly. When I came to wire it up I discovered that there are 3 positive terminals and one negative. They are for intermittent, slow and fast wipe settings. It turns out the old one had been connected to the slow wipe setting!
When we were in France at the start of the month Kathryn had spotted a dribble on the aft head hose that turned out to be from the pump diaphragm leaking. So last weekend, in sweltering heat, of course, I stripped and rebuilt the pump. When I first bought the boat I’d tried doing this in situ under the after heads sink working through a tiny cupboard door. It took all day and didn’t last long as I’d not got it all together straight, which resulted in the rebuild about 8 years ago. I’d been driven to this as I was worried about reinstalling the pump, but when I rebuilt it I did take it out and discovered how to reinstall it easily. Trouper’s heads have a shower head and hose that is stowed in a hole in the counter top of the sink. If you pass a loop of sting through that you can use that to support the bit of the pump you can’t reach in place chest you put the fixing bolts in place. After that it’s two hoses and an electrical plug.
So this time I took the pump out with some confidence (having flushed it with a lot of seawater first) and took it off to the bench in my workshop. Once apart it needed quite a clean – there’s an unfortunate reaction between salt water and urine that forms a crystalline deposit, and 8 years use had created a fair bit of that.
The paint from 8 years ago was in quite good condition (the metal painted bit should be on the dry side of the diaphragm and hold the motor assembly in place) so I just repainted a couple of patches that were most in need, and filled some corrosion damage with JB Weld.
I primed it with two coats of an acid etch primer, and then gave it three coats of top coat – with the last two either side of a much needed early evening shower.
On Sunday morning I reassembled it with a new diaphragm and valves and reinstalled it. The reinstallation was a bit fiddlier than I hoped as I needed to tidy up the end of the inlet hose which was a bit battered. I trimmed about 20mm off it, and then removed the spiral steel reinforcement for about 30 mm to make it soft enough to mate on the pump and clamp tight.
I also finished fitting the new leather boot to the lifeline to protect the headsail, that I’d started in Cherbourg.
I did a little, very much needed, workshop tidying too, and assembled and tested Mk2 of the Pig Stick and fitted a new brighter B&G 2020 HV Mast display. All in all it felt like a very productive 36 hours at the boat.