How Stuff Works


	Follow the links above to learn how "boat things" can be surprisingly different from "land things."

*"Hey! How does* *this &^$&* *toilet work?!?"*

How Stuff Works

In many ways, boats are very different from traditional houses or apartments. You may be thinking to yourself, "Well, duh! That's obvious." To which I'd reply, "Probably not in ways that you think, smart guy!"

Boats are designed to be completely self-sufficient away from shore. That means that water has to be stored in tanks below. Because of the limited supply of water, you can't take long showers or run the water in the sink while shaving or brushing your teeth. Electricity, to which most of us are completely addicted, has to be stored in batteries. It, too, is in limited supply on board the boat. Oh, and by the way, batteries work with 12 volts...not the 110 volts that household appliances use. So a lot of the cool things that you buy at BestBuy might not work on board your boat. When you cook a meal on board, you'll almost certainly be using either gas or alcohol as your fuel source. Electric ovens would simply drain the onboard batteries too quickly.

Boats are generally much smaller than houses or apartments. Yet, boat designers manage to fit a kitchen, two or more bedrooms, an entertainment / dining area, and a bathroom or two in areas that have smaller interiors than many of the RV's that you see driving down the highway. They cram all this stuff down below by making things smaller. It takes a while to get used to shorter beds and smaller toilets (MUCH smaller toilets...).

By the time I moved on board, I had read many books about boating. I knew a bruce anchor from a CQR. I could tell the difference between a cutter-rigged sailboat and a sloop. I could even tie basic knots. But I didn't know how to flush Candide's toilet (and I certainly didn't know what happened to things that went down the toilet). I didn't know how to light the burners on my oven (for safety's sake, there are three separate steps involved). I didn't know what an incredible pain in the ass it can be to make the bed in the vee-berth.

These pages will explain to you the systems on board that make the boat livable. There are plenty of other sites out there that will teach you how to make your boat go faster, how to navigate to your destination, or how to deal with sailing in rough weather. What most of those other sites won't tell you are things like these:

	How to select a decent entertainment system for kick-ass music and video down below.
	The purpose of the "Y" valve in the bathroom...and how to use it to avoid trouble with the U.S. Coast Guard, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the local police.
	My patented three-step process for successfully completing your business on the toilet without risk of injury.
	Producing hot water for washing dishes and taking showers.
	Reducing the risk of catastrophic explosions and a fiery death while making scrambled eggs in the morning.
	Keeping beer cold on board (VERY important to most sailors).
	Staying warm in the winter, and cool in the summer.

...and many other exciting topics!

I spent a good deal of time thinking about the best way to organize this information. Eventually, I decided to break things down by area of the boat. Therefore, there's a section dedicated to the bathroom, one for the kitchen, etc. Of course, some of the information becomes redundant (for example, hot water for the bathroom comes from the same place that makes hot water for the kitchen). But I felt that it was best to present the information "room by room" so to speak.

I hope you find the information useful. If you do, I'd really appreciate an e-mail from you! Getting e-mails from folks is my only "reward" for maintaining this site.

Please drop me a line at: robert@sleepingwithoars.com


	There are so many things that we take for granted when it comes to comfortable living on land. We flush the toilet, and our waste simply disappears. We reach into the refrigerator and grab a cold beer. We turn the oven "on" and throw in a TV dinner. On a boat, all of these conveniences are possible, but they often work differently from land-based systems.


	There are a few things that I had in my apartment that I really would like to have aboard. An automatic dishwasher is at the top of that list! That's followed closely by a bathtub, a king-size bed that's long enough for my 6'4" frame, unlimited amounts of hot water, and a refrigerator big enough to store an entire cow.