95 carver 355 motoryacht how to suck out poop?

Sounds like you're talking about dumping overboard. To pump out just plug it in and suck it out. Make sure you maintain a good connection between the pumpout hose and your Waste hole or you won't enjoy what happens next. Have the person at the pump out station do it for you the first time if possible to show you how. Where you're at on the Island, do you have to go to a station or do you have a pump out boat? If it's a pumpout boat the usual tip is $10. Most pumpout stations will do it free if you're fueling up also, otherwise there's usually a charge of from $5 to $15.
P.S. To dump overboard open the through-hull while idling, switch the position of the Y-valve (some boats also have a safety switch in this area), then turn on your macerator. But PLEASE don't do this unless you're well offshore.

Pay good heed to the final sentence in Post Script, other wise NYCAP will have to change his signature tag to "Some went down to the sea in sh.."

Adam, what's being referred to above is the 'macerator' pump to dump the dump overboard. I see you're on Long Island, and depending where, there are plenty of free pump out stations all over the place and it's as simple as said above; you go to one of them open the topside cap, start up the doody hose of the pumpout, and just suck it all out. Our slip this season is about 50 feet from the Guy Lombardo pumpout in Freeport; convenient and so far no 'downwind' ill effects.

You need to take the time to learn the plumbing on your boat. Within the 3 mile limit you are required to have the overboard discharge secured against accidental or intentional discharge. This may be the valves you are talking about and they may not be legal right now. Was the previous owner a live-aboard?

I've never see a setup where you needed to switch valves to pump out a holding tank. So you may just be discharging overboard every time you flush. With two heads you may have one or two holding tanks. Each holding tank should have it's own deck fitting marked waste. It should be a simple pump out at any fuel dock after that.

If you are still not sure call your surveyor or broker. Find a Carver specific website or even pay a marine mechanic for an hour to check out the system. If you're dumping overboard in your marina and you get busted there will be hefty fines to pay besides not being a very good neighbor.

It might be a good idea to have a read of this before trying to figure out what "well offshore" means in real life.

http://www.epa.gov/ne/eco/nodiscrg/index.html

(2) tanks and only (1) pumpout on deck? Sounds like a recipe for trouble. At any rate it shouldn't be a Y-valve between them as that diverts to another location. It should be a ball valve connecting them you're looking for.

Thats a great looking boat. The owner mentioned it was for sale while we were walking down A dock. Did you remove the mural on the back (tropical scene I think it was)? I thought I saw it on there one day, and gone the next.

Tom.

What's wrong with that? Turn your Y upside down and you have one pipe going the deck fitting and one to each tank. Select the tank to be vacuumed out by operating the Y valve.

What kind of trouble can that cause?

You might be amazed!!

Absolutely right. Hadn't thought of the pumpout being between the tanks with a Y to direct which tank pumps. I'm used to the Y being for overboard discharge. Thinking back I do remember running into that situation once and yes, it was on a 38 Carver (that boat also had twin 50/125 shore power ) . With so much hose the pumpouts just don't have enough umph to pull from both tanks at once. Have to agree with Pascal

I guess I would. A Y valve selects one or the other. A valve failure might have both tanks partially open to the suction or only one or maybe none. It is not like the failure creates any risk of a sewage spill or damage to anything.

There is no internal pressure and only 1 atm on the exterior of the components involved. There is absolutely no more risk than a single pipe leading from a single deck fitting to a single tank.

Let me know if I missed something here.

Hi,

With a Y Valve where one branch leads to each tank and the stalk of the Y leads to the discharge, how do you set it to suck both tanks in the first place?

Think yourselves lucky you only have small tanks, try getting rid of 50,000 Lt at a time.

There are very few working pumpout facilities for the bigger yachts anywhere.

More to the point, why would you want to? Simple physics says that one or the other tank will empty first depending on the piping resistance, and the flow capacity of the single deck/dock line limits total flow so there isn't any difference in the time required.

Not to mention that when the first tank is emptied, suction is lost and nothing more is removed from the other tank.

Since we are headed this way ... if a pumpout has enought "umph" to empty one tank it will empty two tanks that are at the same level. It is atmospheric pressure that empties the tank and that pressure is the same on both tanks.

Because of internal resistance to flow in the piping, one tank might empty faster than the other but the same "umph" is applied to each and the total time to empty both tanks together is the same as it takes to empty both of them individually.

The price range was a bit high for us, but we thought too that if we got that boat the mural had to go. Where do you dock now? We're not sure where we'll store for the Winter. Our previous marina (for a 24' boat) doesn't have big enough lifts for our new boat (325 aft cabin).