Reforming Wayward Sewage Systems

Much like many other re-habilitations on board, the sewage system repair started out simply enough. We had a smelly bathroom in the port hull that featured a stainless steel holding tank. After some research, the repair seemed as simple as replacing the hoses involved. Thus, I ordered a 50 foot section of hose and we started replacing the infrastructure installed by Prout Catamarans into our Escale.

Unfortunately, we discovered that like many other projects on board this one was going to involve a lot more work than we initially bargained for. When we were done, we had not only replaced the smelly hoses, we also found a number of leaks, extracted raw sewage that had spilled into the bilge, refinished unprotected bilge surfaces, rebuilt the toilets, etc. Not the most pleasant of jobs, even if the system has been flushed several times.

All our findings indicate that Prout installed the holding tank in our sewage system as an afterthought. Thus, if your Prout has no holding tank, you're probably fairly safe since the hose connections in such systems are not only short but also go from one proper hose nipple to another.