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Living aboard in Auckland


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I think there is some byelaw here in the BOI stating that you cannot liveaboard on a mooring for more than a short specified time. However, I like many others have been here for years....
I'd expect Regs like that to be applied more in some areas than others and often only after someone bitches about the boat for some reason. If you aren't annoying anyone I'm sure the local Authority has far better things to do. In places like Akl harbour for example I suppose you're a lot more visible and the place is chocker with very low tolerance people hence the local Authority does have to play the game a bit tighter I suppose.

 

I totally agree with toilet discharge laws but grey water? Surely not every boat in Auckland has a grey water tank and I don't think a little eco-friendly washing up liquid with some dirty dish water can be that harmful. I don't have a shower onboard so no discharge there. Crazy all these regulations when raw sewage and god knows what chemical effluents still get dumped in the sea. After prolonged heavy rain in Opua the water is brown as and stinks.
Raw sewage gets pumped into the heart of Westhaven marina in a real big wet as well but you'll still be a lot more visible hence a easier target for the aforementioned no tolerance ignorant ranters overlooking the harbour. All about 'perception' I suppose, be it right or wrong.
Or find a rich bloke to pay my way for me!
I tried that but don't look crash hot in a mini skirt, bugger it :lol: :lol: :lol:
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With regard to the grey water issue, it is instructive to look at the latest Turkish regulations.

 

Basicly, as I understand them, they prevent any discharge from vessels.

 

From a practical point of view this eliminates all visiting cruising vessels, as the sort of sump tank required to accept all crap and grey water would be prohibitively large, and that sort of colestomy bag conversion beyond the tolerance or patience of most existing boat owners.

 

Obviously, these sort of draconian rules are inspired by the lobbyists of the charter companies and their puppeteers. The Bravarians, the Beneteauvians, et al, who are slicing up the pie of European recreational sailing to suit themselves.

 

Say you read it here for the first time - there will, shortly, be a Beneteau produced which will totally absorb the effluent and emmissions of it's crew.

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Then maybe it's a good idea I can hold 2500ltrs of effluent. Err.....the Boat can hold 2500ltrs of it that is. Some my say I can sure discharge a lot of it when I talk, but at least it isn't 2500ltrs.

I have often wondered how the Mederteranian is so clear with so many poor countries around it's edges that must be dumping humungous volumes of stuff, including probably far worse than just crap, into that clear water. Yet it remains so clear.

All the smaller boats aside, the crusie liners are the biggest culprits. I don't know why they don't have stricter rules. They come into some of the most pristine environments that are often in confined spaces and then dump the entire load of their holding tanks of 3000-6000 people. Kind of like a version of the Kiwi, but it's more like "every one Eats, the Ship dumps the crap and then they all leave".

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Oh but here is a weird rule though. Did you guys know you are not alowed to dump your vegitable waste over the side? You have to cut it to small pieces and it must only be discharged over the side when you are at least 3Nm from shore. So you can not legally discharge your vegie scraps over the side at a mooring or anchor in any bay.Who is going to go 3Nm offshore just to dump there vegie scraps??

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As a side issue, does all this apply if the black/grey water is treated with those UV zapper things?? Don't these make the crap cleaner than the food going in?? Yes I know they use power...

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I don't know about better than food going in.I ain't going to try and let you know anyway.

Yeah there are three(?) levels as I remember it. Although I stand for correction if someone is clearer on this.

Type 1, 2 & 3. Type 1 being fully treated. Type 3 being untreated. But some places will have a complete no discharge Zone, no matter how good the treatment.

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Depends on what you are feeding them with squid.

It is mainly because nothing eats vegie scraps. Have you noticed that not even Seagulls or ducks eat the stuff. Fish certainly don't, so it just floats around out there till it eventually breaks down, but that is even quite slow. We try and macerate as much as we can, then it breks down fairly quickly.

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As a side issue, does all this apply if the black/grey water is treated with those UV zapper things?? Don't these make the crap cleaner than the food going in?? Yes I know they use power...

 

That's something I'm trying to get a definitive answer on right now. It's proving very tricky as the Regs do have a sort of blanket 'NO' about them yet I'm working on miniaturising a grey water treatment system (off a German bigger one, UV based) that will basically mean the water output is cleaner than what is currently filling the ditch and called the Akl Harbour. The bods who make the calls like it (provisionally) and don't seem to have any issue with it bar the Regs basically still say it's a no-go.

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That food waste one is weird. Did I break the law when I was feeding the ducks last weekend?

 

Actually, the food waste one makes quite a lot of sense.

 

Sure bread, fish guts, etc are readily recycled by fish ducks etc but a lot of food waste can hang about - nothing worse than banana skins, orange peel, and cabbage leaves etc floating around an anchorage or sitting on a beach.

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I keep an old ice-cream container in the galley for collecting all my organic waste and I just empty it over the side the next time I'm underway well out at sea. Bottles/cans go into a cycling box, which I empty ashore. And the remaining waste goes into the normal galley bin, which builds up pretty slowly given there is no food or bottles going into it. Seems to work well. And you can probably guess which bin fills up first.

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Just thought seeing I'm on a eco binge what about making the new boat as self-contained as possible and as green as we can, mainly just because we can. There is an element of making sure no one can bitch about the waste from a floating house as well, also as we'll spend a lot of time in a marina I don't want to have to walk up to the showers or be continually emptying black/grey tanks. It's a new build direct from the drawing board the time to do it is now. So been chatting with a outfit in Germany who makes water treatment systems. One of the Directors is into boating so when he heard what I'd enquired about he's helping me to try and make a small boat sized version based on the UV frying theory with some added hocus pocus. A few little issues to sort but it's looking pretty good at this stage. Have to add nearly 300W's of panels to run it but I can live with that and it's knot like we'll be short of space for panels.

 

Won't work on black or is that Pooh brown water. We are going composting dunnies for that, so no black tanks needed, only a garden every 2-3 months. If we 'mash' food scraps they can go into one of the dunnies and be composted at the same time. That will mean we have to empty them a bit sooner but as it's only a tray of dry compost looking powder that's knot a biggie.

 

All going well, while the vessel may look ugly, it should be bullet proof (bitch proof??) when it comes to emissions, bar the 2 holes in the back that will pump out diesel fumes :).

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Go KM :clap:

I think there will be a few of us out the interested in your system, once you get it up and running.

Don't know about your 'Ugly' boat though, planning to make my next one a 'pretty' eco cruiser - but thats me I guess :D

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All the smaller boats aside, the crusie liners are the biggest culprits. I don't know why they don't have stricter rules. They come into some of the most pristine environments that are often in confined spaces and then dump the entire load of their holding tanks of 3000-6000 people. Kind of like a version of the Kiwi, but it's more like "every one Eats, the Ship dumps the crap and then they all leave".

 

Sorry, but that's a load of crap! :lol:

The way you describe it makes is sound like cruise ships are dumping raw sewage, which is not true... I can't speak for all ships but those that I know, especially the newer ones, are discharging water that is cleaner than what you would normally drink. Even then, they do not discharge this water unless they are more than 12nm off shore.

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Well if they have cleaned their act up, that is great. But it used to be a massive problem. One of the worst affected was Alaska where the liners would go up to the Glaciers. The cold water meant that bacteria did npt break the efluent down very quickly and several ships a week were going into those places. There were massive complaints about it and when it hit the Headlines, the questions were raised and suggestions made that maybe the ships should not be allowed in the Soth Island Fijords. Mabe it was because of this that treatment and disposal has been looked at.

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Ok, UV will only work if it's part of the process, and then energy and retention times will be issues also. The best path forward and it is possible is using what is called a membrane bio reactor or MBR for short, google it. I can't say too much as the project i'm working on right now is finalising the design on a low energy enclosed MBR that will fit in most 40 foot plus boats and is the size of a larger holding tank.

 

UV is known for ballast water treatment which I am involved in for large ships. This is now a common accepted process for ballast treatment for discharge and as you probably know is required now in many countries. I design and engineer UV systems so if anyone needs one I can do you a deal. :D UV can also be used on treated wastewater such as maceration, chlorination then Ultra Violet. UV won't work on large particles as the particles will shield the UVC light and you won't get disinfection. Therefore the particle size and suspended solid counts are key to getting things right.

 

While treatment is a pain for smaller yachts and I don't always agree with it, i'm sure everyone has been in smelly anchorages where the water is covered in sh*t - especially in Europe so I can sort of understand the need.

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Ok, UV will only work if it's part of the process, and then energy and retention times will be issues also. The best path forward and it is possible is using what is called a membrane bio reactor or MBR for short, google it. I can't say too much as the project i'm working on right now is finalising the design on a low energy enclosed MBR that will fit in most 40 foot plus boats and is the size of a larger holding tank.
Oh so now you tell me :)

 

Why am I buggering around when someone's close to what sounds like I want now. Would a Marina or Environmental Officer be happy if I poured to treated water direct into say a Marina?

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