Robbin, I'd analyze just where I do my sailing. How long are my trips. Some areas are getting more and more restrictive about marine heads. So the first thing I'd do is see what the current and possible future picture looks like. How often do you sail off shore far enough to dispose overboard? That will answer whether you need to go through the hassle and expense of plumbing your head overboard. If not going off shore and you install a marine head with holding tank then you need to determine if there are a sufficient number of pump out stations. Keep in mind that most charge for this service. Keeping any amount of stuff in your holding tank then provides the age old challenge of eliminating odors. It's do-able but still a minor hassle. A porta potti does have some advantages of being able to be completely removed from the boat and thoroughly cleaned off the boat. WAG bags make this even easier. They run about $3 a bag if you order in bulk from places like Amazon. A porta potti also alows you to move it from one place to another onboard. You would probably keep it under a Vberth most of the time and then depending on where you anchor, you can then move it to the cockpit at nights. This becomes obvious if you aren't soloing... You might consider the combination of bucket, seat and WAG bags. The bucket does double duty of toilet and basic utility bucket for any chore requiring the use of a bucket. We don't have much room on these M's so any opportunity to make multiple uses from a sinlge item is worth thinking about. Now if someone has figured out how to use a marine head that can be pumped into a portable holding tank that can be easily removed... that might be the ticket for some. I have a porta potti. I haven't used it yet. I'm seriously considering the bucket and bag route to conserve space. The porta potti rules out using the starboard side hatch area under the V berth for anything else. Like anything else on a sailboat. It's just one more compromise you make in the decision process. Good luck. Joe M17 SeaFrog ----- Original Message ----- From: robbin roddewig To: montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com Sent: Saturday, July 09, 2011 7:36 AM Subject: M_Boats: Head vs porta potti Hello listers, I just returned from a Boy Scout high adventure sailing around the FLA Keys on a Morgan 40. Not a very arduous trek! The head on the boat was a head where a foot lever opened a drop door directly into a holding tank under the toilet. The smell from this head permeated the whole boat which was hard to take. My boat needs a new head or porta potti and as I primarily day sail I was considering a porta potti for ease of installation and not having to pump out the holding tank. I also need to replace and rebuild all the plumbing for the head as well as the vent on the deck etc. Any advice on this trade? I have not had a porta potti nor a pump head on board so I do not know the pluses and minuses. I would not install the type of head we had on the Morgan. Thanks in advance! Robbin M-23 and M-10 _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats When posting, remember that there is no privacy on the Internet!