adding a new head and holding tank to our Albin 25

[saltypaws]

Our recently purchased a-25 has had the head removed and a porta potty installed. We will be installing a new head and holding tank this fall. There is a metal tank that looks like an original holding tank installation under the deck on the starboard side beside the helm. Does anyone know the capacity of this tank? Has anyone installed a larger tank below the cockpit floor aft of the engine?
Any suggestions of holding tank solutions would be appreciated.

[sail149]

Hi saltypaws
You may also want to join the yahoo Albin cruiser group.
It's a different (older) style email list group.
Mainly a25 and A27 folks.
Plenty of knowledge there too.
( unless you are already a member)
Warren
A27

[DesertAlbin736]

Our 1971 Albin 25 has a holding tank similar to what you describe but is made of plastic, not metal. It sits under the raised part of the cockpit floor just aft of the cabin bulkhead and in front of the driver seat and all the way outboard on the starboard side next to the battery bank. It is 9 gallon capacity (says so on a label).

We met another Albin 25 owner on the Erie Canal this past summer, and he had installed a larger holding tank in his boat by relocating his batteries to the storage space under the starboard bench seat, freeing up that space where the batteries were before. That's something I'd like to with our boat. With the batteries moved you'd have room for about a 15 to 20 gallon tank. That's the biggest PITA with our boat is the limited size of the holding tank, and since we do most of our cruising in no discharge zones we're constantly having to pump out every couple days if we're on an extended cruise.

There is a company called Ronco Plastics in Tustin, CA, which is in the Los Angeles area Northeast of Newport Beach, that can make custom plastic tanks to order. A few years ago we had our Catalina 25 sailboat in San Diego for the summer and our 10 gallon plastic holding tank started leaking out of the pump out fitting (yuk, not fun!!!!) due to a crack in the threaded fitting. We pulled the tank and took it up to Ronco and they were able to repair it by replacing the fitting. Not by using cement or glue, but by "thermo welding" a new fitting in place. They used a tool that looked like a router that spun the new fitting at high RPM so the plastic melted from friction and fused together.

Anyway, they can build custom tanks to order according to your specs and measurements.

Thier website is here: http://ronco-plastics.net/