A Head for Math

Not everything that I observe about the Carver 506 motor yacht rises to a level requiring corrective action or a change in attitudes. But as the Japanese will point out, a company's attitude about the little details frequently gives you a clear indication about their attitude about the big ones.

This is hardly even a little detail, but as an engineer, it drove me crazy. In April of 2003, I wrote a brief letter to Dometic Corporation, manufacturer of SeaLand VacuFlush toilets, of which the Carver 506 has three. Inside the lid of each toilet is a bright green, 5" x 3" printed placard which says – well, read the letter for yourselves:

"I have three of your model 808 VacuFlush china toilets in my 1-year-old 52' Carver 506 Motor Yacht. Inside the lid of each toilet is a large green placard that instructs me to flush fresh water through the toilet if it is going to be laid up for more than 5 days. You know the label; you must have 100,000 in inventory in your manufacturing plant.

That label (identical on each lid) instructs me to flush "4 gallons (3.8 liters)" through the toilet.

Well, which is it? 4 gallons? Or 3.8 liters? When I went to school, admittedly quite a while ago, 4 gallons was 15.14 liters, NOT 3.8 liters. I don't think that they changed the metric system since then.

3.8 liters DOES equal 4 QUARTS (one (1) gallon), however.

So, which is it that you recommend? Flushing four GALLONS through, or four quarts? I'd like to know, as the 4-gallon procedure, which I have followed for a year, every other week, uses up 20% of each holding tank between pump-outs.

And, I'd like to request three new labels, with the correct mathematics printed on them, of course.

Sincerely, etc, etc."

An accompanying placard additionally had several obvious punctuation and spelling errors that a boat which today costs well over a million dollars should not have. Well, I got egg on my face; Patrick Snyder of SeaLand wrote me back within hours:

"Sir: The label you mention is not a label that we put on our VacuFlush products. We are assuming that Carver places it there to prevent the possibility of hose odor permeation which can happen if waste sits in a sanitation hose for a long period of time. A gallon of water is all it takes to move the waste to the holding tank. We are checking with Carver about the nature of the labels, but you will have to contact them with regard to their math and your request for corrected labels. Thank you for your inquiry.

I haven't checked Carver's later boats, but I am interested in comments from more recent buyers as to whether or not the new math has yet made it to upper Wisconsin.

Above is the other placard – like the first, permanently glued to the inside of the toilet lid. I'll leave it as an exercise for you to find the punctuation errors (2) and spelling errors (3).