Helia 44: Installing Watermaker on a Helia

[StarryHorizons]

Anyone have pictures they can share of where they installed their watermaker on their Helia? I'm currently working on planning for this install and am looking at either the space forward of the owners head in the starboard hull or under the forward guest berth in the port hull.

Any advantages/disadvantages to either space?

David

[mndreamchaser1]

Originally Posted by StarryHorizons

Anyone have pictures they can share of where they installed their watermaker on their Helia? I'm currently working on planning for this install and am looking at either the space forward of the owners head in the starboard hull or under the forward guest berth in the port hull.

Any advantages/disadvantages to either space?

David

We have our Spectra Newport 400 (12v) installed under the port forward guest cabin. It works great up there. All components are together. Quiet and out of the way, but with plenty of room around it to work. And it is close to the through hull and fresh water piping for the fresh rinse. I don't have any pictures available, as we are not on the boat for another couple weeks.

[Cotemar]

mndreamchaser1,

Would you mind taking a few pictures of your Spectra Newport 400 (12v) install when you get back onboard and posting them here?

I think quite a few cruisers here would be interested to see a real Helia 44 watermaker install.

[cwjohm]

I have echotec in the forward locker with the test outlet in owners hull forward cupboard.

[Dod42]

I was just in contact with the wonderful guys at Uchimata Sailing Service about water makers on a Lipari. Great guys, they did the initial commissioning of ours in La Rochelle. They supply the Aqua Base water makers. They kindly sent me photos of previous installs.

Watermaker AQUABASE ESB-ESW installation on LIPARI 41

Watermaker AQUABASE XD122 installation on LIPARI 41

You can find these on their facebook page.

[StarryHorizons]

Dod42- Thanks for posting those pictures. I had seen them on the Uchimata FB page and even though they're of a Lipari, that is helpful.

I'm definitely still interested in seeing some solutions for a Helia, so cwjohm and mndreamchaser1, please post pictures when you get a chance!

[Dod42]

Originally Posted by StarryHorizons

Dod42- Thanks for posting those pictures. I had seen them on the Uchimata FB page and even though they're of a Lipari, that is helpful.

I'm definitely still interested in seeing some solutions for a Helia, so cwjohm and mndreamchaser1, please post pictures when you get a chance!

Nice guys. Im sure they have done Helia's if you ask them on FB they probably have photos to share

Good luck

[cwjohm]

Hi

Do not know what I am doing in regard to photos here but hopefully there is a photo of watermaker controls in cupboard aft of the entrance to owners bathroom.

Pump etc on starboard wall of front locker, with FP genny in back.
plenty of room for BBQ, aux solar panels etc in that front locker.

Chose echotech 240V because it is simple, reliable and cheap ($10K installed). Not interested in complex systems like spectra. Too many bad stories and I cannot fix while in the middle of an ocean. With this system I know exactly how it runs and where every line goes. Nothing hidden in black box computer.

[cwjohm]

Sorry, but it says photo is attached but it does not appear.

[StarryHorizons]

Originally Posted by cwjohm

Sorry, but it says photo is attached but it does not appear.

I'm going to send you a PM. If you can email me the pictures, I'll post them here for you.

David

[mndreamchaser1]

Originally Posted by Cotemar

mndreamchaser1,

Would you mind taking a few pictures of your Spectra Newport 400 (12v) install when you get back onboard and posting them here?

I think quite a few cruisers here would be interested to see a real Helia 44 watermaker install.

Be happy to. Will post some pictures in a week or two. We are returning to the boat to head to BVI/Puerto Rico for the winter.

[StarryHorizons]

cwjohm was nice enough to send me pictures of his watermaker install so that I should share them here. The control panel is in the owners hull and the watermaker itself is in the generator locker.

Thanks for sharing!

[Helia 44]

Helia 44, 2013, in Australia.....

My boat is a bit out there, as I am sensitive to extreme heat and humidity and have 6 Cruiseaire Marine air conditioning units on board, Maestro full starboard Owners cabin has two, two in main salon, one in each of the port queen staterooms.. This was done filling all the obvious places, so I will have built in redundancy units already on board, that I can shift as needed. I have a laundry room before the Owners Cabin Head, so I elected to put my Spectra "Cape Horn Extreme" water maker in the outside forward Starboard locker... Port forward is anchor locker, starboard is gen set locker..

Now I have a Cummins Onan 9.5 kva in that locker to the aft of the locker sort of tucked up out of the way. I modularized the Spectra, with like a seat forward facing aft to the gen set, with the main part and membrane under your legs, your feet over it sitting on the hull.. The other parts, I took Matrix polyurethane fast set caulk adhesive, and put on two pieces of fiber-glassed marine plywood on the forward parts of that starboard locker, onto the hull part of the bridge deck, up under the forward overhang of the hatch on that locker so they are a bit weather proofed. Then I put on the Silver Ionizer sterilization unit to treat the membrane when not in use, and feed pump modules and controls are screwed to those glassed ply bases that are up under the edge.. All controls and pumps and parts will be up there. Now my genset has fans and vents into the anchor locker, and this Spectra is 12v DC, so I can run it off batteries, engines, or solar, or the genset. If I run it off the genset at anchor, I will probably leave the hatch open and only do so in fair weather. I do not know how warm it gets in that locker, to run the water maker at the same time. Maybe with the duct work air into the port locker anchor room, with the cool air induction, it might be manageable with no ill effects.

Anyway, that is my choice. Overflows and all will be well above the water line and easy to see and hear, service will be outside so to speak, I am saying that was my choice. I hope it has been a help.

Kind regards, Helia 44 in Oz

[Cotemar]

Helia 44 owners,

FP Factory Watermakers

Watermaker 60L/h 12V (16gal) low consumption €10,304 $11,437 usd

Watermaker 180L/h 50HZ (47gal) (req. OPT054562) € 13,302 $14,765 usd
Watermaker 180L/h 60HZ (47gal) (req. OPT054563) € 13,341 $14,809 usd
----------------------
Aquabase Eco 60 liter per hour (16gal.) 12volt ESW601 Watermaker

60 liter per hour is more than enough for most cruisers.
It's very automated, just press a button for run, stop and flush.
It's also very efficient using just 22Amps.
If you run it when your batteries are almost full and the solar panels putting in amps. It also gives you 'free water' with no drop in Amps going into the batteries.
Factory support is very good. Most will run it for a few hours every few days, usually from around 2 to 4pm when the batteries are showing 100% and acceptance has dropped to 10A.
It's not quite as efficient as a Spectra.
It's very quiet as well.
----------------------
The reasons cruisers use a 12 volts DC water maker system,
It gives you have 3 ways to provide dc (generator, solar panels an engine)
AC power only gives you 1, or possibly 2 ways to make water, the generator or an inverter.

SLCE Watermakers
149 rue Salvador Dali
ZA de Kergouaran - Caudan
CS 8002
56607 LANESTER Cedex
France

www.slce.net

Dessalinisateur SLCE et AQUA-BASE pour bateaux et applications terrestres
.

[PapaLulu]

We put the Bluewater Express model (25 gph) in the starboard forward locker in our 2015 Helia, Big Papa Lulu, hull #89. Though it may have fit snugly in the genset locker, we chose the forward locker so we could utilize the commercial grade filters which require much fewer replacements. We've been very pleased with the watermaker which gets a LOT of use in charter in the BVI (we have an icemaker in the cockpit). We had only two problems: initially we couldn't get it to produce water and it turned out the desalinator needed calibrating. The second problem occured when we started getting a slight leak around the high pressure pump o-ring. In both cases, we had prompt and accurate vendor support from Bluewater. While the desalinator makes a bit of noise, we always have the genset going and, usually, the AC units in the maestro suite on and you can't hear any of the desalinator.

The advantage of location means a much easier install and access though clearly one is sacrificing storage area. The two large tubes on the outboard wall are locked fishing rod carriers I keep our fishing gear in. Once we pull BPL out of charter, we plan on creating storage racks similar to what Frank and Mary did on Let It Be. In all, I am very pleased with the watermaker, the choice of location and the optional commercial grade filters

Allen Dobbs
S/V Big Papa Lulu.