Water Consumption

[leftbrainstuff]

How much water do you use while cruising? How do you manage your water usage?

[Dockhead]

There have been a number of threads on this. You would do well to search the archives.

The short answer is that water consumption is infinitely variable between a liter or two a day per person to dozens or even hundreds of liters per day.

My father, who is a water Nazi, can get weeks out of his 200 gallons of tankage with two or three people on board his boat. I, who am not a water Nazi, and like to shower often, especially in hot weather, do not usually get as much as a week out of my 1000 liters of tankage, with three or four people on board, and even less than that if we wash clothes. It all depends.

[zeehag]

i use 1 gal per day er person plus my tankage. i try to use s little of that as possible. bubba only uses 1 pint daily in HOT weather. on my 1000 mile leg, we used 8 gallons drinking water and we used 30 gallons washing water. took 10 days. we conserved well.

[nautical62]

This will vary greatly from person to person and boat to boat.

For my 1 week to 3 month cruises, I typically use 1.5 -2 gallons of fresh water per person per day of which about 3/4 gallon is drinking and most of the rest washing either dishes or people. Relying on salt water for some of the initial washing greatly reduces fresh water needs. (note this does not include some canned or bottled beverages which contain water)

For bathing, I find I can lather up with a cup of fresh water, jump in an rinse off with a quart and feel very clean. A quart will also rinse evening dishes for two after a salt water initial scrub. Often I collect rain water from the dingy after a rain for washing clothes.

It really varies with who joins me. Some people in cool weather will only fresh water bathe once a week. One friend likes to snorkel a few times a day and fresh water rinse every time he comes out.

When I had my 26-footer with a single foot pump, I used even less.

[webejammin]

Originally Posted by zeehag

i use 1 gal per day er person plus my tankage. i try to use s little of that as possible. bubba only uses 1 pint daily in HOT weather. on my 1000 mile leg, we used 8 gallons drinking water and we used 30 gallons washing water. took 10 days. we conserved well.

Sounds quite frugal

[Cheechako]

in the tropics i usually swim or snorkel daily. I just wash my hair in the water and then fresh rinse on the stern. Mayber 1 gal max. Dishes are probably the bigger user....

[Unicorn Dreams]

Always figured 1 gal per person per day and it worked out extremely well. Always a surplus, now with a watermaker, don't worry about it anymore...

[Hud3]

It really does depend on how hard you work on conserving water.

On an offshore passage with a captain who was a Water Nazi, four men used 30 gallons over 11-1/2 days. We drank 2 liters a day, washed the dishes in ocean water with a fresh water rinse, no showers, and not even fresh water to rinse after brushing our teeth.

At the other end of the spectrum, when my wife and I were cruising the islands, we used about 12-14 gallons per day, on average. We had a VacuFlush toilet which used fresh water, and that accounted for perhaps 2/3s of the usage, and she would do a little laundry in the galley sink every few days. She like hot showers in the head; I soaped up on the stern, jumped in to rinse, and washed the salt off with the cockpit hose, using less than a gallon.

[Capn Morgan]

Before watermaker with 6 on board my L lasted 7 days. Another trip with 2 on board only used 200 in 8 days. We wash in the sea, which is always warm in our region. The cheaper cutlery needed polishing off the rust by the end of the trip!

Now with watermaker we all have showers and dishes get done with fresh water we use up to 70 litres in a day for 3 or 4 people. Above all, morale has improved greatly and everyone enjoys the trip more.

[Play Actor]

Between 1 an 2 U.S. gallons per person, per day, cruisning full time. Pressure salt water system in the galley and the head makes a big difference. We use fresh water for most things, but for heavy cleaning and doing the dishes, it's salt water with a freshwater rinse.

The other thing that we've discovered that really affects our water consumption is the type of shower head we're using. The ones that look like a sink sprayer, but with a fine spray and a spring-loaded button for your thumb serve us best. It's important that they cut off the flow completely when the button is released -- not all of them do.

[Dynamo1181]

3.5 gal/person/day. Kept the same for 20 yrs of cruising. We monitor by the water pump cycling to fill the accumulator. .75 gal/cycle. If a guest uses more than one cycle in the shower ...off goes the pump ). I added water cutoffs to all fixtures so that off shore we can cut the wasted flow to a minimum.
A

[Capn Morgan]

Originally Posted by Capn Morgan

Before watermaker with 6 on board my L lasted 7 days. Another trip with 2 on board only used 200 in 8 days. We wash in the sea, which is always warm in our region. The cheaper cutlery needed polishing off the rust by the end of the trip!

Now with watermaker we all have showers and dishes get done with fresh water we use up to 70 litres in a day for 3 or 4 people. Above all, morale has improved greatly and everyone enjoys the trip more.

Just realized the spell checker took the number out of the first sentence. Should read 'my 500 L lasted 7 days'.

[rigormortis]

Single guy, singlehanding. Use 40 gallons per week when I have complete confidence in my watermaker (rare). When I am paranoid I can go 15 days on 10 gallons.
I guess it all comes down to your definition of comfort whilst travelling.
Pete

[Hud3]

Pete,

Please don't anchor upwind of me.

Thanks!

[donradcliffe]

We also average 3.5 gal/pp/day in the tropics, using fresh water to wash dishes and one shower per day. I've been on boats with fresh water toilets, and that would more than double consumption.