Water in the Pacific

[Caroline Joan]

Thanks Mr B, What size is your tarp?
I'll be doing what you suggest. I have 3 tanks and 2 I'll use for rain water the other will be purely from the water maker - just incase of contamination.
Interesting that you can survive only on rain water with 2 x 60 gal tanks? I have 250 gallons approx.
Thanks for your great feedback.

[Mr B]

Originally Posted by Caroline Joan

Thanks Mr B, What size is your tarp?
I'll be doing what you suggest. I have 3 tanks and 2 I'll use for rain water the other will be purely from the water maker - just incase of contamination.
Interesting that you can survive only on rain water with 2 x 60 gal tanks? I have 250 gallons approx.
Thanks for your great feedback.

Its about 6 feet wide X 6 feet long, Triangular in shape, 5 gallon bucket,
Rain for 20 minutes is 20 odd gallons,
One person dosent need much water,
The head is seawater flush, Pee over the stern,
I did have a watermaker, But I didnt use it very much, It was more to do with learning how it operated,

[Caroline Joan]

Great thanks, the rain catcher that I have made is 5ft x 8ft - so similar. Like you it wil only come out when it rains. I do however have hose fitting that means I can run it directly to a tank via a 1 micron filter. Already to go, just need some rain to test it. No rain in sight for at least 2 weeks here.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

I knew I could probably run the 1HP motor off my 300W Invertor, but that left very little capacity (if any) for other things.

Maybe someone can calculate from the Specs shown below for 24V?? [/COLOR][/B]


So.... am I still Crazy to have gone with a DC Motor for my situation?
Give it to me...I can take it

Well the pump says 39 amps on it, so figure 1 more for the boost pump gets you to 40. 40 X 24 gives you 960 Watts. So no you could not run it off of a 300W inverter. I’d want at least a 2 KW to give me some fudge. What I did was got an inverter / charger so I get a back up charger as well, it’s a Magnum and I am well pleased.
Depending on house loads of course, you may can get by without the generator, however my bet is you’ll still have to run it, just can pick when you run it of course.


Little off topic, but not really much, cause of course if you have a Watermaker, you need to consider how your going to power the thing.
Without adequate power, they aren’t very useful.

[curtis742]

You sir are my hero!!!

[john61ct]

Another reason I want to minimize runtime is the noise drives me nuts.

But that may just be me.

[flyingfin]

The short answer is NO. All the early explorers did it without GPS, but they all had hundreds of barrels of water.

[Exile]

Fwiw . . . I read somewhere about using a rolled up wet towel around the deck fill to collect rainwater. Scrub upstream of the fill first. Anyone tried?

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Exile

Fwiw . . . I read somewhere about using a rolled up wet towel around the deck fill to collect rainwater. Scrub upstream of the fill first. Anyone tried?

It will work, the towel is of course a dam to make the water run into the fill.
I have an in boom furling mainsail, the boom honestly looks just like a rain gutter, big U shape with a drain hole towards the mast.
I drilled and tapped that hole and put a hose fitting in. If I have to collect water, I plan on having the main up so water hits it, runs down the sail into the boom of course and into my tank.
Your main sail is a large area, quite likely larger than your deck and can collect quite a lot of water.

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by Exile

Fwiw . . . I read somewhere about using a rolled up wet towel around the deck fill to collect rainwater. Scrub upstream of the fill first. Anyone tried?

I did this regularly on my last boat, works quite well.

[trifan]

Originally Posted by Caroline Joan

I am going to spend about 2 years in the pacific.

The question is can we sail in pacific for 2 years without a water maker.

It has been said that in order to ask a question, one must know about 80% of the answer. I think you already know your answer but want reassurance from the group that you are making the correct decision. Two entirely different things. It is a risk/reward strategic decision that only you can make. Good luck.

[waterman46]

Originally Posted by Eder

Also I have 400 watts solar but I need to run my Northern Lights gen about 3 hours each day at anchor to charge batteries anyway so why not run the watermaker....I have a 500 gal/day unit but should have gone with the 1000 gal/day.

I dont think I could stand a day without a hot shower,shave, flushing toilets at will and hosing the salt off the boat.

I second these thoughts, and as for the cost, its very low if you will be cruising for many years. Get a unit which can replace your daily consumption in about 1/2 hour or less.

When we need more water, we run the watermaker when we have generator or motor running and after the battery charge currents have started to taper off and excess 12V current is available. There's no need to run it using battery power.

I cannot understand how anyone would want to spend hours ashore collecting and transporting small amounts of possibly contaminated water in jugs, or trying to collect rainwater in very sporadic and unpredictable amounts which is dirty from the collection surfaces. Collected rainwater needs to be checked for salt content and filtered before going into your tanks.

[curtis742]

Just let it rain for 5-10 minutes to wash the salt and dirt off of everything before collecting the water.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by waterman46

I cannot understand how anyone would want to spend hours ashore collecting and transporting small amounts of possibly contaminated water in jugs, or trying to collect rainwater in very sporadic and unpredictable amounts which is dirty from the collection surfaces. Collected rainwater needs to be checked for salt content and filtered before going into your tanks.

I can, it’s called finances most likely, it’s one reason we are not all sailing large Swans or carbon fiber high performance Cats or whatever.

[2big2small]

Originally Posted by waterman46

I cannot understand how anyone would want to spend hours ashore collecting and transporting small amounts of possibly contaminated water in jugs, or trying to collect rainwater in very sporadic and unpredictable amounts which is dirty from the collection surfaces. Collected rainwater needs to be checked for salt content and filtered before going into your tanks.

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I can, it’s called finances most likely, it’s one reason we are not all sailing large Swans or carbon fiber high performance Cats or whatever.

There’s also something to be said for keeping your boat simple. I once met a couple who were sailing the world with the means to do so in an entirely custom built boat, but they didn’t even want to own a fridge...