Water maker versus catching rain

[jongleur]

If you have cooking fuel, fresh water can easily
be made from saltwater. As simple as taking
the condensate from a pot lid and cooling the
lid back down over and over. Or a crude still
can be made from a pressure cooker and some
copper tubing. Run the coil through seawater
in the sink for cooling.

Creativity is the answer.

I remember a story of a man and his son who
ran out of water in 1991 and were licking the
headliner for moisture.

[NornaBiron]

Originally Posted by jongleur

If you have cooking fuel, fresh water can easily
be made from saltwater. As simple as taking
the condensate from a pot lid and cooling the
lid back down over and over. Or a crude still
can be made from a pressure cooker and some
copper tubing. Run the coil through seawater
in the sink for cooling.

Creativity is the answer.

I remember a story of a man and his son who
ran out of water in 1991 and were licking the
headliner for moisture.

Extreme measures - I'd rather catch rain or run a watermaker. You'd probably use tons of propane to produce a cup of potable water.

[Cadence]

It may sound like a dumb question? If not at anchor how salt free is the water being caught just given normal spray in only moderate seas?

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by RDW

I have a 46 foot sloop with 150 gal of water tanks (3). I plan to do the World ARC. My boat had a water maker that has given up the ghost. Previous owner used it. I think I have read that boats with water makers used 7 liters per person per day while boats without did well with 3 liters pppd ( recent world arc) I can easily see that having a water maker would be nice. I can also see that it is one more thing to maintain. I have a large shade cloth that I am tempted to adapt to catching rain water.
Anybody done both?
Thoughts?
RDW

Yes, we did both, but on a smaller scale, water-maker wise. It was only a small Power Survivor, that had a big handle for manual operation, working on the batteries, it actually would make a bit over 4 liters/hr. We used it at sea, where the water is relatively clean, and pickled it before going in port. The boat had only two 25 gallon tanks, and the watermaker was plumbed into the port settee tank.

We had a loose-footed mainsail that we put a through hull fitting into, so we could catch rain water under way, as well as converting our cockpit awning for rain catchment. Our usage was roughly 1/2 gal per person per day. We used a sun shower for our showers, and they are easy to use frugally, used salt water to pre-wash our dishes. Lived on that boat for 18 yrs.

In addition, we carried a 5 gallon jug "for emergencies", but never ran out of water.

We never have had a problem with water going foul, but were always careful to use household bleach to kill possible contaminants. I agree with Steady Hand, that foul water could be a serious problem, another CF member (Boatman 61) had such a problem on a cross Atlantic delivery of a vessel from Florida. You would be well advised, to flush your whole system with a strong bleach solution, even the vent lines, and start fresh. weavis has posted somewhere here a complete description of how to do it. 1 Tbsp to 10 gal is enough to prevent bad stuff growing if you start with clean tanks. We then ran it through a charcoal filter to remove the chlorine.

Ann

[SV THIRD DAY]

Originally Posted by roverhi

Don't water makers need to be used regularly or 'pickled' if they aren't. That would seem to be a bit of a hassle and possibly expensive replacing membranes if you didn't use enough water.

Many of the "water makers are hard to maintain" stories come from the first generation systems that were installed in boats without easy ways to introduce pickling reagent or do a fresh water flush. So the old units were a PITA.....but that was then when cruisers still learned how to use a Sextant.

Modern water makers almost all have an easy "turn the valve" fresh water flush option that you can do every 5-7 days or that process can be automated for those that don't want to mess with remembering.

Pickling is probably one of the most hyped and scary sounding things until you realize that all pickling does is pull a preservative into the system to kill bacteria and biological growth. It's not rocket science and takes maybe 5 minutes to do if you are going to leave the boat or not use your water maker for weeks or months.

I can list lots of boat systems that I think are harder to run and maintain than one of today's modern water makers. Add in the benefit of fresh water desk rinse downs, showers when you want...and baby...it's Cruising and not Camping when you have a water maker.

[JPA Cate]

Rich,

I never felt like I was camping on our first Insatiable. YMMV, and so may the OP's.

Ann

[RDW]

Originally Posted by Cadence

It may sound like a dumb question? If not at anchor how salt free is the water being caught just given normal spray in only moderate seas?

I have never done it but you would let it rain and rinse off for several minutes before starting to collect. If you were taking it off the main sail, less rinsing.
rdw

[SV THIRD DAY]

That's the beauty of having freedom and options.
We wouldn't have lasted a year without a water maker in Mexico and the Sea of Cortez where I was known to take 3 showers a day when I was hot...because I could....

I gave a water maker presentation at the Miami Boat Show and Here's a copy of my first Slide:

Do You Need a Water Maker
to go Cruising?
Of course Not!
You also don’tNeed:
Refrigeration, Chart Plotter, Radar, Fast RIB Dinghy, Ipad, WiFi Antenna, DVD Players, Espresso and Soda stream Machines
BUT…..

[Cadence]

Just out of curiousity, Is a water maker similar to the system I had on my well. I believe they called it a resin exchange system. I had to put salt into it for a back flush. ???

[SV THIRD DAY]

Originally Posted by Cadence

Just out of curiousity, Is a water maker similar to the system I had on my well. I believe they called it a resin exchange system. I had to put salt into it for a back flush. ???

The resin exchange system is capturing the ions as they flow past, where the RO Membrane passes fresh water molecules through the surface of the membrane while rejecting 99.4% of the salt, which is carried away by the brine stream. The brine is a fancy words just meaning the rejected sea water flow that is now more "salty".

Here is a good video that shows how a RO Membrane is made and how they work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK7UVY_7K8w

I have some videos on my site that are also worth watching as general educational videos on RO. Not a lot of "sales hype" just good information.
Watermaker How-To Videos | Cruise RO Water & Power

[Ironman162]

I can feel your experience and also had similar. It's the psychological aspect that got us down too.
Can only agree with you and feel lucky we all made it albeit only just!

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by SV THIRD DAY

The resin exchange system is capturing the ions as they flow past, where the RO Membrane passes fresh water molecules through the surface of the membrane while rejecting 99.4% of the salt, which is carried away by the brine stream. The brine is a fancy words just meaning the rejected sea water flow that is now more "salty".

Here is a good video that shows how a RO Membrane is made and how they work.

I have some videos on my site that are also worth watching as general educational videos on RO. Not a lot of "sales hype" just good information.
Watermaker How-To Videos | Cruise RO Water & Power

So I guess the answer is yes or similar. Just down sized and you don't need to buy salt. I'll watch the video tomorrow.

[rockDAWG]

Originally Posted by newhaul

A catchment trough on the boom to catch rain off mainsail seems to be the best way to catch rain while underway

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I have a Profurl in boom furling system, just by it's design it catches all the water coming off the main and funnels it to the mast where it pours out, I've thought to use it for a rain catchment, but wondered how effective it would be.
Have you used a catchment system like you describe?

I would like to see how the catchment system looks like or constructed.

[jongleur]

You'd probably use tons of propane to produce a cup of potable water.

True, but it would have alleviated the suffering
reported by Stead Hand in this thread.

After using up the propane, one could cannibalize
the woodwork for fuel.

Anyway, don't die of thirst.

[rockDAWG]

Originally Posted by Cadence

Just out of curiousity, Is a water maker similar to the system I had on my well. I believe they called it a resin exchange system. I had to put salt into it for a back flush. ???

The one you have in you house is a water softener. Water maker is totally difference from a water softener.