What to do about Water? tankage, requirements, watermakers.... etc.

[Frank]

Craig...has Kurt been sending you his?   

[hearsejr]

 weeeeelll if I could figure out how to get them here, I'd be begging you for'em now. lol.

[wolfenzee]

My boat has two built in 25 gal tanks located close to the center line in the main cabin. I have recently acquired 3 15gal potable water drums from a feed store ($30ea). They were  designed for farm use and are pretty beefy in construction with equally strong handles, enough to pick them up full, two will be mounted permanently under the cockpit in what would otherwise be waste space and one will be able to be carried ashore in the tender (in places that don't have dockside water) and/or moved around the deck for assorted water catchment options.
I have a bronze hand pump in my galley, with a future hand pump on demand water heater planned ( the only place on my boat fresh water goes). This uses alot less water than hot and cold pressurized water in the galley + head sink+ shower + other attempts to emulate a land style life.
As far as water makers are concerned I consider them a fairly extreme expense as well as another gadget to fail....the failure of which could put your life at risk (unless of course you have back up water supply). If anything you should have a manual operated water maker in your ditch bag which you can pull out if due to a failure of some sort you get stuck out in the ocean with no water.
I have a personal theory about systems on boat, considering everything is prone to fail at some time: "If the failure of any system or component puts you or your boat at risk it should be closely examined, backed up or replaced"

[CharlieJ]

Couple of points- first and least important- I find hand pumps to be quite inefficient. I much prefer a foot pump and it usually isn't that hard to fit one in.

The other, and more important point- I would SERIOUSLY reconsider having
a 15 gallon container to use to lug water to the boat. You are talking about toting around 120 pounds of water. Many places you'll have to carry that from a
spigot to the dinghy- won't be fun. I use 5 gallon colapsible containers- we have four and sometimes THEY   
are more than I want. Particularly when you must tote them several blocks as in some cays in the Bahamas or a few other spots.

Thirdly- I have cruised now almost full time with 35 total gallons of water tankage and have never come close to using it all between water stops. 80 gallons is a
LOT of weight to carry!!

[JWalker]

+1 on 5 gallon collapsible....two of those take a lot of effort to walk down a dock. any more would suck!