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

[Frank]

Craig...has Kurt been sending you his?   ;D

[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! :P

[Travelnik]

OK, I've just read through all the posts on this thread and didn't see this mentioned, so...

BTW, I hope it isn't a stupid question...

I have been interested in having a reverse osmosis water system on a boat as a secondary/survival water system, but I see that even the small ones are a fortune! I could buy a lot of bottled water for $2K+! Sheesh!

Anyway, I was wondering why you couldn't use a non-marine unit like this $150 one from Costco http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=10040488

I realize that you would still need a manual or electric pump to go with it, but since it is a RO system, would it work?

Maybe I'm just taking the KISS principle too far, but I like to think outside the boating catalogs sometimes.  ;D

[s/v Faith]

OK, I've just read through all the posts on this thread and didn't see this mentioned, so...

BTW, I hope it isn't a stupid question...

I have been interested in having a reverse osmosis water system on a boat as a secondary/survival water system, but I see that even the small ones are a fortune! I could buy a lot of bottled water for $2K+! Sheesh!

Anyway, I was wondering why you couldn't use a non-marine unit like this $150 one from Costco http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=10040488

I realize that you would still need a manual or electric pump to go with it, but since it is a RO system, would it work?

Maybe I'm just taking the KISS principle too far, but I like to think outside the boating catalogs sometimes.  ;D

If you were to plumb that and pump sea water through it you would get filtered sea water.

RO is not RO.  The porosity of the membrane is everything.  My little Katridin water filter I hike with filters down to about .025 microns... enough to get rid of most bad stuff..

salt molecules are a lot smaller...

Here is a comparison of what is filtered at what size.

[Travelnik]

OK. I was just trying to find something without the 'marine' price tag.

I guess KISS can only go so far!  ;D

[CharlieJ]

Unless you are planning to cross oceans, water is simply not that hard to come by. Readily available every where US coast, and also quite easily available all over the Bahamas, at least in Bimini, the Berries, Nassau, Exumas and Eleuthera.

[tomwatt]

A Katahdin or MSR water purifier might be helpful onboard to purify questionable freshwater, although a 2 minute boils will kill anything living in it just as well. Filters to produce fresh from salt are still improving... the office I used to work in did some of these things for the military. Unfortunately, ROWPU water is unpalatable to the troops, so it's difficult to get them to drink it. Wish there were a small, cheap way of converting salt > fresh, but none yet that I am aware of.

[Timbo]

James Baldwin posted a video of his integral water tank design and installation for an A30.  What an awesome solution for increased water storage.  Gotta love epoxy and fiberglass!  I couldn't imagine drinking water from that old tank from the 60s that didn't have an inspection port. 

http://atomvoyages.com/gallery/video-gallery/315-integralwatertank.html

[s/v necessity]

dsmastern,
     I think I understand what you are saying.  And it's been done by many.  I think there was a decent write up in good old boat within the last year or two, on building your own RO system, a google search also produces several how to articles.  There are significant differences between residential units, such as the one you linked to, and marine units.  One of the benifits of the DIY approach is that you will be able to use standard membranes and parts, and not be locked in to using others proprietory parts.  However, I suspect you will spend a significant amount of time and money on research and development, and as others have stated, it's probably more practical to just buy/acquire water.  My take on the matter is that you might save some $$, but the downsides of R.O. water were still all present.

[Piraten]

There was someone that talked of a homebuilt watermaker he used, that used the a peddle method like a bicycle.  As he peddled it ran a pump and that went to a pipe that had a a pressure release on one side and a membrane on the other with a cap at the end of the pipe.  He said peddling was easy and kept the extra cookies off his belly.  The relief valve was set at the pressure that the membrane needed so it pushed fresh water out and flushed the heavier salt out the pressure relief.  Whole mess unscrewed in about ten minutes for maintenance.  I can't for the life of me remember what gph he was putting out, but it was enough that he only carried 20 gallons in reserve, just refilled his tank with the 1 gallon bottle he used for the output of fresh water.  It was easy to stow when not in use.

What else are you going to do on long passages?

[Captain Smollett]

Collect rain.

[CharlieJ]

Well for one thing- I'm darned sure not gonna go offshore with only 20 gallons of water aboard, no matter what.

I carry that much on my 21 foot sloop when coastal cruising.

[rorik]

Collect rain.

Even your reply was so KISS, you made me laugh. Thanks for that.
Mathilda has 2 twenty five gallon tanks under the berths plus 2 five gallon jerrys in the lazarette.
And a tarp to catch rain.

[Piraten]

Well for one thing- I'm darned sure not gonna go offshore with only 20 gallons of water aboard, no matter what.

I carry that much on my 21 foot sloop when coastal cruising.

If solo sailing, I can see 20 gallons working as a reserve. Apparently he only used the gallon the he desalinated everyday for his personal use, so 20 gallons if his equipment gets trashed is not such a bad thing.  He travelled quite extensively all over and never had a problem.  Keep in mind, this was on the internet and everything on the internet is true  ::).

It was a very small unit and looked simple as can be.  A small pump the size of a Spam can, connected to the pipe with a a membrane and pressure valve.  The intake hose looked like garden hose with a strainer that he just tossed over the side when he was using it. It had a a small frame that would lock into the cockpit table mount so he could see and steer when in use.  He just sat on the laz and peddled away.  Been trying to find it again on the net, but no luck so far.