Fresh Water For Long Sea Passage

[jibsail]

Planning a long sea passage - 15 days or more. I can carry about 2000 lts fresh water in tanks. I have normally replenished tanks with rain water. Anyone know of a desalination machine for a yacht.

[redbopeep]

Many choices out there Google LINK

With large tanks, you should probably be looking at commercial systems, however, recently, the magazine Good Old Boat did a two part series on building your own watermaker.

Side issue entirely but---With such large tankage, is it part of your ballast system? I know your boat is large, but what is it's displacement?

Fair winds,

[JeanneP]

First, before I forget it, is a link to a YouTube evaluation of a watermaker, made by Greg & Jill Delezynski. You might want to look for more of their videos, they are very helpful to the cruising community. Watermaker evaluation

Because we do not have a watermaker and I don't plan to have one again, all I can offer are some links to watermaker sites.

Spectra Watermakers

SK Watermakers

Katadyn Watermakers

And here's Greg's gear report: Guenevere's 2006 Gear Report

When we sailed from Ecuador to Easter Island, which took 19 days, there were three of us on board. SV Watermelon had 75 gallons (~285 liters) of water tankage. Another 10 gallons (40 liters) in jerry jugs. We had some left when we made landfall. I've read of even greater water economy from other cruisers, but we bathed as we traveled. In all the years we cruised outside the US, only once did we worry about not having any fresh water, and we were luckily saved by a local island trading freighter with "buckets" of water.

I would think that 2000 liters could get you almost across the Pacific in one go. I would think, though, that you could reduce the amount of water you carried (and thus reduce weight) if you could desalinate water as you go. Watermakers are extremely power-hungry, though, so you had better have a good generator.

J

[redbopeep]

Originally Posted by redbopeep

Side issue entirely but---With such large tankage, is it part of your ballast system? I know your boat is large, but what is it's displacement?

Fair winds,

I really shouldn't post here during the early morning hours! I just re-read your post and you have 2000 liters NOT 2000 gallons of tankage! My question about ballast isn't nearly so important now--it is a matter of trim/balance but not ballast with a large boat as you have and 2000L of water.

Fair winds,

[jibsail]

Thanks guys, i will check out the links. I think there will be about 6 passengers and 3 crew so 9 persons in total. Plan to use tankwater for showers - and ration to a 10 -15 gallon bucket and scoop person per day, and will keep fresh drinking water separate, maybe a good stock on bottled water in a forward hatch, and ration to 3 lts per day - 2 bottles.

Don't really like the idea of extra machines on board, and will maximise our rain capture .

Thanks

[MMNETSEA]

Originally Posted by jibsail

Thanks guys, i will check out the links. I think there will be about 6 passengers and 3 crew so 9 persons in total. Plan to use tankwater for showers - and ration to a 10 -15 gallon bucket and scoop person per day, and will keep fresh drinking water separate, maybe a good stock on bottled water in a forward hatch, and ration to 3 lts per day - 2 bottles.

Don't really like the idea of extra machines on board, and will maximise our rain capture .

Thanks

Hello Jibsail,

Understood from post #1 that the boat has about 2,000 litres fresh water in tanks.

With 9 people on board each allocated 3 litres = 27 litres x 15 days = 405 litres.

Therefore the that amount of fresh water carried in tanks appears to rule out the need for a desalinator.

Do you have a blog intended for the planned passage?

[Lexx]

On my last boat we didnt have any way of making fresh water so had to carry all we needed for any intended passage plus a little spare. We usually allowed for 10 litres per person per day and had a crew of 4 most of the time. So in theory we allowed for 50 litres a day usage. Its quite easy to have a salt water shower and rinse in fresh water so that uses about 2 litres of fresh water a day, leaving 8 litres for drinking etc. We found on most trips our usage was actually a lot less than that but then we wernt having long fresh water showers or washing clothes etc lot of times.