Cost of Water in Med Ports

[duncan99210]

We usually manage for about 12 days on 250 litres of water. We replenish either from town quays or taps ashore using a mix of 10l hard or folding carriers plus a 50l flexible tank when we find a tap close to the shore: we run a hose to it to fill it In the dinghy then a battery driven pump to transfer to the boat tank. 2 trips with the dinghy and we‘re set up for another 12 days.
Constantly looking at the costs of a water maker and can’t justify it yet.

 

[dgadee]

Not very large - 6 1/2 stone. But certainly one reason I thought a water-maker was a good idea. When she first sailed, consumption was even worse.

 

[geem]

Wow! you must have a large crew The 2 of us use 300 litres in about 10-14 days, and that includes after swim rinsing and showers.

The two of us use 1200 litres a month so a lot more than you. We shower every day, sometimes twice if we have been for a run, we do laundry aboard. We rinse the cockpit with fresh water. We have an 800 litre tank but rarely fill it more than 300 litres. No point on carrying an extra 500kg of weight if we dont need to. A watermaker was the best thing we added to our boat. I could never go back to life aboard with out one. Spending weeks on end away from places where water is available becomes an option. Its a game changer for us

 

[Tinto]

We go through mucho mucho water during our 4 months aboard - crew has a shower every day and water flows from the sink taps other times. My self build watermaker just went into action last September/October and we spent up to 10 days at a time away from marinas/harbours. Parts cost about £3,000. Quite a lot, but - if you can be bothered with the organisation of it - I am looking forward to not constantly being tied to planning where to fill up. We have 200 ltrs of plastic tanks and one flexible tank of 100 litrs. That would have lasted us 3 days at the most.

if you could post a parts list and schematic for your water maker that would be much appreciated

 

[dgadee]

if you could post a parts list and schematic for your water maker that would be much appreciated

I reverse engineered a commercial system using a Honda generator as power source. Since this was from the US I had problems in locating parts which made it slower to get set up and organised as well as more expensive. If I was to do it again I would use a different pump (European) and a three phase motor run from an inverter. I used two UK 40" pressure vessels. I found it difficult to get ss pressure hose. There are plenty of ss needle valves around which are suitable if you don't run off the engine (which needs much more complex regulation). Overall, the system is not very complex. The complexity comes more from the different operating procedures.

PM me for more info if you like.

 

[newtothis]

Wow! you must have a large crew The 2 of us use 300 litres in about 10-14 days, and that includes after swim rinsing and showers.

I was on an offshore race boat once that allocated 2l per person per day, all in.

 

[dgadee]

I was on an offshore race boat once that allocated 2l per person per day, all in.

You wouldn't have wanted my crew, then, despite her being a natural helm who will sit at the wheel for hour after hour in quite boisterous conditions. Maybe there are so few female sailors because they get put off by the harships that men think are necessary.

 

[newtothis]

You wouldn't have wanted my crew, then, despite her being a natural helm who will sit at the wheel for hour after hour in quite boisterous conditions. Maybe there are so few female sailors because they get put off by the harships that men think are necessary.

To be fair, it was a pretty mixed crew. The bow 'man' was a skinny 20-something woman that could wrestle down a kite or no.1 whatever the conditions and the two other women were more useful than me on a race boat than a first-timer like me. They didn't seem to think it any hardship, but these things are relative when comparing racing to cruising.

 

[dgadee]

To be fair, it was a pretty mixed crew. The bow 'man' was a skinny 20-something woman that could wrestle down a kite or no.1 whatever the conditions and the two other women were more useful than me on a race boat than a first-timer like me. They didn't seem to think it any hardship, but these things are relative when comparing racing to cruising.

They are the outliers. Mine is a bit closer to the centre of the normal distribution.

 

[newtothis]

They are the outliers. Mine is a bit closer to the centre of the normal distribution.

I dare you to tell her she's not special.