Help needed , fresh water

Seastoke

Seastoke

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We seem to be spending more boating off grid , we have a genny so no problem with power but we tend to get though a lot off fresh water . We have started flushing with sea water so that’s a saving . We don’t drink the tank water ,so it’s showering and washing up. Does anyone make a kit to change sea water into shower standard water.
 
Why dont you use the boats tanks for potable water. On my Mirage 28 we always did - the tanks were built into the hull and sometimes had a trace of grp about it but nothing to worry about. I used to flush the tank and dose with chlorine tablets each season but for washing and hot drinks nothing else and I'm alive to tell the tale. If I wanted anything else, I'd probably install a flexible liner but I'm too frugal to pay for bottled when tap water is free.
 
ghostlymoron2 said:
Why dont you use the boats tanks for potable water. On my Mirage 28 we always did - the tanks were built into the hull and sometimes had a trace of grp about it but nothing to worry about. I used to flush the tank and dose with chlorine tablets each season but for washing and hot drinks nothing else and I'm alive to tell the tale. If I wanted anything else, I'd probably install a flexible liner but I'm too frugal to pay for bottled when tap water is free.
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It’s not drinking water we are worried about , we just need clean to shower in.
 
I use our boat tanks for drinking. I filter the water going into the tank with a dual 10 then 1 micron filter. At the galley sink, it's filtered again with a Grohe 3 way filter tap that replaced the standard hot/cold mixer that was installed originally.

grohe.webp
 
ghostlymoron2 said:
Why dont you use the boats tanks for potable water. On my Mirage 28 we always did - the tanks were built into the hull and sometimes had a trace of grp about it but nothing to worry about. I used to flush the tank and dose with chlorine tablets each season but for washing and hot drinks nothing else and I'm alive to tell the tale. If I wanted anything else, I'd probably install a flexible liner but I'm too frugal to pay for bottled when tap water is free.
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A number of Bilge Keel boats utilised the keels as tanks ..... often one side as fuel - other as water ... but the water was always tainted by the GRP.

My Sunrider 25 was originally built with this - but many owners blanked them off ... which turned out to be good on mine - after hitting the concrete block on entering harbour .. the keel filled with seawater - but luckily not the cabin.
 
As JM points out the only answer to your question is a water maker which will need to be plumbed and maintained not a cheap solution.. Lots available from 12v, 24v and 240v
 
I'm actually removing a FW flexi tank from my 38 .... really cannot see point of it. There is a moderate sized FW tank in the bow .. about 50lt .. and then this 100lt flexi. Whoever fitted it - was not very clever as it fails to fill properly negating its use anyway.

For most needs - we use the seawater supply to wash stuff up .. but of course we are lucky that Baltic is 'brackish' with much lower salt content than UK ....
 
I took a water maker out but it's in Edinburgh. I suppose I could list it in separate parts here to accommodate the form for sale requirements.
 
Fr J Hackett said:
As JM points out the only answer to your question is a water maker . . .
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Not true! One can learn (or may be forced by circumstances!) to use less water.

Needs a shift of mindset from superyacht mode to rufty-tufty intrepid explorer! :D

There's the Maurice Griffiths approach - strip off every dawn and jump into the sea (and that was the muddy old East Coast!).

If it's raining you can have a free shower in the cockpit!

I saw a vid recently about a young submariner who had been on a 7 month undersea deployment, and said they had daily showers, but limited to16 seconds of water each. If you hadn't rinsed off when your automatic 16 seconds of supply was up, then tough, so you soon learnt.

None of my boats (nor a friend's boat we cruised in extensively) had a shower. (I did once, with a marine water hose to hand, plug the cockpit drains and have a bath in the cockpit footwell!) We mainly just had daily upper body washes, interspersed with sporadic whole body washes done with a flannel (doesn't take much water at all) or visits to showers/baths ashore when in harbour. If the weather was kind (both weekends of that, every year!) we'd have a shower in the cockpit with one of those portable black shower water bags, hung or laid up facing the sun to heat up, then hung from the hiked-up boom to take the shower..

Somehow I managed the whole of my childhood and substantial parts of my adulthood with only an upper body wash daily. Saturday night (only) was bath night. I am just remembering there were also grades of wash: 'a good wash' (i.e. a thorough one); 'a quick wash'; or 'a lick and a promise'.

(I remember being shocked, aged about 11 or 12, reading about life in Australia, to where my family intended to emigrate. The booklet said that people there had daily showers (no wonder they had the summer water shortages they also mentioned, I thought!). I'd never seen a shower in a house before, only the ones you rinsed off in getting in and out of the public swimming pool, and the dreaded communal ones at the school gym.)

Installing a hand or foot pump for the shower, or a sub-10 second timer on the electric pump, usually cuts water consumption

So embrace your inner Tarzan, and if all else fails maintain a good distance off, or downwind of, nearby boats when anchoring. 😁
 
Fr J Hackett said:
I wonder how much the disassembled parts of a water maker would cost individually? Anyone any ideas?
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I spent over £3k on putting mine together. I believe you can do it for much less if you don't use a commercial pump. Some seem to use pressure washers. Mine gave 100l an hour. Was great in Greece. We rarely were off anchor.
 
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