How big is your water tank

aitchem

aitchem

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Hi,
Upgrading my Sadler 27 for cruising, eventually Scottish west coast.
So, how big a tank would I need, for say, a long weekend 2-3 days, with no marina stops.
A holding tank, I presume would have to be a touch bigger than the water tank.?

thx
Howard
 
Can't advise on the size of the water tank, but holding tanks are usually significantly smaller. After all, unless you're sailing on rivers etc you can empty it every time you go anywhere.

Pete
 
aitchem said:
Hi,
Upgrading my Sadler 27 for cruising, eventually Scottish west coast.
So, how big a tank would I need, for say, a long weekend 2-3 days, with no marina stops.
A holding tank, I presume would have to be a touch bigger than the water tank.?

thx
Howard
Click to expand...

How many bodies on board?
Any under 25 !!!!! - very relevant for useage...
We have 2 x 100l, and top off wherever possible. Occasional taps at assorted peirs, rivers (generally perfectly OK on the islands- just have a sniff for dead sheep nearby :D ) rare marina stops... (not much in that way outside Mull at all)
We carry collapsable water bottles to ferry back to the boat.
Unless you have a shower - and use it a lot - you should not do badly with 100l?

Graeme
 
I have a 50 litre plastimo bladder under a bunk, but for any more than a weekend I also put a couple of 25 litre jerries in the forepeak. This is on a pretty small boat with never more than 2 people on board, and no water-using facilities except a hand-pump tap. I'm not shy about having a wash in a canvas bucket in the cockpit though.

Pete
 
Without trying to be particularily frugal (daily showers, washing up, tea etc etc), we use around 25l pp/day as liveaboards.

The holding tank, used for #2s only, fills at a rate of c.5-8l pp/day using a Lavac and about 15/15 pumps each time. To put it another way, its a 100l tank and we really need to go offshore every 5-7 days!
 
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Thanks folks, we will be cruising just two up, and we are approching hopefully a very active and early retirement.
The main problem seems to be convincing SWMBO that she doesn't need to shower every day, (we won't have one anyway except in the cockpit, and she wouldn't use that.!)
I have a nice space diagonally opposite the batteries and can get 200 litres in there, obviously I don't need all that and can go for a touch over half that.Now.......where's my tape measure.

thx
Howard
 
Water use not certain afloat but caravan 2 showers (see below) and dishes etc 35 lts a day.

Big tip on showers WET wash RINSE do not leave it running, makes a big difference..
No wet and rinse 35 lts per shower :eek:

Also shower heads and taps (to a lesser extent) can considerably reduce water consumption.
 
BlowingOldBoots said:
A wet flannel perhaps as an alternative for madam?
Click to expand...

The problem is where to use it. Bit antisocially damp in the cabin, and I guess the OP's boat doesn't have a spacious enough heads for a comfortable wash (and if it did, he might as well just fit a shower in there and have done with it). We've already heard that she won't use the cockpit (not even with a boom tent?).

Pete
 
Our 25ft motor boat has a 120 litre fresh water tank plus a calorifier. For two of us the water supply lasts a couple days easily, three days if necessary.
The shower has a trigger spray head which allows economical use of water.

We do carry a seperate container for drinking/cooking rather than using the tank water.

As said you can discharge water used for showering/washing up direct into the water.

Not sure of the size of a holding tank to suit our boat as we dont have one. But looking at others the holding tank is quite small compared to the fresh water tank. Presumably you are looking to install a macerator pump out to dicharge the holding tank when at sea . The macerator pump uses a lot of power so pumping out needs the engine to be running.
 
MartynG said:
Presumably you are looking to install a macerator pump out to dicharge the holding tank when at sea . The macerator pump uses a lot of power so pumping out needs the engine to be running.
Click to expand...

A manual diaphragm pump is the normal choice on sailing boats. A bilge pump will do although there are models sold specifically for pump-out use.

Pete
 
We have a 65l tank and cruise the West Coast of Scotland, usually north of Ardnamurchan. There are two of us plus two dogs. The dogs are probably the biggest cause of wasted water as they always have a bowl sitting out and it gets stepped on, spilled, and knocked over throughout the day.
It would be nice to have a little extra capacity as we have run out a few times. Fortunately we always carry a few plastic bottles which can be filled at the nearest burn, although I only ever put tap water into the water tank.
If you don't have a gauge on the tank, make sure you have a few litres kept as a reserve.

Re showers: we use a 'solar shower' which hangs up in the cockpit tent. Takes a kettle of hot water plus 2l of water from the burn. Not exactly luxury, but it gets the saly spray out of your hair.
 
pagoda said:
How many bodies on board?
Any under 25 !!!!! - very relevant for useage...
Click to expand...

Are you saying that under 25s wash a lot, or a little? :)

More important in my view is: are any of them female! I've fitted timers to the pump-out pumps in my boat. I can take a shower that uses one time period (one minute), the ladies seem to use at least three times that.
 
100L water plus spare can would be more than adequate for 3 days.

Holding tank is really the biggest you can get in, which is in part determined by what sort of sytem you are going for. The simplest is a gravity system with the tank on a bulkhead above the waterline. On a small boat you are likely to a tank between 30-50L. Have alook in the vetus catalogue for different types of systems and tanks. Tek Tanks also do some good downloads on tank design and will make custom tanks to fit your space. Be aware that this is not a cheap exercise, and getting meaningful tank capacity in a small boat like yours is quite a challenge.
 
BlowingOldBoots said:
A wet flannel perhaps as an alternative for madam?
Click to expand...

No. And its not an alternative for Sir either. Cleanliness is next to godliness. IMO the two things that make for civilised living aboard are large water tanks and a generator to run an immersion heater ( and a toaster). Sadly my boat is primitive with only 50 galls of water and no genny. The consequence is extra cost in marina stays,.
 
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nigelmercier said:
Are you saying that under 25s wash a lot, or a little? :)

More important in my view is: are any of them female! I've fitted timers to the pump-out pumps in my boat. I can take a shower that uses one time period (one minute), the ladies seem to use at least three times that.
Click to expand...

Our sons are able to empty our (house) domestic hot water in morning showers.... despite reminders!. They're clean , but they don't half use water..
Having had 6 on board once (including 3 females) - it was an interesting trip.
(Son No1 wanted the tanks empty for racing... but couldn't see the irony in replacing that weight with bottles of beer , rum & mixers :D :D )
 
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