Rain Catcher

emandvee44

emandvee44

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From: Plymouth, living in Europe Mainland
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I am in the process of having one made, as I could not find one on any chandlers sites. It will be about 2.5sq.m with a spigot in the centre to which a hose will be attached. It will be rigged in the fore triangle when the genoa is furled, and hopefully it will then rain!
I am not going to hang a bucket from the end of the boom - you get salty water initially.
Any advice appreciated.

Cheers,

Michael.
 
Not a bad size and I fully agree about rain catching salt water from the boom. You say you are having it made, why don't you just use a cheap blue tarpaulin from B & Q for a tenner? :)

With your setup, you should be able to collect about 40 litres in a 'heavy' (6mm) rain squall. Not to be sniffed at and far cheaper that a water-maker.

In the Caribbean, it can rain for days and 6 mm will be a very short rain storm :eek:
 
Crossing from Las Palmas to the Leeward Islands I experimented with a small piece of that cheap blue poly-tarp as a rain catcher in the squalls. A plastic sink drain fitting in the centre and the 'Tarp' rigged with a stretchy bungee in each corner to the guard rails port and starboard in the cockpit.
To stop it flapping about I lay a heavy stainless shackle in the middle which also made a nice angle for the water to run down the drain fitting. A plastic bucket under the drain caught a fair amount of rain water and being well aft in the cockpit it was out of any light spray.
Having said all that, it really only collected much rain during some of those Trade Wind squally downpours, otherwise not a great success. Probably a bigger surface area would have been better.:)
 
I made one for our boat after having seen so much fresh water flowing away :(

Actually it is the same sun awning which can be converted to rain catcher in a split second, by simply moving two ropes. I'll try to make a drawing if any interest.

I would say the most important thing is having something that is absolutely stable in whatever wind you get, if you cannot forget about the thing and have to remember to rig it, under the rain, then pull it off because the wind is too strong, etc etc then it's not worth it imho.

After a few days of rainy season, we began calling approaching clouds "look, a two jerrycan one", "a nice 100 liters coming" ..


:)
 
Thanks for the replies and advice so far. I do not intend to spend much on it; material will be standard synthetic cover material, hems all round, webbing eyes at the three 'corners', and a weight in the centre to stabilise it - wind often accompanies rain. Quick to rig and take down.
Right - back to the patent application.

I will post the result in due course.

Michael.
 
Have anchor watch, lots of time to kill.
This is a contraption I experimented with. A boat hook, old sun awning, a stick and some rope. Rigged on the foredeck, only on anchor or moored. There was no fresh water in our storm hole wintering bay Turkey. We had to sail 6 nm to the spring to fill up and sail back. The water ran into a 30 litre barrel which acts as our sun shower. I have now painted it one shade darker. Barrel is fixed in front of the mast, the outlet ( 3 cm above the bottom of the barrel ) feeds into a pipe system which connects it to the stern shower and the fresh water tanks.
Showerpump is a Shurflo 100 049 21 . The boat has three 50 litres and two 30 litres drinking water tanks, mutually connected and divided by cocks. Small boat, fiddling with space.
Med rainwater has almost always red dust ( sand ) in it. The olive oil barrel acts decanting, the dust sinks to the bottom, the big opening fine for cleaning. In fact all water is fed through that tank and it is remarkable what comes out of water taps. Feeding water from barrel to tanks is shurflo pump assisted or gravity feed.
In the Med, rain means mostly thunderstorm, the wind makes the tarpaulin flapping so a lot of the water flies away. The small tarp ( 10 feet x 2,5 feet ) had the 30 l barrel full in 10 minutes during some rainfalls. Filled the washine ( see post 32 Are you ready to live the cruising life ) with the shower head. Rainwater is great for washing, you feel the difference.

http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/p543/OldBawley/DSCF1291.jpg
 
I bought a couple of drain tarps or what some sites call leak diverters at tarpsplus.com. The cost is low but as others have said the wind which accompanies the rain reduced the catch.
A much better solution is the one I now have which is a hose fitting attached to my Bimini.
 
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