Rainwater tank fill

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robertj

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I am now going to set up and fit a rainwater tank fill system to my boat. I'm getting older now and if I can reduce the trips to shore with a can, the better.

I am utilising to deckwater via a filter and pipework to top up my tanks when it rains.
I have the bits and pieces, so this weekend it will be up and running.
Any one else done this and any pitfalls?

Bob
 
kds said:
Yes - Birdpoo is the drawback,
No filter will clean it - and you will die of a horrible disease - as have other Liveaboards.
Ken
Click to expand...

Ken - can you expand on this please, especially the Liveaboards bit?

Robertj - I have found that not all rain water is sweet. At sea we once had quite brackish water coming from a squall. The intention was to capture the water and we started filling buckets and when tasted it was tainted so we didn't use it; that was rare though.

If you search for the Lin and Larry Pardy web site, I believe they have information on capturing and using rain water.
 
Before we got our Watermaker we used to catch a lot of rainwater, particularly in winter time in the Med.
Obviosly the catchment area needs to be clean And needs a rinse to get rid of the salt, so reject (or use for washing) the water at the start. The biggest problem was making sure there was not any red dust / sand in the rain
There is no chlorine in the water so be careful storing in a tank unused for long periods, but in practice we never had any difficulties or added any chlorine or peroxide.

It used to be common in rural Australia for houses you to use rainwater for everything, and even today some properties still use this system. Hygiene standards were much worse ( its hard to clean a roof) and the odd dead bird in the the water tank was not unheard of. Despite these poor standards, problems were rare and the water always tasted much better than "town" water.
 
Last edited:
BlowingOldBoots said:
Ken - can you expand on this please, especially the Liveaboards bit?

Robertj - I have found that not all rain water is sweet. At sea we once had quite brackish water coming from a squall. The intention was to capture the water and we started filling buckets and when tasted it was tainted so we didn't use it; that was rare though.

If you search for the Lin and Larry Pardy web site, I believe they have information on capturing and using rain water.
Click to expand...


Yes I think I will have to be careful and let it rain for a while to wash off dust ect from the deck. Only this week we suffered from what you have mentioned as after it had rained at home the cars were covered in a fine brown sand.
I will experiment with it for sure.
 
No - not a liveaboard.
Years of reading has given me several examples of sailors picking up infections from water collected from sails or deck. One sailing doctor did a test on the water in a tank collected from sails and found it a veritable soup. Fine unless you drink it ! Boiling drinking water or adding purifyer is fine; cooking with it is fine - just don't drink it.
Yes - of course many of us have drunk contaminated water and survived - but it is not a good practice.
Ken
 
Ah, strangely enough I have just been discussing this very subject with a couple of Dutch boats that have returned from Brazil after a couple of years there.

Neither have water makers but have some sail cloth they use only for gathering rain. When it does rain they lay it horizontally above the deck with lines on each corner and it slopes down to one corner where they collect the rain in a barrel or hose into the tank.

They never had a problem and swear by this system.

Does anyone else use this system?
 
robertj said:
I am now going to set up and fit a rainwater tank fill system to my boat. I'm getting older now and if I can reduce the trips to shore with a can, the better.

I am utilising to deckwater via a filter and pipework to top up my tanks when it rains.
I have the bits and pieces, so this weekend it will be up and running.
Any one else done this and any pitfalls?

Bob
Click to expand...

Catch it & run it into/store in this:- http://www.lifesaversystems.com/buy-water-purification-systems/lifesaver-jerrycan-20000

Seems to do 20,000L which is a decent amount..
 
I was propted by a livaboard who has adopted this system and been living off it for 40odd years now.
Do you think I should put in loads of alluminium sulphate to kill the germs?
I was originally asking any one has good ideas on the set up.
 
robertj said:
I was propted by a livaboard who has adopted this system and been living off it for 40odd years now.
Do you think I should put in loads of alluminium sulphate to kill the germs?
I was originally asking any one has good ideas on the set up.
Click to expand...

Aluminium Sulphate doesn't kill germs; it precipitates iron and organic matter, cleaning up the brown colouration that water from moorlands often has. Chlorine and Ozone are the principle ways that germs are killed in water.

My wife is a researcher in the field of water-purification, and is hoping to develop a system that will use sunlight and a small amount of electrical power to disinfect water. She is still seeking funding, so don't look for it in the shops soon; it may be 5 years from commercial use! But it would probably be ideal for treating rainwater.
 
fwiw, our experience during about 9 month West Africa and Brazil, during which in total we have been able to refill at a pontoon about twice, basically staying always at anchor and having to arrange water refills with the dinghy.
I discovered one wife and two daughters use industrial quantities of water :)

We had a sun awning that went from the forward edge of the bimini: I made it so it could be sloped in order to concentrate rain the the middle, rather than let it drip laterally.
After a few days, we were calling approaching rainy clouds in terms of their water content "look, a 20liter one is coming.. great I bet this is a 50l one"
The collected water went first into jerrycans, was left there a little time, decanted, then poured through a filter in one water tank.

We have three separate water tanks, we used only one with rain water, the others two only with "proper" water from ashore.
We never drank it (raw nor boiled), basically used it only for washing.
Once again into ports and marinas, I cleaned the rainy water tank with a little bleach.
 
Our boat has a 6" bulwark, so rainwater, or spray, goes down deck drains rather than directly over the side. I collect rainwater direct from the deck to the tank, by forming a small "Dam" immediately downstream from the deck-filler. The dam is a poly bag with a rag in it, held down with a suitable weight. Obviously, before letting any rainwater into the tank, the deck etc has to be clean of any dirt or salt water.

The problem so far this year has been lack of rain. (Outer Hebrides).
 
Well it's all fitted and plumbed in. Really looking forward to it p-ing it down now.
Will give decks a good washdown first though.
I hope it rains quite a bit now, I'd hate to have to wait for months to try it out lol
 
I have a lot of experience regarding "Rainwater Harvesting"

Firstly, do not collect it off the boom or main sail (unless desperate) otherwise it could well be tainted with salt or bird faeces.

Do not run collected rainwater straight into the tank otherwise all the sand particles will go in too. The collected water in the sailcloth or tarpaulin has to be 'slowed' into a catchment area where it builds up to about an inch deep and all or any sediment (sand) can then settle out. The water can then weir over the tarpaulin outlet pipe down into the storage facility, through a filter if necessary to flies?

A moderately heavy 3 hour rainfall in the UK can be up to 6mm. If you collect this in a tarpaulin of 3 metres by 2 metres, expect to collect 36 litres or just shy of 8 (British) gallons.

I hope this helps
 
In rural areas in New zealand including the Hokianga where my daughter stays all domestic water is collected from the house roof and stored in big tanks sometimes concrete and more often that green plastic they make oil and septic tanks from over here.
My daughter is right next to the sea and has plenty of seagulls but no problems and it is considered the norm even in public buildings-motels we stayed at used the same system.
 
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