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Do we need a watermaker?
By Duncan | July 13, 2008
The question of a watermaker is proving quite vexing. On the one hand they are very useful, especially where ports either don’t have fresh water or the water they do have is a bit dodgy, especially in and around some of the Pacific Islands. On the other side they aren’t cheap, don’t have a great reputation for reliability, and use a lot of power.
So, how much water do we need? Given we will be sailing in the tropics, a reasonable estimate for water consumption is 3 litres per person per day. Assuming we will have up to 6 people on board for crossings, this gives us 18 litres per day. The longest we expect to be at sea is 20 days (a conservative estimate), though any major incidents (such as losing the rig) and this could be longer. Therefore the estimated typcial usage would be in the region of 400 litres of water. Seeing as how water is kinda critical for survival, adding a 50% contingency seems reasonable to cover eventualities such as contamination, lack of wind, rig failure etc. So we need 600 litres of water to be reasonably safe. We are putting in 2 extra water tanks in the stern to give us 4 x 150 litre tanks to get us to the 600 litre required capacity. However this doesn’t give us any water for showers or other luxuries.
Most small yacht watermakers will produce 30 litres plus per hour of desalinated water, using 10-30 amps at 12 volts depending on design (high or low pressure). Costs are typically about £3,000+ for a new watermaker. Our preference is (un-surprisingly perhaps) for the low power version, that we could run on the power generated from our duogen (as long as there is enough wind to move us at 8+ knots).
Plastimo, Schenker, Katadyn, Spectra and Advanced Yacht Systems seem to be the main watermaker manufacturers geared up to the leisure yachting market from the research we have done, with Schenker and Katadyn seemingly the market leaders. We did find a towed watermaker made by Waterlog, which was cheap (ebay had one on for £300), however discussions in many cruising forums seemed universally negative (e.g. this one), so we binned the idea of the Waterlog. I guess the old idiom of if it looks too good to be true, it probably isn’t true applies in this case.
So we are left in a quandry, is the removal of the dependance on the ports to restock water supplies, not having to ration water (as long as we have a working watermaker to replace what we use) and not having to buy water worth the £2k (we would find a second hand one, hence £2k rather than £3k+) it would cost?
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July 22nd, 2008 at 1:55 pm
I would get one - but probably only if I could find a decent appropriate one second hand…
July 24th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
I think it would give you loads more flexibility if you had a watermaker for crossing the pacific… crossing the atlantic is ok, you prob don’t need one.
Crossing the south pacific though you might find yourself restricted at times by having run out of water when cruising some of the really cool remote islands (e.g. tuamotos you could easily spend 3 or 4 weeks) and having to go look for fresh water…
Also, is 3L per person/day enough? I think we used to use at least 4L a day which included cooking, brushing teeth etc but I guess you could economise on that. You would have to watch it if you didn’t have water concious people on board though!!
My final 2 cents, what about those handheld watermakers…I know they take forever to produce water but it might give you peace of mind if you decide not to go for one….the pacific ocean is a very, very big place!!
Looking forward to seeing you in Sydney mate!
July 30th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Cheers for the thoughts Dave.
We’ve got hold of one second hand - just need to get it installed and tested, but should give us the flexibility and peace of mind you mentioned.
Boat is in the water now - photos coming very soon!
August 9th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Though at first glance a watermaker seems to be for long term cruising. But if you cruise for a few weeks at a time, losing a day or two of your vacation lugging water in jugs or diverting your course to find a marina with a hose can be a real hassle. Even a smaller producing unit like Spectras entry level Ventura 150 will give you enough water to meet most any needs of a frugil cruiser. Though they can seem to be expensive up front many considerations need to be taken into account. There is no one size fits all watermaker. Power requirements and power availability are the first big hurdles to over come. Anybody can reach me at Telawren@aol.com if you have any questions about what watermaker may suit you or not. Though I have interest in one manufacturer of watermakers I discuss them all and consider watermakers a hobby, I know, strange hobby, but I do have a pretty good knowledge base from which to work from. Feel free to contact me anytime.
October 17th, 2008 at 2:36 am
Just the fact that you may possibly have to drink each others urine says go with the watermaker for me…. Still, maybe you could get one of those solar sills for emergencies. http://www.sailgb.com/p/aquamate_solar_still/
Good luck boys!