Planning the Addition of a Watermaker

Desalination systems on board a sailboat are becoming more and more common.  They are not cheap, but having fresh water at all times is a real advantage - especially for long distance passages.  We have been looking at this for some time and have research various makes including Spectra, Aquawhisper, Katadyne, and Seafari.  After a lot of investigation, we are going to invest in an Echo Tec belt driven system system.  Why?  Because it is relatively bullet proof.

The heart of the system is the high pressure water pump.  We do not have a genset on board Terratima and we have no intention of installing one.  One marine diesel engine is enough thanks.  It is after all a sailboat and the idea of having a genset whining away in the background at an anchorage irks us.  We have solar panels to assist in charging the batteries and a heavy duty alternator.

Adding a water maker on a 12volt system takes a LOT of amps to operate and will refill a 260 gallon water tank after a LONG time so the drain on the batteries would be substantial.  Running the engine to fill the tank from an engine driven system makes a whole lot more sense to us.

In addition to the power equation, the complexity of the system is also an issue.  Echo Tech has not electronic control boards or other electronic systems.  It is a simple combination of high pressure pump, valves and membranes.  In our view, the less complex the better.

Echo Tec Belt Driven High Pressure Pump

Time Is Flying By

I noticed the last bog entry was the end of January, and here we are on Valentine's Day already.  The office has been busy for us in spite of Alberta thinking it is melting down because of low oil prices and BC trying to get LNG plants built and not one has actually materialized.  Meanwhile, we see Norway doing exceedingly well in spite of lower prices and 78% tax rates on the oil industry.  We noted there are no countries in the world with tax rates lower than Canada, so the argument that raising the tax rates will have everyone flying to lower rates - where exactly?

Oh well, noting new in any of this.  We soldier on and plan to haul the boat at the beginning of April to do the bottom paint, change out the zincs and repaint the boot stripe.