Revision to Watermaker Installation Plan

The dealer for EchoTec here in Vancouver suggested one change to the installation plan for the system.  Instead of routing the brine discharge into the shower sump and then overboard, the dealer suggested teeing into the sink drain.  Much easier and more reliable.

Revised System Diagram 

Hauling the Boat

We will be hauling out on March 28 with a planned return to the water one week later.  The plan is to do the following:

• Bottom paint
• Replace the zincs (there are 4 of them)
• Paint the boot stripe
• Install a new thru-hull for the future water maker. 

Touche's Voyage

I thought I would add this post from Hayden Cochrane's blog summarizing the 2 week visit of Judith Jacobsen and her husband Haakon to the Miami Boat Show presenting the amazing trip they made to Svalbard way up north.  Find it here

Hakkon, Judith, Radeen, and Hayden

IP Sailors All

Planning the Watermaker Installation

Layout of components - Click to Enlarge

We took two tries at this, but this one seems to be the most compact.  the longest run is from the membrane to the tank for the product water line.  The brine drains to the shower sump in the aft head and is pumped overboard.  

Volvo Ocean Race Fleet in Auckland

Approaching Auckland New Zealand

More on this can be found here

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.