BoatBanter.com - Ping Larry

On Mon, 20 Sep 2010 21:14:14 -0500, CaveLamb
wrote:

Bruce in Bangkok wrote:
Skipping the esoterics of battery charging..

If I had a boat like yours (I am assuming that you don't have a shower
in the Head) I'd have foot operated water pumps. Believe it or not but
they do save on water use - you really use only what you need.

Totally agree with that!
One quickly gets the old time ideas about women aboard boats.
Not that I'm going to do without!
Just that I can see where they were coming from back then.

Actually if you get them afloat on a boat with manual water pumps so
that they believe that it is "normal" you are all set. My wife
believed that foot pumps were a good thing.... right up until I bought
the 40 footer that had AC, DC, pressure water and a shower in the
Head. You just can't get them to regress :-)

The MOST wasteful thing in the water system is the water heater!

Water Heater? Whatever for? You get all hot and sweaty and you want a
HOT shower? Try what a mate of mine swears that he did. Tell your
significant Other (what ever it may be) that salt water washes makes
the hair flossy and beautiful. Of course you need to rinse with fresh
water but as long as you got then there on the sugar scoop tell 'em to
just wash all over :-)

That's one think I'd happily remove but that it seems to be important
for resale value. (?)

A wash down pump is really a luxury :-) I had one rigged to wash down
the anchor but since I also had a power anchor windlass I always
hauled the anchor with the diesel running so a little extra current
for the pump was of little interest.

Yes, that one is a keeper.

Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)

By the way, I was thinking about putting a gen-set in a smaller boat
and I remembered some friends had their gen-set installed in one of
the cockpit seat lockers.

It was a Yanmar horizontal, single cylinder, water cooled, diesel
stripped of the fuel tank and water radiator with a small electric
water pump to circulate water through the engine and out the exhaust,
which belt drove a 60 or 100 amp automotive, self regulated, DC
generator. None of the parts, except for the water pump, were "marine
parts", and thus fairly cheap. The one I saw was built in San Diego,
probably 10 years ago.

As I remember it had a fairly small remote fuel tank and there were no
auto shutdowns. Not the kind of thing you'd want to leave running
while you dozed off but certainly sufficient for a 2 - 3 hour battery
charge while drinking your sundowner.

Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)