Rainwater Catchment and Filter
 

I am looking at building a rainwater catchments and filter system on my next
sailboat.
I wonder if anyone has build one and could explain how to make one.
TIA

Rainwater Catchment and Filter
 

Put a thru hull in a tarp and lead it to your filler pipe. Hang the tarp
to catch the water. Put a filter inside the boat under the sink.
G
wrote in message
...
I am looking at building a rainwater catchments and filter system on my
next
sailboat.
I wonder if anyone has build one and could explain how to make one.
TIA

Rainwater Catchment and Filter
 

wrote in message
...

I am looking at building a rainwater catchments and filter system on my
next
sailboat.
I wonder if anyone has build one and could explain how to make one.

On Thu, 07 Sep 2006 15:22:20 -0700, Gordon wrote:

Put a thru hull in a tarp and lead it to your filler pipe. Hang the tarp
to catch the water. Put a filter inside the boat under the sink.

Make sure there's no bird poop on the tarp...

Matt O.

Rainwater Catchment and Filter
 

Gordon wrote:
Put a thru hull in a tarp and lead it to your filler pipe. Hang the tarp
to catch the water. Put a filter inside the boat under the sink.
G
wrote in message
...
I am looking at building a rainwater catchments and filter system on my
next
sailboat.
I wonder if anyone has build one and could explain how to make one.
TIA


Hi:

I've had this same project on the back burner for some time in hopes
that I would fiind an answer to this:

So what material to use for the catch tarp?
Kinda like the idea of USDA food grade stuff.
Really dont want to drink waterproofing or UV protection chemicals.
Suggestions?
Bob

Rainwater Catchment and Filter
 

Most any tarp or awning can be hung up so it will drain into a bucket.
I know lots of folks who put pvc sink drains into their awnings and
attach hoses to them when collecting water but just hanging the tarp so
that it has a deep fold in it works at least as well. Tarps really
only work when it isn't blowing hard. Some folks with deck fills and
bulworks just stop up their scuppers and then take the fill cap off
their water tanks. Making a little dam with a towl or somthing can
help. We have a watermaker but still collect water for doing dishes
and washing blocks and so on. If you are going to drink the stuff I'd
suggest using a bit of clorine in the tanks and a filter at the sink or
a filter jug.

-- Tom.

Rainwater Catchment and Filter
 

There is no valid reason for believing that rainwater will be clean and
fit to drink.

There is a lot of pollution in the air, and it travels thousands of
miles - around the world in many cases. Consider how much acid rain from
the industrial parts of the nation have caused loss of vegetation and
smog in areas downwind several states away. That is just one of many
types of pollution in the atmosphere. No reason to think that the
pollution is stooped at the border by Customs and prevented from
leaving. Nor pollution from other countries is blocked by Homeland
Security from passing across the nation.

If a cruising magazine wanted to do a shocking story, and promote the
sales of its reverse osmosis advertisers, it would have rainwater
samples collected and tested from around the world.

Rainwater Catchment and Filter
 

wrote in message

I am looking at building a rainwater catchments and filter system on my
next sailboat.
I wonder if anyone has build one and could explain how to make one.


I had a very effective system on my last cruising boat- a catamaran with a
bimini cover over the cockpit area. The total area was perhaps 5 sq metres
and it had a plastic sink drain fitting in the middle. One of the bimini
struts- the middle one- could fold away so that the usual high point in the
middle became a low point. We simply cleaned the fabric every so often and
let the first 10 or 20 litres of rain flush it before draining into
containers. We had fitted filters in the boat taps so left any filtering to
the system that was already in place for all the water.

These filters can get infected so need to be above the bilge so they drain
and should be replaced fairly often. We added a silver sterilizer to the
carbon and flushed the system with bleach/chlorine periodically.

The collection rate was quite impressive- in a good but not extreme rain
squall we collected 60 litres an hour, but light rain might only produce 15
litres. As we were in tropical Australia the rain rate was at time quite
high ;-)

Others will talk of risks with drinking rain water as it may not be
perfectly clean and this is so, but I'm a physician and it didn't worry me
particularly. After all, we do have an immune system and humans have thrived
drinking rain water for millennia. Maybe northern hemisphere rain is more
polluted ;-)

Peter HK

Rainwater Catchment and Filter
 

Bob wrote:
Hi:

I've had this same project on the back burner for some time in hopes
that I would fiind an answer to this:

So what material to use for the catch tarp?
Kinda like the idea of USDA food grade stuff.
Really dont want to drink waterproofing or UV protection chemicals.
Suggestions?
Bob

We're about to do awnings, with one of the catchment modes discussed
here.

Awning fabrics
http://www.weblon.com/regatta.html
http://www.weblon.com/coastline.html
http://www.weblon.com/vanguard.html

All look much better than sunbrella, and are designed to last in a
commercial environment. At the time I did my initial research, it was
similar in cost to sunbrella....

L8R

Skip

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery!
Follow us at and


"And then again, when you sit at the helm of your little ship on a
clear
night, and gaze at the countless stars overhead, and realize that you
are
quite alone on a great, wide sea, it is apt to occur to you that in the
general scheme of things you are merely an insignificant speck on the
surface of the ocean; and are not nearly so important or as
self-sufficient
as you thought you were. Which is an exceedingly wholesome thought,
and one
that may effect a permanent change in your deportment that will be
greatly
appreciated by your friends."- James S. Pitkin

Rainwater Catchment and Filter
 

p.s. I melted some freshly fallen snow to drink last year in
Washington state, usa and the amount and variety of crud in the bottom
of the pan was quite a disturbing revelation.

I live and hunt in Washington State, I often grab a handful of snow to
munch while hunting. I'm still here. Remember, anything in that snow is also
in the air you're breathing. Just don't eat yellow snow!
Gordon

Rainwater Catchment and Filter
 

On Fri, 08 Sep 2006 05:38:59 -0700, ray wrote:
p.s. I melted some freshly fallen snow to drink last year in Washington
state, usa and the amount and variety of crud in the bottom of the pan was
quite a disturbing revelation.
physics...every ice particle in snow requires a "seed" i.e., a dirt
particle, in order to begin crystallising

Rainwater Catchment and Filter
 

2462 wrote:
There is no valid reason for believing that rainwater will be clean and
fit to drink.

Well, all water we drink was rainwater at one time or another, wasn't
it? Of course, once it's collected and stored, there's possibility of
biotic growth, so it should be disinfected. But, if you open your
mouth skyward when it's raining, I suspect it's as clean a water as you
can get.

Quote from rainwater.com:

"Rainwater is a renewable, sustainable and a high quality water source
for your home or cottage.

It is soft, neutral in pH, free from disinfection by-products, salts,
minerals, and other natural and man-made contaminants that cause
staining, pipe corrosion or smell. As well as being "nature's watering
agent" for gardening, disinfected rainwater is an excellent water
source for general household use - either on its own or as a
supplement.

Rainwater - IS IT SAFE? Absolutely -providing it is collected, stored
and disinfected correctly. Today, rainwater harvesting is popular in
parts of Europe, Hawaii, and Japan, and mandatory in places like
Bermuda, parts of Australia and New Zealand. There are over 250,000
known users in the United States, and a thriving rain collection
industry in Texas, Hawaii, Arizona, California and Oregon."

Rainwater Catchment and Filter
 

OH brother do you have it WRONG
Every raindrop that forms does so by condensing onto microscopic
particles: dust, bacteria, viruses, etc. etc. etc. Without such
'nucleation sites' the water vapor would not 'condense'.
There are approximately 35000 particles (0,001 - 1.0uM) per cubic ft In
'pure' air.
The 'natural' pH of rainwater is slightly acidic to mildly acidic
(5-6pH)
Water that falls to earth and enters the underground aquifers does so
by perculation through the soils, sand, porous rock ..... which filters
the water !!!!!!!!! (but not the 'background' chemicals).
Rainwater direct from the sky should be filtered to 3uM to remove
fungal spores, (probably) 0,45uM to remove bacteria and bacterial
spores; but, can also use common chemical disinfection by adding
approx. 1 part per million of chlorine (from 5% clorox, etc.)



article . com, Mark
wrote:

2462 wrote:
There is no valid reason for believing that rainwater will be clean and
fit to drink.

Well, all water we drink was rainwater at one time or another, wasn't
it? Of course, once it's collected and stored, there's possibility of
biotic growth, so it should be disinfected. But, if you open your
mouth skyward when it's raining, I suspect it's as clean a water as you
can get.

Quote from rainwater.com:

"Rainwater is a renewable, sustainable and a high quality water source
for your home or cottage.

It is soft, neutral in pH, free from disinfection by-products, salts,
minerals, and other natural and man-made contaminants that cause
staining, pipe corrosion or smell. As well as being "nature's watering
agent" for gardening, disinfected rainwater is an excellent water
source for general household use - either on its own or as a
supplement.

Rainwater - IS IT SAFE? Absolutely -providing it is collected, stored
and disinfected correctly. Today, rainwater harvesting is popular in
parts of Europe, Hawaii, and Japan, and mandatory in places like
Bermuda, parts of Australia and New Zealand. There are over 250,000
known users in the United States, and a thriving rain collection
industry in Texas, Hawaii, Arizona, California and Oregon."

Rainwater Catchment and Filter
 

Rich Hample wrote:
The 'natural' pH of rainwater is slightly acidic to mildly acidic
(5-6pH)

Interesting... everytime it rains the pH in my pool rockets up to 7.8 or
higher (more alkaline) and I have to add a lot of acid to bring the pH
down again to the proper level.

Rainwater Catchment and Filter
 

There is no valid reason for believing that rainwater will be clean
and fit to drink.

Well, all water we drink was rainwater at one time or another, wasn't
it? Of course, once it's collected and stored, there's possibility of
biotic growth, so it should be disinfected. But, if you open your
mouth skyward when it's raining, I suspect it's as clean a water as
you can get.

What completely nonsensical "reasoning". Suspect as much as you want.
But if you think rainwater "is as clean a water as you can get" you have
no knowledge of water quality - at all.

Quote from rainwater.com:

"Rainwater is a renewable, sustainable and a high quality water source
for your home or cottage.


Baloney.

Anf microbes are the least of the problems with rainwater. The
industrail and other human generated chemical pollutants are the real
problems. And depending on exactly where you are they can be very, very
significant.