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#1
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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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 |
#2
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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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 |
#3
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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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. |
#4
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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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 |
#5
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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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. |
#6
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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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. |
#7
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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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 |
#8
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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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 |
#9
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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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 |
#10
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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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 |