City Water
This week’s Magic Brock Project gives us a teed connection with city water which creates all sorts of cool things…
- We have actual water pressure now. Showers are a whole new world with fantastic pressure.
- We’re prolonging the life of KJ’s water pump, as now it will be used when we’re away from the dock and at anchor, but not for every day activities.
- When guests are onboard, they won’t be rudely awakened by the water pump going off if somebody is up early trying to make coffee or shower. In the forward cabins, that’s LOUD. You’re welcome, NJ!
- As the freezing time of year approaches, we can always have our onboard tanks topped off. Then, when they shut off the water at the dock without notice, we’ll be well-prepared to last a few weeks without having to find alternate water sources.
The potential downside? If there were to be a leak onboard, there is an unending supply of pressurized water & theoretically the boat could sink if the bilge pumps also failed & nobody noticed. Not so likely that all of those things would go wrong at once, but for best practice, we will make a habit of shutting off the water at the hose bib on the dock when we leave.
experience
Well now that you've solved that problem, I can tell you that this happened to me and it was the first boat emergency that I handled all by myself! I came home early one day to hear a sound of a river coming from our Lucy Maru. We are hooked up to city water and our hose busted sending a river down the deck. Luckily it busted on the outside of the boat. So now we (I) always remember to turn of the water no matter what, but this timer sounds like the thing to get!
OK, I'm convinced that the $12 expense is worth it. I'll be curious to see how much water we're going through anyway. It was tough to find one that measured gallons, rather than simply time, but Amazon.com is an amazing thing. It's on its way and hopefully the boat won't sink in the meantime. Good job, gang – thanks for the input.
It's not a matter of all your systems (bilge, etc) failing at once. if you get a leak in the city line, more water will come in from the city fill than your pumps will be able to evacuate. It's the No. 1 reason for boats sinking at the dock. Plus when we were in Maine, we had to turn our dock water off during the winter since it would freeze. Don't know if you have to worry about that. Good luck.
The main reason is that you MAY forget to turn it off.We had a boat sink in our yacht club because something in the water system broke and filled the boat faster than the bilge pump could pump it.It is real cheap insuranceBill Kelleher
OK guys, I have to admit that you've lost me on this one. A water timer for what? It would go inline before the boat and turn off after an hour's worth of water ran through it? And then we would manually reset it if we needed more (I agree, it would take a while to use that much).So that if there were failure and we were gone, it would be limited disaster, I guess. I'm not actually all that worried about all of the systems we have failing, but perhaps I should be more concerned than I am. It's actually quite easy to just turn the valve as we walk by when we're leaving and it's easy to have that habit. Explain more about why we would want this, OK? I love having you all around the world, giving knowledgeable advice for my little adventures. Thanks ~ J
Jamie I agree with Bill if the water can only run for an hour in twenty four then you have to be away for a while for he boat to sink also a bilge alarm set just above the average of normal bilge water with flashing external light would make others aware that you have a problem, presumably you have a "key holder"? also have a pay as you go phone with its own sim card that dials your number when the bilge alarm light starts to flash.
Jamie,You can buy a water timer at the hardware store.I think I set mine at one hour. You would be surprised how long it takes to use that much.Bill Kelleher