As alluded to in a previous blog, we've decided to purchase and fit a watermaker.

Whilst it's certainly not a necessity doing what we're doing, we're hopeful that it will make our life afloat even more enjoyable by taking away the stresses associated with sourcing, lugging and filling our water tanks.

If we were just marina hopping we probably wouldn't have made this decision but instead would be happy to fill our tanks by hose from the local mains supply. Ok, there may have been the odd exception when the water supply was suspect, but in the main we've not found this to be the case.

Even so the decision has not been taken lightly because these units don't come cheap, they need to be maintained, take up room and require a reasonable amount of power to run them.

After a great deal of research we eventually decided on a unit that could run from our 12 volt domestic supply without drawing too many amps, produce between 25 and 35 litres of water an hour and also relatively compact so that it could fit into two unused voids that we have onboard.

Initially we considered the Spanish eco-sistens "Splash" unit http://eco-sistems.com/watermaker-for-boats-sailboat-splash/?lang=en, but in the end decided on an Italian Schenker unit, the "Modular35" http://www.schenkerwatermakers.com/watermaker-modular35-analogic.php principally because we felt it was better engineered and produced more water per watt. Additionally both the pump unit and membrane unit come prep-mounted on aluminium frames which allows them to be easily secured to horizontal surfaces.

We purchased our unit from Mactra marine http://www.mactramarine.co.uk in the UK and without hesitation we can highly recommend them for their level of knowledge and support. Jim who runs the company is extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic about his line of business and even provided us with on-site training before the unit was shipped to us here in Cagliari. Just take a look at the feedback from some of his clients and you'll see what we mean.

Whilst our installation was relatively straightforward, it still meant we had to construct a shelf for the pump unit and involved a fair amount of plumbing and some electrical work. Due to the location of our inline seawater tap, the sea water filter, the carbon filter and the pump unit we needed to source a number of plastic elbows of the appropriate thread and diameter. We matched those provided with the unit and ordered a number of Tefen fittings http://tefentech.com/cat/_catalog/categories/index/Fittings/Threaded%20Connectors from Ebay UK. For all the joints we used loctite 5331 http://www.loctite.co.uk/loctite-4087.htm?nodeid=8802626764801 which is specifically designed for nylon pipe fittings instead of PTFE tape or cord which potentially can stress the joints.


new plywood supports for the pump & filter


pump unit


bloody plumbing!


inlet valve, raw water filter, carbon filter etc

Unfortunately even with the installation complete we've yet to test the unit properly because of the state of the water in the harbour... it's pretty mucky!!

What we have been able to do though is a "manual flush" of the unit which has proven both the electrical side of the installation and that the pipe connections are watertight.

All we now have to do is be patient and wait for our first trip of the season when finger's crossed we can try it in anger... watch this space :-).

Next year (when hopefully time and materials will permit) we will look to add a teak vanity panel to the front of the watermaker and a shelf above which will finish the job nicely and provide us with some valuable extra storage space for all those bulky pilot books we are accumulating.