Mark, Don,
we got a Waterlog (200 version) just over a year back to replace our excellent but leaky maintainence & power hungry one. There is no question that this is the way forward for making water, very small- solid stainless steel- portable- no fitting & no power needed. A few points though. 1/You have to slow the boat to pull it back on board 2/Dont expect the water to pour aboard like a faucet. It takes about 2 1/2 hours/day to get all the water we need. Our last one took about 40 mins but beating hell out of the batteries. 3/Would we buy again ? Yes. Its works well, no fitting and good price. Oh! and dont use it inshore. Coral reef. Forgot we were towing it. We had to replace the prop- $93 -lucky we didnt lose it altogether ! Wont do that again. Fair winds. David
davaharris@aol.com
Portable towed watermaker
Moderator: Jim Walsh
-
Larry DeMers
Re: Portable towed watermaker
David and all,
Picture the situation with a deep sea fisherman trolling lures behind his trawler..moving what, 7kts thru the water? Now substitute the watermaker with spinning prop for the lure with spinning parts.
I am not trying to rain on anyones parade, but lets consider something carefully here. Sharks and other big creatures will certainly see that water maker cum prop, and will be attracted to it, and you will likely lose it to one of these creatures. Now suppose that you were low on water which was why you were towing that watermaker in the first place..and you lost all $2k worth of it. What do you do for water now?
I have a couple friends that trailed a Walker Taff Rail Log off of their boats from Vancouver to Hawaii one year. One lost the only propellor his used equipment came with. The other lost 3 spares and the primary log-prop over a year long cruise thru Hawaii and down to New Zealand.
So my concern is warranted from this info. What safeguards has this company built into their product to prevent this loss? The whole generator is in the "Lure" itself, right?
So that would relegate this device to secondary watermaker on any ship I was on, with the primary source being a fixed, engine or battery driven watermaker. To do otherwise could be fatal given the right conditions.
Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30
demers@sgi.com
Picture the situation with a deep sea fisherman trolling lures behind his trawler..moving what, 7kts thru the water? Now substitute the watermaker with spinning prop for the lure with spinning parts.
I am not trying to rain on anyones parade, but lets consider something carefully here. Sharks and other big creatures will certainly see that water maker cum prop, and will be attracted to it, and you will likely lose it to one of these creatures. Now suppose that you were low on water which was why you were towing that watermaker in the first place..and you lost all $2k worth of it. What do you do for water now?
I have a couple friends that trailed a Walker Taff Rail Log off of their boats from Vancouver to Hawaii one year. One lost the only propellor his used equipment came with. The other lost 3 spares and the primary log-prop over a year long cruise thru Hawaii and down to New Zealand.
So my concern is warranted from this info. What safeguards has this company built into their product to prevent this loss? The whole generator is in the "Lure" itself, right?
So that would relegate this device to secondary watermaker on any ship I was on, with the primary source being a fixed, engine or battery driven watermaker. To do otherwise could be fatal given the right conditions.
Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30
David Harris wrote: Mark, Don,
we got a Waterlog (200 version) just over a year back to replace our excellent but leaky maintainence & power hungry one. There is no question that this is the way forward for making water, very small- solid stainless steel- portable- no fitting & no power needed. A few points though. 1/You have to slow the boat to pull it back on board 2/Dont expect the water to pour aboard like a faucet. It takes about 2 1/2 hours/day to get all the water we need. Our last one took about 40 mins but beating hell out of the batteries. 3/Would we buy again ? Yes. Its works well, no fitting and good price. Oh! and dont use it inshore. Coral reef. Forgot we were towing it. We had to replace the prop- $93 -lucky we didnt lose it altogether ! Wont do that again. Fair winds. David
demers@sgi.com
-
Michael Heintz
-
Larry DeMers
Re: Portable towed watermaker Larry.. test on lake for shark
Heh..might make a good Coho bait! Some of those bad boys get pretty frisky.
Larry
demers@sgi.com
Larry
Michael Heintz wrote: Re: Portable towed watermaker Larry.. test on lake for sharks?
demers@sgi.com
-
Gordon Lightfoot
Re: Portable towed watermaker Larry.. test on lake for shark
After years of dining on the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Great Lakes Sharks have developed a taste for fine, imported type 304 stainless. . . .
-
Bob Eccles
Re: Portable towed watermaker
Hello All.
We have a Westerly, not a CD so dont know if we are really allowed to post anything here so hope is OK.
Larry makes a reasonable point, however we have towed generators for about 60,000 N.Miles in 18 years 9 of these cruising and can assert that there are many good shark stories in the bars of the world about towed spinners. We saw one of these watermakers a couple of months back and they are a little bigger than the long running Aquair towed turbine generator or the Hamilton Ferris towed generator.
The facts are that these props are about 1 foot diameter, 2-3 feet long weigh about 10-12 pounds and spin at 800 to 1,000 rpm. Any sea creature worth his (her!) salt will know that it will take its head off if it tries anything. I`ve never heard of a shark or whatever taking a boat propellor which is about the same diameter and speed. On the other hand, a fishermans lure/longline/spinner is about 1 to 1 1/2 inches, weighs an ounce, spins at a fraction of the speed and are a nice inviting bite.
We too lost a Walker log years ago, but those spinners were small, bite sized and at 5 knots turned at 93 rpm and I dont discount the possability of a shark or something in that instance - but never a generator or watermaker !
In all this time, weve never lost a towed generator - and we are on our third. Why ? we wore out the first two. And no, we dont have a watermaker but will get one now that they are stowable and reasonably low cost.
ecclesrob@freeserve.net
We have a Westerly, not a CD so dont know if we are really allowed to post anything here so hope is OK.
Larry makes a reasonable point, however we have towed generators for about 60,000 N.Miles in 18 years 9 of these cruising and can assert that there are many good shark stories in the bars of the world about towed spinners. We saw one of these watermakers a couple of months back and they are a little bigger than the long running Aquair towed turbine generator or the Hamilton Ferris towed generator.
The facts are that these props are about 1 foot diameter, 2-3 feet long weigh about 10-12 pounds and spin at 800 to 1,000 rpm. Any sea creature worth his (her!) salt will know that it will take its head off if it tries anything. I`ve never heard of a shark or whatever taking a boat propellor which is about the same diameter and speed. On the other hand, a fishermans lure/longline/spinner is about 1 to 1 1/2 inches, weighs an ounce, spins at a fraction of the speed and are a nice inviting bite.
We too lost a Walker log years ago, but those spinners were small, bite sized and at 5 knots turned at 93 rpm and I dont discount the possability of a shark or something in that instance - but never a generator or watermaker !
In all this time, weve never lost a towed generator - and we are on our third. Why ? we wore out the first two. And no, we dont have a watermaker but will get one now that they are stowable and reasonably low cost.
ecclesrob@freeserve.net
-
Rick Fellows
David, where did you get it please ?
David,
Very interesting, we recently saw one on a passing boat - Where did you get yours please ? Or, if David does not see this, can anyone help ? Thank you all.
rachelfw@aol.com
Very interesting, we recently saw one on a passing boat - Where did you get yours please ? Or, if David does not see this, can anyone help ? Thank you all.
rachelfw@aol.com
-
David Harris
where did you get it ? From www.yachtwatermaker.com
We ordered it direct from www.yachtwatermaker.com
Had it sent forward to next port of call in Trinidad as there was a waiting list for them. We opted for standard mail and there was no problem.
David
davaharris@aol.com
Had it sent forward to next port of call in Trinidad as there was a waiting list for them. We opted for standard mail and there was no problem.
David
davaharris@aol.com
-
Rick Fellows