Sailing inyourfootsteps.com

Preventing a failure in the fresh water pressurised system emptying the vessels tank

What is the issue?
Pressurised water systems load up fresh water pipes. If a joint or pipe should fail and it were to happen when the crew were engaged in a distracting activity, or the engine is running masking the water pumps noise, the vessel’s entire fresh water tank could be pumped out without the crew noticing.

Why address this?
Fresh water is the most critical resource upon a yacht and every drop needs to be completely assured. Loosing the main water tank in a long passage would lead to an unscheduled stop or develop into a highly dangerous situation.

How to address this?
Implement a parallel manual foot pump system. Whilst on passage or in areas where water resources are difficult to acquire, turn the automated pressurised system off as a policy. A manual foot pump may be inserted very simply, typically in the galley, as presented in figure 1.

This is a simple low cost technique that will not place water resources at any risk. It also eliminates any resources required from the vessels battery.

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If you are receiving a mobile signal you can access all of our information via a standard mobile phone internet browser. We provide a streamlined version of the site at www.liyfs.com, which is a shortcut to our 'Lite' site called Lite.InYourFootSteps.com, that is simplified and optimised for speed. Here are the phonetics to pass the address on via VHF: WWW.LIYFS.COM, I SPELL... LIMA... INDIA... YANKEE... FOXTROT... SIERRA... DOT.COM. Similarly, if you have limited or expensive internet capabilities, you may switch to the 'Lite' site www.liyfs.com for faster more efficient access.

Alternatively you may print a hard copy to have aboard. Either print this page with text, illustrations and photos, but without the internet menu, layout, backdrops and Google maps, or economise upon printer consumables and print this page with text only.

With thanks to:
Michael Harpur, Yacht Obsession.

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