Additional Water Tank (02/2020)
A few years ago we spent a long
weekend at Angel Island and ran out of water after two days as
the C270 water tank is only 13 gallons. After that trip, I thought
it might be useful to use some of the empty space under the v-berth
for additional water storage.
I spent some time looking for water tanks shaped to fit the area
under the v-berth, with no success.
After that, I looked into soft bladder water tanks. Again, I was
hoping to find one shaped as the area under the v-berth but no luck.
The best match I found was a small square bladder tank holding about
13 gallons. It doesn't fit the triangular space very well but should
work ok.
Next question was how to keep the tank away from the speed and depth
sensors?
In the end, I decided to build a bulkhead to separate the space:
To keep the bottom of the tank somewhat flat, I used expanding foam
to fill the lower part of the space to make a flat surface for the
tank.
Next question was how to deliver water from this tank? In larger
boats there is typically a set of valves which feed the water
pressure pump so it can draw from one tank or the other (or both).
While I initially planned on doing that, in the end I let simplicity
win this one.
I'm not a full-time cruiser, so realistically this extra tank will
be used maybe once or twice a year. Therefore, I went with just a hand
pump which is plumbed to transfer water from the new auxiliary tank
to the primary one. I'll wait for the primary tank to be empty and
then re-fill it from this secondary tank. Not the most convenient
solution but it is simple.
To fill the tank I wanted a quick-release garden hose adapter for an
easy no-spill fill. I couldn't find a direct adapter so I had to
chain a set of adapters from 1.5" to 1" to 3/4" to garden hose. This
made the fill hose a bit longer than I wanted, but it works all
right.
Back to
my Catalina 270 page.