Adding a fresh water tank...

[barts]

Back when Rainbow was in the water, one of the more difficult/risky tasks while steaming single handed was going forward, around the windshield and fishing a five gallon ( 40 lbs) water container out of the forward hatch and bringing back to the cockpit and pouring it into the hotwell. Here you can see one of the water containers, and the previous hotwell:

In order to make things less dubious, I'm going to add a poly water tank up forward in the hold so I can add water to the boiler/hotwell using a pump w/o the risk of falling overboard. Now, I've estimated the water circulation rate at something around 12-15 gallons/hour, since Rainbow makes about 4.5-5.5 hp and is a compound. Some percentage of that is lost, of course. How much is dependent on the condition of the packing on the valves and pumps; Rainbow's valve guides and thus packing were completely worn out, so I don't have any good data there. I'm assuming the captain can restrain himself w/ the steam whistle and siren, of course. I'm curious if anyone has any anecdotal evidence as to what a reasonable figure of water consumption due to leakages might be?

For really long trips (several days), I can carry more water in containers as before, but I don't want to deal with that while steaming or just being out for the weekend. I'm thinking something on the order of 20 gallons or so, which should also provide adequate amounts for personal consumption as well. Any thoughts or comments?

- Bart

[Peter H]

I am adding a fresh water tank to my boat . My experience is very limited as i just launched my boat last year and did about 8 short day cruises. My boat is 16 feet and weighs about 700lbs. I believe my 4 gallon tank will be enough for a day cruise. My pump will be the same as my manual boiler feed pump and will be plumbed so it could be used for boiler feed in case of failure of the other one.

[barts]

Nice tank! I see you're making it with plywood, epoxy & glass. Will you need a vent?

I thought about making a tank like that, but since I can use a rectangular tank a stock poly
tank is a lot easier for me. I'd like to feel safe drinking water from the tank as well, so I'd
need the right epoxy.

I'll likely go with a larger tank than the 20 gallons I'd initially considered; a 35 gallon tank
is readily available and would easily fit in the hold just forward of the bulkhead. Rainbow has plenty
of carrying capacity, and filling the tank through the deck fill is definitely easier than filling
water totes at a dock.

These tank project are always more work than I expect; Otter's fuel tank sure made fueling easier, but
getting all the plumbing worked out in a tight space was tricky.

Good luck with your boat!

- Bart

[Peter H]

Will need a vent and sight glass (plastic).

[TahoeSteam]

Hi Bart,

On the Sandin we have a 35 gallon tank. With steam atomizing and excessive use of the whistle we could steam a whole weekend+ without refilling.

3+5x4" scripps compound (approximately 200rpm), Semple VFT40 boiler, York/Williams steam atomizing burner.

[Lopez Mike]

At the other extreme, Spiffy (ex Folly) has a very tight system. To explain the name change: Same machinery, different hull.

One scenario is simply going somewhere with no tooting or stack blower action in which case I can steam all day without using up a gallon milk jug of water.

The other case is at an event with lots of passenger hauling and the attendant whistle and, all too often, safety valve action. I get by with a couple of jugs of makeup water.

I built plywood and epoxy water tanks for my sailboat and, except for initially washing off the amine blush with a hose, Did nothing to seal them. I've had no ill effects other than a tendency towards cursing at my spell checker!

Mike

[barts]

Hi Bart,

On the Sandin we have a 35 gallon tank. With steam atomizing and excessive use of the whistle we could steam a whole weekend+ without refilling.

3+5x4" scripps compound (approximately 200rpm), Semple VFT40 boiler, York/Williams steam atomizing burner.

Rainbow also has a 3x5x4 compound, but is powered by sweet-smelling fir instead of dead dinosaurs. I think 35 gallons is going to work nicely.

Thanks for the data point!

- Bart

[barts]

One scenario is simply going somewhere with no tooting or stack blower action in which case I can steam all day without using up a gallon milk jug of water.

The other case is at an event with lots of passenger hauling and the attendant whistle and, all too often, safety valve action. I get by with a couple of jugs of makeup water.

Interesting. We'll see how well the new guides and packing work on Rainbow. With a compound, there's double the packing glands, of course.

- Bart

[Kelly Anderson]

Vividus came with a stainless steel 11 gallon tank which I still use, though it has been moved as far aft as possible to counteract the boiler which is a little too far forward.

She has a compound, 2-5/8" & 4-15/16" x 3-1/2", and normally needs one or two gallons of makeup per day of steaming.

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