Watermaker installed

Have always known I wanted to have a high quality watermaker on board. Hampton recommends Blue Water brand, and several of my friends know the founder/CEO. 

Also, a few of my friends have a tentative relationship with their watermakers. One of them says "most troublesome piece of equipment on the boat."  But this friend only washes his boat with "product water" as it is the most pure available. I'd have a lot of problems with hard water spots if I use the water at my home dock.

So my approach is to buy a truly current one, locate it where it is readily serviceable, and filter the hell out of the incoming water.  The location above is just to the right of the tool box in the lazarette. As you can see all the filters are readily serviceable. However the membranes are not, when they need changing the unit will have to come out. 

This article on the Tanglewood Blog clued me in to using these big media filters. (Thanks Peter.) They are a lot like a swimming pool filter, and they are super easy to back flush. They filter most of the crap out before the sea water hits the phalanx of other filters. 

Our unit is 1,500 GPD (although you get less in our colder water). 

Rather than lose any more floor space, Jeff from Yacht Systems NW suggested building this table over the beer keg/water heater. They did a super job making it a really professional look. 

There's one more piece of equipment, the low pressure pump which pulls in the seawater. I wasn't too excited about losing this floor space, it's a prime place for larger items like bicycles or what have you. But at least the pump is very serviceable. In between the pump and the thru-hull there is a strainer of course, it's easy to reach (kinda like Jeff is doing there as I took this pic). 

I can use the control panel on the unit to control it, and also there is a remote panel in the galley. Looks like we'll be able to order up some water whenever we want!