MacGregorSailors.com

Weight shift issues would concern me with this mod so I'd stay away from it. Also if you are a saltwater sailor you might run into osmosis issues, contamination, ruptured membrane by rough fiberglass interior, etc.

Will do! Thanks!

BOAT wrote:Don't forget sumner that sometimes you sail out there in the Bahamas where they don't have hoses at the dock and you need to haul your own water - you will need a way to fill the tank from a jerry can or bucket. You will need a hole that can take a funnel or something.

Hey I have a lowly S and not an X or M ...



http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... -16-a.html

.... separate containers have worked and will work for me into the future. We did fill these in the boat once in Florida, but all the other times they have gone ashore in the dinghy for filling. I wasn't any place in the Bahamas where I could of filled the boat directly. There are some marinas there but I chose to not use them. I only filled water twice in a couple months. Once at Georgetown and again north of there at Black Point where you could fill containers ashore free. Most places the water will cost you but not that much. I used less than 90 gallons total in the three months. To save water I use a hand pump,

Sumner

============================
1300 miles to the Bahamas and back -- 2015

The MacGregor 26-S

The Endeavour 37

Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

Yep gotta agree with Sumner
simple is best & these blue containers r easy to remove for seasonal cleaning , just think if these sausage tubes develop a leak u r now into cross contamination with ballast water & what ever else is in there & u will not know it until ur sick or ur butt is stuck to the head , also I would have to think that the inside of the ballast tank skin is fairly rough surface even worse than inside the bilges

Just sayin thats all & these blue containers can be easily removed when not needed for extra storage space

J

Just installed the 3" discharge tube tank in the cabin right next to the ballast tank:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dg7cwdpeeeiqc ... 1.JPG?dl=0

12 feet long from base of the stairs under the galley to the front edge of the forward V berth locker. I will give it a try and see how things go. I like the approach for the following reasons: 1) weight distributed evenly amidship, not bow and not stearn, and will not change the balance with water usage. 2) weight located at absolute lowest position in the boat, contributes to ballast effect, 3) No removal of flotation, and actually absolutely no modification to boat required, 4) Does not take up any usable space, it fits in the V slot next to ballast tank, and helps keep storage bins in the lockers level.
The material is very tough, I think considerably thicker than conventional flexible water tank material, it is rated at 55 psi. It is also fairly cheap, here is a link to various sizes of lay flat hose:
http://m.globalindustrial.com/m/g/plumb ... Bulk-Hoses

And quick prices and volumes of different size hose,
3" hose = 5 gallons for $16.25 (20 feet cut to 12)
4" hose = 8 gallons for $20.25 (20 feet cut to 12)
6" hose = 14.5 gal for $33 (10 feet total)

I used regular white PVC plumbing, with hose clamps and PVC cement, to cap and plumb the ends, which is also very cheap.

With this installation, any leaks will be obvious, with water accumulating in the bilge next to the hose, and no movement of the hose is realistically possible, even without attaching the hose to anything, it is confined in that location.

I also configured the plumbing to be able to use a 5 gallon jug as well as the 5 gallon hose, so that refills can be done via carrying a tank.

However, I have not found very good water jugs that fit in the M lockers, the jugs I found have to be put on their sides to fit in the lockers. If others have better aspect ratio tanks that fit M lockers, please share what they are.

I'll see how this mod works out over time, it might be a final solution and I won't pursue pulling it through the ballast valve. If I were to plan for this installation under the galley in the first place, I'd probably use the 6" hose for more volume. Or I might put a shorter section of hose on the starboard side and plumb it in together for even lateral balance.

I don't understand how you get the water into and out of the "hose tank" without putting holes in your ballast tank for pumping out the water and pumping it back in. (your not considering putting holes in the ballast tank are you?)

Also, how do you fill up the empty "hose tank" when it's in a full ballast tank? The pressure on the "hose tank" will not allow you to pour water into the "hose tank".


This whole project is starting to border on the strange. Why not just take a regular soft bag tank like they have at west marine and roll it up like a burrito and stuff it in thru the gate valve?




I don't see the advantage of using a 'hose' for a "hose tank" because it does not hold enough water.

I must be missing something here - why are you doing this again?

Boat, note that the current installation is not in the ballast tank, it is in the bilge next to the ballast tank. However, going back to the concept of a flexible hose tank in the ballast tank:
The hose tank has a 1/2" ID fill hose exiting the ballast vent up front on the M, this is how the tank is both filled and used.
Filling the tank with a full ballast tank would probably require some water under pressure, not just pouring it in, so one could fill it with an empty ballast tank by gravity pouring, or with a full ballast tank (with ballast vent open) by using a shore power hose, in which case I would attach a valve to regulate the fill process (http://www.amazon.com/Garden-Splitter-A ... hose+valve)

A conventional flexible tank will not be able to expand much at all even if one could fit it through the 3" ballast gate valve (at least on the M). The M ballast tank consists of a forward clear tank, connected to the gate valve by 2 tubes about 6" diameter close to 13 feet long. Fitting a 6" diameter flexible hose bladder tank takes advantage of the existing shape of the ballast tank and also confines it and prevents it from moving.

A 6" diameter hose tank holds about 1.5 gallons per foot, so a 19 foot hose tank which could fit unfolded in an M ballast tank would hold about 28 gallons of water, plenty for me.

I'm rooting for you dude. Remember, the world was flat, man couldn't fly, and a trip to the moon was unimaginable. 28 gallons of drinking water in the ballast tank seems to be an attainable dream for a guy who can stand up to this much challenging. Admire your spunk.

x2 jimmy!!

Okay, you sound pretty sure on this project, I hope it works out okay - I guess I'm just not the visionary that some of you are - hopefully the idea will work well.

Water is all well and good. But do you have an automatic waterless dishwasher??
Ix

Don't have the cute automatic washers, but considering it for an upgrade. I did field test the non-ballast bilge mounted discharge hose and that worked quite well for 9 days living on the boat, so now I am upgrading to the 6" diameter discharge hose for $33 to get 14 gal of storage and retire my 3" test tube. One issue I had not considered in using the same fill and drain hose connection was the possibility of introducing air into the tube which might rise to the bow end of the tube and reduce the water capacity. I don't think this is much or any of a problem as my pressure pump seems to run the tube pretty flat empty when I run out of water, but I am now checking the tube when I run out and make sure it is flat and fully deflated before refilling. I will confirm that the pump completely empties the hose of both air and water on a regular basis as this could be an issue in a tube pulled through the ballast gate valve. If the 6" hose works as well as the 3" hose, I will stick with that install if 14 gallons is enough and not progress to trying to mount the tube in the ballast tank.
I have a garden hose connection between the discharge hose tank and the pressure pump, and this is how it gets filled, I just unconnect this and connect the tube to a garden hose, turn on the water and feel the discharge hose till it fills up, then remove garden hose and reconnect to pressure pump. It's probably best to minimize air entry during filling to maximize water capacity, but a little air is nice to help avoid over pressurizing the hose storage tank if one were to fail to shut off the fill water in a timely basis. The other end of the discharge tube has a plug which I could use to fill or vent the tube if necessary (in the bilge mounted version, not the ballast mounted version) but I have not needed to do that.

M2e6 blast tank leaks or loses water about 5 gal per day when full to a overall loss of 50 gal and the does not lose any more. Any thoughts ?

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Blowboater1 wrote:M2e6 blast tank leaks or loses water about 5 gal per day when full to a overall loss of 50 gal and the does not lose any more. Any thoughts ?

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Fill ballast tank, add food coloring, pull boat out of water, check for colored water coming out somewhere. My guess would be that its probably got a slow leak out the gate valve.