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how to safely leave water hose hooked up to boat

M

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My wife and daughters will be staying on the boat without me for the month of June and I would like to be able to hook up the water hose to the boat so that they won't have to fool around with filling the tank. But I am not comfortable with leaving the water hose hooked up because of the possibility of flooding the boat. I thought I while ago someone recommended a device that would allow a certain amount of gallons then it would shut off. Do any of you remember what this was and where I could find it. I have found water hose "timers" but that will not work without resetting all of the time. Thanks for your time.
 
Well like all timers they all need resetting!

I'd prefer to leave the hose in the tank filler and just tell them to top it off every 5 days by simply open the faucet
 
Pascal,

Wife & DAUGHTERS. The tank needs to be filled every day! Imagine listening to them when the tank goes dry and needs priming!
 
There is no safe way to leave dockside water hooked up to a boat's FW system. Sooner or later, something will let go and flood the boat. Better to teach them how to fill the tank. Sorry.
 
For years, I used my dockside water hook up as my primary source of water. Now that I have a decent 110v fresh water pump, I'm using the tanks, instead. Still, I have to bring dockside water into the boat in order to fill the tank since my tank-fill is all the way aft and there is no way to walk back there with a hose on the outside. I have a spigot on the aft deck that I use. So, I still have my set-up.

I have an on/off valve screwed into the boat's dockside water inlet and the hose screwed into that. It's just a simple twist valve that you can find in any garden section of any hardware store. When I'm on the boat, I turn it on and I turn it off when I leave. With my shutoff right at the PH door, I never have to run out to the pedestal to shut off the water which is pretty nice when I get caught in the middle of something like a shower or doing dishes and I run out of tank water - I simply open the door, reach down and turn the valve. As for your situation, this would work, but only to the extent that someone remembers to shut the water off every time they leave the boat. I don't think there is anything that is completely "automatic" for your situation, meaning someone will either have to reset the timer from time to time or remember to turn the water on/off. I've never had an issue with dockside water being on the boat, and over the years, I've only forgotten to turn it off maybe 5 times in 6 years. It's been part of my rountine upon leaving the boat, just like locking the door when I leave. Granted, I live on the boat and am never gone for more than about 9 hours at a time. And, my bilge pumps outrun the dockside water pressure. The thought of having dockside water on the boat does bother some people, but I've never been scared of it, yet.

If you go the way of the timer, you can put it onto the boat's water inlet and if the thing times out, it's convenient to reset it. You could also use the timer in that location and just make resetting it a part of your exiting the boat routine.
 
I know this is an oft controversial subject, but with a properly maintained plumbing system, this shouldn't be any more of an issue than it is in your home. I think the much simpler play is to teach them how to turn it off when they leave the boat or if a problem does arise. I am out of town a lot (like right now) with my wife staying on the boat, and that's how we do it. Most everyone leaves their shore power on and connected all the time, including when away, and that causes as much or more boat losses than water systems do.
 
jim rosenthal said:
There is no safe way to leave dockside water hooked up to a boat's FW system. Sooner or later, something will let go and flood the boat. Better to teach them how to fill the tank. Sorry.
Click to expand...


Try putting some bilge pumps in with automatic switches :D
 
I saw an interesting idea a couple of years back using an electric solenoid valve mounted where the hose enters the boat and a bilge pump switch mounted UPSIDE DOWN. The solenoid was a normally closed type needing 12V to open. The idea being that if the plumbing sprung a leak, the water would rise in the bilge and open the inverted switch causing the valve to close. I guess the inverted switch would have to be mounted lower than the regular bilge switches or the whole thing could go into crazy cycling until something failed.
 
I am in the camp of "turning it off at the pedistal". When I run to the store no big deal. When I go to work I usually cut the valve off. When I come back turn it on. Easy.
 
I would use the tank as it keeps the water in it fresh. Fill it a few times a week and you never have bad water
 
I'm a big believer in not using dockside water for several reasons - first, using tank water constantly ensures a "fresh" system at all times due to the turnover. Using dock water at the slip means that when you go out, you are now using water from tanks/lines that haven't been regularly used and are quite possibly a bit rank. Second, a boat cannot sink due to a failure in the system - all the water that can be on the boat is already ON the boat. The worst that can happen is that the location of the water is rearranged. ;)
 
Guys...he's talking about using dockside water only for a month while his family is on the boat and he's not. The tank water isn't going to go bad during that time, and if he's concerned, he could empty the tanks and then turn on the dockside water. My water has sat in the tanks for months at a time before I installed the 110v pump, and only the first bit of water coming out when switching over to the tank water had a strange smell. After that, it was OK. However, I didn't drink that water. Now that my tanks are turned over about every 5 days, I drink it after it goes through a filter.

He's just trying to figure out to make it easy for them in his absence for a few weeks. No matter what he chooses to do, someone on the boat is going to have to do "something" to keep them in water whether its filling the tank or turning the dockside water on/off. He'll have to determine whether they are more capable of keeping the tank filled, or remembering to turn the dockside water on/off each time they vacate the boat. If they blow a hose or pipe with dockside water, and they're on the boat (because the dockside water should be off when they are not there), they will know something went wrong - they will hear the water spraying and should go shut the water off and investigate. The boat's not going to sink out from under them.
 
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The last boat to sink on our area was a 2006 express cruiser that the captain left hooked to city water. He had bilge pumps. They were not enough.

A friend who uses city water when docked intended to go cruising a couple of weeks ago but had to cancel because he had no water pressure from the onboard system--turns out the pump died since the last time he used it.

I have never used city water pressure onboard, nor do I ever plan to. Even my deck fill is set up not to pressurize the tank; it will overflow out the fill neck just as easily as out of the tank vents.

From a few experiences I've had, I would never, ever expect people who might have trouble putting water in a tank to notice that a pipe had burst and the boat was slowly sinking, a pump was running dry or anything else. If I was going to be away for a month with landlubbers aboard, I would task one person with turning on the water and filling the tank to the brim every evening. That way, when they fail to do it and burn up a pump, you'll only have one person to keelhaul. lol
 
A friend of mine just bought a new 47' Grand Banks and dock water is not even an option. They asked about adding it and Grand Banks would not do it at the factory.
 
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I never ever use the direct water hookup on my boat. Ten or so years ago I saw a boat at our marina sitting on the bottom becaue of a broken water pipe. After seening that I stopped using the hookup. With use the interal tank the worst you are going to get is a bilge full of water equal to the capacity of your tank(s).

Some one said it was akin to the water coming into you house, I disagree. With a house you can experience a lot of damage due to a broken pipe but it won't sink. Sticking a hose in the filler pipe and filling the water in the tank every 4 or 5 days or so is no different that any task you need to regularly do at home. As one poster noted when if they run out of water it will be the last time they forget to fill the tank.
 
A City water break sunk my basement a few years back, no reason to think it wouldn't sink my Hatter too. Very indiscriminate these water breaks....when I'm not on the boat the city water is disconnected at the boat and the tap. I recall the story of a jealous girlfriend who late one evening threw a hose into an open window of her lovers sailboat during his absence, turned on the dock tap and walked away. Enough water went in overnight to sink a 38' boat.
That's why my wife and my girlfriend don't know about the boat! Best to keep the 3 of them separate methinks. ;-)


Sailor John
 
I too prefer to use tank water, but if you must go dockside water, put in a pressure reducer to minimize the chances of blowing off a hose, and consider a flow limiter that will allow the pumps to keep up. Shower heads already have them, but you should be able to get or rig something for the hose. Flat washer with small hole?

Bobk
 
Don't all these Hatts already have pressure regulators? I have one in my engine room. Made by "Watts", I think - at least that's what I think that thing is. It sounds like bees buzzing when I'm running water on the boat through a wide open faucet. That's probably why it takes me well over an hour to fill my water tanks via the aft deck spigot. I'm unable to easily fill my tanks directly from the dock hose since my fill inlet is all the way aft and I dock bow-in.
 
Thanks to all who replied. Island Dreamer had what I was thinking of. I am going to look into the cost. More than likely I will do as many have suggested and have them fill the tank when needed. I am not going to leave the hose hooked up.
 
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