Resources
Many models of boats have very active owners groups with an online presence and PDQ catamarans are no exception. When I have a question that I am sure has already been tackled by other PDQ owners, I simply post it on the PDQ Forum.
This is the post that I made yesterday:
Although our PDQ 32 is currently on the hard for the winter, we are making plans for our Caribbean cruise beginning late next year. Our boat has just the standard (if there is such a thing) water tank with a 47 gallon capacity. We would like to increase that, and install a watermaker, and have some questions on both of these.
For those on a PDQ 32 who have expanded their water-carrying capacity, could you share how you did so? Did you use hard or flexible tanks? Where did you locate them? Are they somehow tied into the main tank?
As for a watermaker, did you install a dedicated through-hull for it? If not, what did you do? If you did put a new through-hull in, where did it go?
We were also thinking that having the ability to use salt water for washing dishes would help in conserving water. Has anyone organized that on their 32?
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Mike and Rebecca
We have already received some good info regarding the galley pump. Hopefully others will share info on their watermaker installations.
I also know that we have some pretty boat-savvy readers here too, so feel free to jump in with your recommendations. The more ideas the better!
We installed a salt water pump on our PDQ36 and found it very useful while cruising. We had a watermaker that never seemed to work, so we managed to cruise for a year with our 35 gallon water tank, several 5 (or was it 6?) gallon jerry jugs on deck, a 5 gallon solar shower we had not hot water) and a system rigged into our bimini extension to catch rainwater. We never felt pressed for water. Since we didn’t do any passages longer than 2 days, and since we swam in the ocean down south nearly every day, you just don’t use as much. Washing hair in salt water while swimming works! It was only difficult while cruising the cold north, once we got south, no worries. It depends on how far you’re going and what your required “comfort” level is…
🙂
Thanks Cindy. I don’t suppose you have any pics, or could provide a description, of the rain-catching system you used?
Installed a Spectra watermaker last winter in our Lagoon 440. Spectra will not warrant the system without a dedicated raw water through hull supply and I supect that would be the case with most if not all manufacturers. We opted to use an existing saltwater deck washdown supply fitting figuring that with a watermaker we would no longer need to wash with salt, instead using fresh and the washdown system was already plumbed into the freshwater system with a selector valve. When you size your watermaker, take into consideration all the things that you currently do with salt water that you would prefer to do with fresh water. K.
Thanks for the info/suggestions Kirk. I appreciate it! We will also likely go the Spectra route.
Posted this somewhere earlier but I would think to go with EITHER a later tank OR a watermaker. If you have a watermaker and can refill your tank at will, why spend the money and space on extra tankage?