THE ABILITY TO MAKE WATER IS THE KEY TO INDEPENDENT CRUISING

Our Water Maker setup and our Solar/Charging system are my two points of pride in the system design and installation. Once are living the cruising life and you talk with other boaters you will realize what a quality setup we have on this boat. This s the culmination of 16+ years of living as a cruiser.

Cruise RO Water Maker .There are a number of brands of water makers and generally they use the same antechnology. Salt water comes in goes through a strainer to a boost pump then the boost pump pushes the water through a 20 Micron filter then a 5 Micron filter and into a high pressure pump into an Reverse Osmosis membrane. The RO membrane separates fresh water to the water tanks from brine and the brine gets pumped back into the sea.

We have had a Spectra water maker, an FCI water maker and now a Cruise RO water maker. All three of them make about the same amount of water and same quality of water. The biggest thing that sold us on Cruise RO is that it is all "off the shelf" parts. You can go to any source since there are no proprietary parts. Let me give you an example. We had a small fitting on our Spectra break. We were only in the Abacos in the Bahamas not some out of the way place. After too many "check here they will have it" I had to fly to Florida to get a stupid little part. Stay away form proprietary equipment whenever possible.

Cruise RO is two guys the last I checked - Rich and Charlie. When you need support one of those two answer. I have called them a few times and either they answered right away or they called me back in a few hours. Much better than Spectra and FCI. Plus they know their system inside and out.

We make 30 gallons per hour. That is a lot of water for a boat of our size and takes care of all of our needs. We have enough water that I even wash down the boat in fresh water if rain hasn't rinsed the salt from our boat.

Ease of operation and maintenance are key with any system. The easier it is to access for maintenance the more likely you will do the maintenance. The easier it is to access for repairs the less you will sweat, swear and ....

Many Leopard 45's have the water maker installed under the port aft bunk. After three boats each with it own water maker I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would chose to install a water maker under the port aft bunk. Every time you have to work on the water maker you will be in tight, hot, uncomfortable conditions. Invariably water will end up in your bilge and have to be cleaned up (clean bilges are what keeps the bad smells at bay).

Cruise RO Water Maker installation on Semper Fi

Water Maker Control Panel

The water maker is controlled from the panel pictured above with the gauges and yellow tube. The box below the control panel is the auto flush system which can be set to perform auto flush at any specified interval. The system should be either used or flushed every 5 days to make sure you do not have salt water going biologic (smelly) in the system. If you are actively using the boat you will make water within five days. If you are leaving the boat for an extended period the system should be pickled. On the occasions that you do not make water within five days but you are not shutting the system down for a long period then flush or auto flush is proper course of action..

Filters

In the far left corner is a carbon filter. This filter is to remove any chlorine from the water used to flush the system. If your tanks have been filled from a dock there is chlorine in the water. If your tanks are full of water you have made from your system there is no chlorine. Chlorine will damage the reverse osmosis membranes. Those membranes are expensive $300 plus. They should last 7 - 10 years if properly cared for. The two filters marked 20 Micron and 5 Micron eliminate the debris in the water before it gets to the high pressure pump. Those filters can be rinsed out or replaced and are about $5 a piece. They last a few months. The carbon filter is about $15 and are replaced every 6 months. All the lines and parts are labeled and indicate flow direction. You can see the ease of access compared to an under the bunk installation.

Water Maker Location

Our water maker is installed in the starboard forepeak. My wife refers to this space as my "man cave". As delivered the Leopard 45 does not have a deck in that space and access is via a ladder with three steps that are too far apart. The bottom of the space is the angle of the boat hull and difficult to stand. For most people that space ends up being a giant junk room. The stuff on the bottom is inaccessible. Pretty much worthless space.

On Semper Fi we installed a floor made out of 1 inch star board. Then we took the ladder to our favorite stainless steel guy, John Brault, and had him add two more steps in between the original three steps. Then we had a space that became useful.

We installed our water maker in that compartment in a configuration that made it easy to operate, maintain and repair. Everything is accessible and most of it is eye level.

Under the Floor Boards

Under the floor boards in the water maker compartment is the salt water inlet thru hull to feed the water maker. In the standard Leopard 45 configuration there is a tube that allows water that compartment to drain into the bilge in the master cabin for that bilge pump to clear. We plugged that tube in order to isolate the water maker compartment and installed a dedicated bilge pump for the water maker compartment. Remember, ease of maintenance and keep the bilges dry and clean gives you time to enjoy the boat and not clean bilges.

Floor Boards

The starboard forepeak comes without a floor from the factory. Few owners think to install a floor and this space becomes a pit of things stored never to be seen again. By installing the floor the starboard forepeak becomes a useful working space.

Note the strainer on the left of the picture. You want the strainer and the boost pump below the water line so they self prime.

Access Ladder

The access ladder from the factory only has three rungs - the top, middle and bottom. By adding two more steps in between the existing rungs the ladder provides easy access to the starboard forepeak.

Water Tanks

There are two water tanks in the starboard lazarette. Each tank is 103 gallons for a total of 206 gallons on board. I installed an additional carbon filter housing in line from the main feed to the boats water system. There are gauges displaying % of tank full at the helm, but I find it easier to just open the lazarette and look.

Hot Water Heaters

There are two hot water heaters. One under each of the two aft bunks next to the fuel tanks. In this picture the hot water heater is the silver box the right rear. You will have very hot water when you run the engines since the engine cooling lines run through the hot water heaters. You also have the ability to heat water with electricity. BTW this is the space where too many water maker systems are installed. Think about working in that space and compare it to the ease of operation, maintenance and repair to our installation