Trick Your Ride Page 6

Everyone dreams about buying that new boat. Historically, PMY readers have traded up every three years. But for a lot of us, that usual step up is going to have to be deferred for a few months. However, that doesn’t mean we’ll have to put up with the same old boat. Take a look around, and you’ll see that there’s plenty of room for improvement onboard.In this section PMY’s editors offer 14

By Mike Smith

October 26, 2009

Free Water
Cost: $6,000 to $15,000

When our fishing team was getting
ready for its last week-long-plus
excursion, at about my tenth trip to the
car to get more cases of bottled water I
blurted out. “It’s time to get a watermaker!”

Now this is a well-equipped boat: It
has two refrigerators, a massive Eskimo
ice maker, air conditioning everywhere,
and the latest electronics. Why shouldn’t
we save some stowage space (and even a
little money over the long haul) with a
watermaker?

The advantages of this device, which
comes in both modular (above) and
packaged systems and can cost between
$6,000 and $15,000, are straightforward:
First, no more carrying cases of water
onboard when making extended trips.
And second, when boating to a port
where the local water is questionable or
just bad-tasting, you can simply make,
drink, and bathe in your own chemical-,
parasite-, and metal-free potable water.

These days major watermaker
manufacturers like Sea Recovery, Spectra,
and others even build units that can fit in
the engine rooms of boats as small as 35
feet, while offering up almost 350 gallons
of fresh water per day. Megayacht-size
units can produce as much as 6,800
gallons per hour!

According to Sea Recovery, you can
leave the water tank empty on a long run
and fill it when you get to your
destination, which will save weight and
may save on fuel costs while potentially
enhancing your boat’s speed, too. Best of
all, your cruising destinations are
expanded as you’re not limited to areas
where you need a guaranteed a supply of
fresh water. Drink up!

—Capt.Patrick Sciacca

Sun Power
Cost: $30 to $1,300

Just a few years ago,
the only solar-powered
products you’d find in
most marine stores
were those circular
ventilation devices.

Things sure are
different these days. Most
marine stores now carry a slew of solar
products, and probably the hottest of the
lot is the photovoltaic panel that turns
sunlight into D.C. electricity that you can
use to charge batteries and/or battery
banks and also power up D.C. equipage
like cellphones.

There are various types of panels,
manufactured in various ways, and
designed to supply various marine needs.
Monocrystalline types are the most
efficient. They’re made from a single
cylindrical crystal of silicon using a
complex process and so they tend to cost
more than the others. Polycrystalline
types are less efficient and slightly
cheaper—they’re made by cutting microfine
wafers from ingots of molten silicon.
And finally, there’s photovoltaic film—it
is made by depositing thin layers of
photovoltaic film onto a substrate of
amorphous silicon or some other
substance.

Whichever type you choose, adding a
solar panel to your boat can reduce your
genset usage and wear-and-tear, as well as
reduce your CO2 and other emissions.
Prices for these panels range from a
couple hundred dollars for a flexible
panel to trickle-charge batteries or power
small appliances (like cellphones and
MP3 players) to a couple of thousand
dollars for fixed-mount panels that can
replenish a 12-volt electrical system
overnight. Add the appropriate number
of charge controllers (to obviate battery
damage), and you just might be able to
spend your nights on the hook without
having to crank your genset at all.