How long will 28 gallons last?

M

mountainbyker

New Member
Nov 22, 2014
19
United States
Boat Info
Current
2016 350DA

Former
2014 310DA
2012 260
Engines
8.2 Merc w/Seacore x2
Hi everyone. I'm upgrading from a 260DA to a 310DA tomorrow with the expectation that my family and I will spend weekends on the boat on the water. The fresh water on our 260 lasted for a long time but we didn't spend more than a day on it and didn't shower. Curious to hear from the pros how long I should expect to be able to make the water last? Not sure if we should worry about rationing or if we'll have enough for showers and to make pasta :)

Thanks for your expertise!
 
First....are you sure your fresh water tank is only 28 gal? I've seen some 310s listed with 35 gal.

It's going to depend on your family's habits, so at the risk of TMI.... The head in my oldie but goodie is a vacuum flush, and our fresh water tank holds 40 gal. We go out Fri afternoon/evening and return Sun afternoon/evening, so nearly two full days. First Mate is magically immune to BO so doesn't shower as often as I do--I have long hair and start to feel gross sometimes if I don't wash it. We can get 2+ weekends on one tank of fresh water if we're conservative. If you're a family of four and your tank is truly 28 gal, I'm thinking one weekend, maybe a little more, if you're efficient.

For your first couple of trips, I'd suggest taking jug/bottled water (purchased or from the tap at home) for consumption, including cooking pasta, to ensure you're covered there. If you don't already, practice water conservation for any type of bathing. If showering, get wet, turn off water, lather, rinse; this should cut water time to a total of less than 5 min per person per shower, and hopefully your shower head/faucet are low gpm. (A 10 min shower at home with a 5 gpm faucet can use 50+ gal--scary, eh?) I alternate that with "baths"--1 - 2 gal of water in a plastic dish pan and the same wet/lather/rinse plan. Sometimes if I haven't gotten sweaty and stinky I use baby wipes to freshen/cool off and don't bother much with water.

Depending on exactly where you boat and how "rustic" you and your family care to be, you can use dry shampoo instead of lathering, use environmentally friendly camp-style soap to lather up with lake/river water and just use fresh to rinse....or a combination.

See how much water, if any, you have left after your first few excursions, then decide whether to relax your methods or start carrying an additional supply.

And unless your Italian great-great grandmother is going to roll over in her grave if you don't use the 6 qts water/1 lb pasta ratio, cut way back on how much you put in the pot: do 2 qts/1 lb and stir, stir, stir. This will conserve generator/stove fuel, too, because there will be less cooking time.

HTH!!!
 
Last edited:
We use a 3 gallon igloo water cooler half filled with ice and the rest filled with tap water from home for drinking and cooking.two to three weekends with out the shower use is what we get for just washing up and dishes etc. We also try to pre cook most meals during the week at home,not into spending an hour cooking after being out all day.The rest of our cooking is done via grill.
 
Our boat is no comparison as there are only two of us and we have a 100 gallon tank, but as previously stated, showering will deplete your water supply in a hurry when you only have a 28 gallon tank. More frequent river/lake baths may be in the cards for you with bio-degradable soap.
 
I ration my shower, in that I get wet, turn the water off, shampoo and soap, then I turn the water back on and rinse off


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
If you are on non salt water you can get a UV filter system as per cottage or if you are on salt water you can get a watermaker. Base on what I have seen of UV cottage filter system they are small but run on 120 volt. On salt water the watermakers are either 12 or 120 volt.
Or
Get a few 5 gallon collapsible water containers.
 
Each family will budget water differently. For us it was 2 kids, 2 adults would run out in in 24 hrs. That involves mostly hand washing and head....no shower, possibly a quick rinse with the stern shower. That was in the 280 dancer. Now with 100 gal, we blow through water in 2 days. I don't get the math either haha
 
IanBat said:
I ration my shower, in that I get wet, turn the water off, shampoo and soap, then I turn the water back on and rinse off
Click to expand...

Ha, I remember that from the Army when we were on maneuvers.

I read somewhere that the offshore passage makers use some kind of a sponge bath routine in an effort to conserve water. Does anyone know of a commercially available product that would enable one to practice personal hygiene with disposable products. If so, then it would be easier to estimate and control fresh water use. Presently we use ship's water for everything except, showering and the initial rinsing of dishes before they are cleaned. Our 20 gal tank will last the two of us for two days but we are very frugal with water use, (5 gal/person/day seems like a fair starting point using this method). We rinse dishes with ocean or lake water and shower at the marinas or bathe in the lake with bio soap. The Admiral doesn't care for the bio soap because of what it does to her hair, but I don't have any so I don't care.

Edit; Here's one personal hygiene idea off the internet; Third, if it’s too cold or impractical to take a trail shower, try a sponge bath. Strip off your soiled clothing and squirt some alcohol-gel sanitizer on a clean bandanna or cotton balls. Rub the gel on your skin, focusing on trouble areas like the groin, armpits, between your toes, and inner thighs. Moist towelettes also work well. Whichever method you choose, dry yourself off with a lightweight, quick-drying microfiber towel. - See more at: http://www.backpacker.com/skills/be...-smart-personal-hygiene/#sthash.PzFkqliW.dpuf
 
Last edited:
mountainbyker said:
Hi everyone. I'm upgrading from a 260DA to a 310DA tomorrow with the expectation that my family and I will spend weekends on the boat on the water. The fresh water on our 260 lasted for a long time but we didn't spend more than a day on it and didn't shower. Curious to hear from the pros how long I should expect to be able to make the water last? Not sure if we should worry about rationing or if we'll have enough for showers and to make pasta :)

Thanks for your expertise!
Click to expand...

Not sure where you boat. Finding water to refill the tank has never been a problem on the lakes or coastal areas where I boat.
 
We, 2 of us, use 100 gallons in 3 days. Showers (Wet, water off and wash, rinse) every day, wash dishes, make ice, cook pasta, make coffee. We have a water maker and spend 2 to 3 weeks away from marinas. The Vacu Flush toilet uses 5 gallons a day water.
 
Geez Chris, didn't realise we had the Army in common as well!

We had the bucket showers over the pole. Which is where my frugal shower routine came from


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
When we had our 320DA, we had 40 gallons of fresh water and a 28 gallon holding tank. Are you sure it's only a 28 gallon water tank? We would carry and extra 15 or 20 gallons and last 4 days without much issue. Now we have 100 gallons and make out fine at our Circle Cruise for 5 days (yes we shower). It's all about efficiency without giving up on comfort.
 
From my experience for my crew, I account about 10gal per day per person. This includes all showers, doing laundry, washing dishes, using head, etc. We're being reasonable (I'm not a control freak and comfort of my crew is important), but know how to conserve and mostly applying common sense. Having said that, with 120gal tank serving crew of 4, we're fine for 3 full days and on the 4th day I'm starting to look for water refill.
 
Last edited:
Our 40 gallon tank lasts us (2 people) about a weekend. It will be empty by the end of the weekend and we don't cook or drink that water, just showers, washing hands, rinsing off salt water, dishes and such. It does not last very long IMHO, If I had a bigger boat I would want a water maker. Have had several trips where we had to be strategic or plan stops around lack of water.
 
Thanks for the additional feedback. The specs for the boat say 28 gallons, hopefully it's a typo :) Based on your experiences I'm thinking we'll be lucky to get more than 2 days even if we conserve (family of 3). Not having overnighted on the boat away from the slip I didn't realize water was available at fuel stops, I'll need to find some near where we want to go I think.
 
mountainbyker said:
Thanks for the additional feedback. The specs for the boat say 28 gallons, hopefully it's a typo :) Based on your experiences I'm thinking we'll be lucky to get more than 2 days even if we conserve (family of 3). Not having overnighted on the boat away from the slip I didn't realize water was available at fuel stops, I'll need to find some near where we want to go I think.
Click to expand...

If you update your signature with a more specific location than "United States", I would expect that members of this site would come up with a lot of options for your area.

Bryan
 
We have 170 Gals on board, and can go for close to 4-5 days easily without the worry of running out. Like others have said, it's more about common sense than anything else. Most fueling docks will give you water as well as pumpout if needed. Once you get the hang on anchoring out, it can be a blast...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,194
Messages
1,428,282
Members
61,099
Latest member
Three Amigos
Back
Top