Going Green With Sailboat Rainwater Harvesting

Sailboat Rainwater Harvesting? Going Green!

Sailboat rainwater harvesting is nothing new, it is practiced in a lot of other countries. This sailboat will be traveling in other countries.

Drinking water in other countries is hard to come by, plus it is very expensive.

We designed this boat to be able to collect rainwater from storms. First we will let the rain wash the deck and drain over the side.

Behind the pilothouse, one on each side of the back deck are 2 drains.

Pressure tests plugs are used to plug the holes until needed. You can find pressure test plugs at your local hardware store, plumbing department. The first part of a rain fall would wash the deck off, lose debris, sand, dirt.

When the plugs are taken out, rain flows into service tank, filtered, pumped back into normal water tanks.

This is the rainwater pipe coming down off the deck, the pressure plug sits above. Water conservation is so important, Florida is in the middle of a battle Newspaper headline: "Battle brewing over who can use the St. Johns river".

Easy way to figure out the gallons of rain...

Figure out the square foot of collection surface area or the square foot surface area (deck) of your boat.

Take that number, the surface area and divide by 12. That will give you the cubic feet of rain (water) for 1 inch of rainfall.

Take your cubic feet and times that number by 7.5

This number will give you the amount of gallons of rainwater you have collected.

It can be used for not only drinking, but flushing the toilets, dish washing, showers.

*** Magic Dragon's sailboat rainwater harvesting *** The picture to your left is the almost finished bedroom wall, pvc plumbing, pvc fittings in place leading into a plastic storage tank, to collect rainwater only.

Growing water shortages, droughts...the list could go on and on. People need good drinking water, it's simple to do.

One of the simplest things I can tell you is every time we have a good rain. My plants respond right away. They look healthier...greens are greener.

With sailing we have been catching the wind for free. Why not the rain?

It rains every where in the world. You can even use your sails to collect water. Just let the rain wash off any salt, dirt.

Some of the islands have been doing this for years.

The other thing you can do is put bleach into your tanks, if you are worried about the rainwater.

Would you believe that Singapore has been collecting rainwater... also Germany, China, India, Brazil. Brazil in the northeast has the largest rooftop rainwater harvesting project going on.

You can expect to catch about 100 gallons, per inch of rainfall, per 100 square foot of catchment area.

We have determined sailboat rainwater harvesting is worth our while to practice. Conservation, doing our part!

It helps us save money, plus the environment. Not too bad!

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