Piers and Lin du Pré bought their new Fleming 55 / 129, Play d'eau, in 2003.
Our new Dockside Filter
click to enlarge
Lightbulb moment
Whilst waiting for the tide in St Peter Port late last year, a Nordhavn 60 moored in front of us. ‘We need to fill with water,’ the Skipper announced as I admired his boat.
One of his crew appeared carrying a filter arrangement. Being nosy I was told, ‘We use this to pre-filter the water we take on board, making sure it’s clean before it reaches the tanks.’ Now why hadn’t I thought of doing that? Hindsight is great, isn’t it?
The solution
Finding the Dockside Pre-Filter on the ASAP Supplies website, I had one in my hands within a few days. Its 3 micron filter would certainly do the job, and the best part was that back-flushing cleans the filter so its life should be really long.
There’s always a ‘but’
Herm Seaway comes to the rescue to make new fittings
click to enlarge
Is the Onboard filter still needed?
Good question, to which the answer is ‘yes’. Why? As well as filtering to 2 micron, its carbon content removes chlorine and any nasty tastes and smells which might lurk in local water supplies.
All water on Play d’eau now comes through the Dockside Filter as well as the onboard carbon filter.
Result
The great news is that we haven’t had to change the on board filter in over 3 months, and there’s no sign of it becoming dirty. And as far as the Dockside Filter is concerned, we give it a quick backwash each time we fill.
Job done.
Piers and Lin
From the water purification department of
Play d’eau
Fleming 55
You must have very dirty water in Donkey land. Our Carbon filters last for a year in Crappo land.
The pre filter certainly sounds a great idea though.
Lots of Love
The Woolly Walters
Sounds a good investment!
Lots of love
Glyn xxx
It improves the taste of your Scotch, too.
Great job solving this Piers.
We never take shore water onboard our boat as we generate all our potable water via our watermaker so we don’t have a problem with dirty fresh water. However fouling filters for the sea water intake to the watermakers, wash down pumps, etc. IS very much a similar issue as you had and what I’ve ended up with using is a large “media filter” that is commonly used for swimming pools. They have similar attributes as you’ve come to like for backflushing to clearn these filters and I’ve had most success using diatomaceous earth for the filter media but others use different kinds of sand. So there are no filter elements to stock and replace and you just backflush after each use or as often as you like to get the gunk in the sand sent back out. Replacing the diatomaceous earth or sand is measured in years even with full time liveaboard usage rates so works out very well. We will be putting the same kind of system in our new boat as well for the sea water intakes to the watermaker and other pumps.
Having clean potable water is such a high priority for all of us living aboard our boats and very happy for you that you now have such an improved way of doing so on Play d’eau
Wayne & Christine
Hi Wayne. Thanks for the info. Really interesting. We, too, have a water maker on board but using it when in the marina is a no-no. You tend to know other boaters flush into the water (flush is the important word!).