Sail Life - Permanent water hook up, fancy car and new fenders

Embrace the American Way: Hooking Up Your Boat to City Water

In this week’s episode of Sail Life, we dive into a classic piece of American boat ownership – hooking up your vessel to city water. This is a method that I have never seen practiced outside of the United States, but if you’re living aboard full-time and have a small water tank like we do (around 37 gallons or 140L), it could be an appealing idea. After all, not having to refill your water tank twice a week would be pretty awesome!

The Compromise

Of course, on a boat everything is always a compromise. The trade-off here is that connecting to city water comes with a slight risk of sinking your vessel.

Athene’s Latest Projects

The Sail Life team is currently living in Florida and getting used to the new boat projects they’re undertaking. Their next project is still up in the air, but they remain hopeful as they settle into their new surroundings at the Port Canaveral Yacht Club. As part of settling in, they’ve undertaken a variety of smaller jobs such as connecting to city water.

The City Water Hookup

To hook up their boat to city water, Sail Life installed a pressure regulator and one-way valve on the dockside. These components were added outside of Athena’s cockpit combing area. The pressure regulator brings down the high water pressure at the dock to around 40-50 PSI, preventing potential damage. A one-way valve ensures that if the boat is left tied up and the water is turned on, it won’t pump out any onboard stored water.

Avoiding Disaster

The team discusses three methods to avoid a potential catastrophe – like flooding the boat. They could add a motorized ball valve controlled by a float switch, ensure their bilge pump can handle city water flow if something bursts inside, or simply turn off the dockside water when leaving the boat for extended periods.

New Car and Fancy Fenders

In addition to the city water hookup project, Sail Life has procured a spiffy new vehicle. A Honda CR-V from 2001 is now part of their fleet. Although it requires some maintenance (a missing door handle) and has over 165,000 miles on its odometer, they are optimistic about this car’s potential.

Infatable Fenders

Sail Life is also now in a marina environment after spending 6 months at anchor. This has allowed them to start using their new inflatable fenders, complete with custom designed covers by FenderTex.