Dock water inlet

I replaced the water inlet device mounted onto the boat’s hull several times. My general comment is that I found them unreliable so I made my own. I HIGHLY recommend two considerations to anyone who plans to make modifications to accommodate dock water.

First as others have mentioned a pressure reducer is a must unless your boat is plumbed for dock water pressures which can be very high. Next a reverse flow prevention valve should be used for two reasons. The first reason is that the plumbing code around here at least do not want your water pumped back into their system.

The second reason is you are away from the dock using tank water, the pump will pump the water out through your newly installed dock water hose connection. I guess you could install a check valve to prevent that if you want to deal with it.

Like some other KK owners on here, we just connect the hose and turn off the water pump. We don’t use dock water very often.

Loving dock / city water hook up

We are live-aboards and we go on little weekend trips often. As the facilities at our marina are fairly disgusting we shower etc only on the boat. Here is a link to the thread I started and towards the end I wrote out the final results.

http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s3/auto-fill-fresh-water-tanks-39943.html

Basically I have the shore / dock / city water connected before the fresh water pump with ball valves in both directions. I can fill of flush the tanks from inside the boat. The fresh water pump rarely comes on unless two things (sink, washer, shower) are on at once.

The timer shown earlier in this thread is not rated for drinking / potable water. I imagine it is the same as garden hoses that say 'non-potable'. The water meter I used is for water filters. It restricts volume but not pressure. The shur-flo water inlet has a regulator.

The risk is real but similar to the risks of every thru-hull below the water line. Take the proper precautions. The only bummer is if the meter turns off while you are in the shower....

On the plus side our water tanks are ALWAYS full when we are at the dock. If we don't use much water on a trip I let them flush out for half an hour or so. The water just comes out the vents. The water going in is the same line that it goes out. It is at the bottom of the tank and I like to imagine it swirls around in there so sediment doesn't sit on the bottom slowly making pin hole leaks.

Connecting and disconnecting takes about as much effort as the shore power. I turn off the outside valve, run the water inside for a few seconds so I don't get sprayed when I disconnect the hose. Then I switch the valves to feed from the tanks and that's it.

I am not a fan of connecting directly to city water. I route my water directly to my water tank. I use a sprinkler valve that defaults to off. I use a ball valve right before the sprinkler valve to restrict water flow in case of a failure I haven’t anticipated. The sprinkler valve is connect to a “Gobius” which is an externally mounted sonic tank measuring device. When the tank is half full, Gobius turns on the valve, when the tank is 3/4 full it turns off the valve. I set the flow rate so that if all fails the tank vent can dispose of any over fill. I use a quick connect on the garden hose so it only takes seconds for me to be off the dock. I simply don’t worry about water, it’s always there. I routed my wires to the old phone jack giving it a new purpose in life.