There is an ongoing and often controversial debate about the balance between a low spec, low cost, low maintenance boat versus one with a higher spec with the attendant costs and maintenance headaches.

It is a no win debate because a boat should meet the specific needs and the resources of the crew. Whereas one piece of equipment might seem vital to one crew it could be an irrelevance to another.

Watermakers are one of the items that cruisers have to decide about and there are strong arguments for and against. There is no question that they are expensive, relatively high maintenance and require a fair amount of space. In some parts of the world it is without doubt easier and cheaper not to have a watermaker. But if you are planning an extended cruise which includes the Pacific and South East Asia it is really worth considering fitting one. In the last couple of months cruising in Indonesia our watermakers have earned their berth several times over.

As we write this (7th October) we have not had one drop of rain hit the deck for 10 weeks--so that puts paid to the idea that you'll collect rain water. Pretty much the same was true when we crossed the Pacific in 1999. Between Panama and the Cook Islands (5 months of cruising) we were able to collect hardly any water. Had we been fortunate and had an occasional tropical shower here in Indonesia we still could not have collected the water. The practice of slash and burn farming means that the deck has a permanent light covering of ash so we would need one downpour to clean the deck and awnings and another immediately afterwards to collect. But as we've had no rain at all, it is largely academic to debate how long it would have taken to clean the deck before it was safe to collect.

So without a water maker our only option would be to take water from ashore. But in Indonesia the water from the tap is not drinkable. Most boats assumed that this was a problem of the outlying villages and looked forward to arriving in the relatively sophisticated island of Bali. However boats arriving in Benoa Marina in Bali were dismayed to find that, although the marina had water to the dock, they could not fill their tanks--it too was not potable. Nevertheless there is a charge for the water so even washing down the boat carries a cost.

We ran our watermakers non-stop for two days before we arrived in Bali so that we would have enough to see us through our stay here (the water in the harbour is too polluted to risk running the watermakers).

As you can no doubt detect we think our watermaker is indispensable. It gives us the freedom to stay away from marinas and to be self-sufficient. Although small island communities will invariably share their water with visiting yachts, often they too have limited resources. Often, their culture demands not refusing the requests of guests, so will--seemingly--offer water unflinchingly, but can they really spare it?

What Watermaker?

There are so many choices it is worth doing some research to see what will work best for you, but here are a couple of thoughts worth bearing in mind.

We use 12v watermakers so we can run them anytime, even when we are sailing, and can leave them running for hours if necessary without having to run the generator. Also we opted for a relatively small system but fitted two so when one breaks we at least can still make some water.

Larger capacity watermakers are generally AC models powered by AC generators. (A problem with AC devices like watermakers is that they have high starting loads, so a larger AC generator is required than the running load might suggest. Unless fitted with a load-shedding device, the watermakers have to be run whenever the generator is on or else not enough power is being consumed and the generator is running without enough load, reducing its life.)

An option for boats without a generator is an engine driven watermaker; when the engine is run daily for battery charging, a supply of water can be made at the same time. This has the additional advantage of loading the main engine when charging.