I didn't like the collapsible bladders that came with my boat, one for the galley hand pump faucet and one for the head hand pump faucet. Plus, having to pump is a pain anyway.
I switched to two hard 5 gallon coleman water jugs that fit under the vee berth. I ran a dip tub through one of their spouts that reaches to the bottom of the tanks and I just switch it between tanks. With our family of 5 we get 2 -3 days on a tank. The hard tanks are much easier to carry than the soft ones. You also have more filling choices with portable tanks. You can take the tank to the faucet instead of having to bring the whole boat.
I then installed a demand pump and faucet at the galley. I abandoned the tubes leading to the head faucet as we never used it and the head sink is just used for storage.
I think the demand faucet is much better suited for our boats than the usual full marine pressure system with it's pumps and accumulator tanks. This way your water lines are not under any pressure and you never have any leaks. I installed a kit from Shurflo that included both the faucet with built in micro switch and the demand pump. When you turn the faucet handle it doesn't open a valve, instead it just turns on the pump.
We use drums, easy to walk to a tap when we stop at a beach, easy to put in our Range Rover when we go bush, easy enough to drop a hose into to use an electric pump for those that wish to go down that path.
I have the 13 gal. Plastimo bladder under the gally of my Mac.X , I also put 1/8 thick rubber mat under and up the sides so the tank doesn't chafe on the fiberglass.
This allows the bladder to conform to the hull and stringer and holds it in snug without any movement.
I use a whale facet hand pump at gally and works great with a shower head for conserving water.
Just came back from a 4 day cruise to Cayo Costa, FL and had 1/2 gal. left. We used it to fill our 1 gal. hard plastic shower and do all gally stuff (we filled the 1 gal. at least 6 times for showers and we got two showers per fill).
We use frozen 16 once and 32oz water bottles in our cooler for drinking water, we also freeze 1/2 gal. store bought lemonade and lime juce.
5 day 72quart and 52 quart coolers last more than the 4 days in 92 degree air and 88 degree Gulf water temps.
I also put in a couple cases of beer in freezer to bring down temps to 32 degrees before putting in coolers,also frozzen meats.
Dave
On tank size dont forget that if it is TOO big, you have to empty it out to flush it, which will be a pain to do manually, unless you set it up with a pump or something. My 9 gallon water tank is forward in the space under the Vberth (no foam removed) and was sized as the largest that would fit through the hole without cutting
I carry the blue water hard PE jugs for refilling so I dont worry about bursting on the dinghy.
]I think the demand faucet is much better suited for our boats than the usual full marine pressure system with it's pumps and accumulator tanks. This way your water lines are not under any pressure and you never have any leaks.
Well I think that the fully pressurized system is much better. We have a built in carbon filter that requires the higher pressure to work and a transom shower. There are no leaks and the pump never cycles while the water is not running. The system is also quieter than the smaller electrically switched pump. The other reason I avoided the simple pump above is that if it runs dry for a very short time (<30 sec) it will destroy the seals which are not replaceable (per Shurflow).
