TECHNICAL 'OUR BOAT WAS FULL OF WATER'

After an afternoon away, Roger Hughes had to act quickly when he found his schooner-rigged yacht sinking at its Florida marina mooring

Britannia, my 45ft twin-masted schooner, almost sank, not from storm damage or from hitting rocks, but from within. A water pipe broke in her pressurised shore water supply system while she was safely moored up in a marina in Cape Canaveral, Florida. I had forgotten to switch the shore tap off when I left her for the afternoon. It was the start of a harrowing few days.

Pressurised water supply systems are commonplace in many marinas around the world, especially US territories. The system involves a hosepipe that connects the pontoon water tap to a pressure-reducing inlet valve on the boat that reduces the power of the onshore mains water supply by around half while entirely pressurising the boat’s water system. The benefit is having constant pressure in your boat’s water system, which means there’s no need to use a noisy onboard electric pump, no draw on your battery, and an even flow of water rather than a pulsating stream, that’s particularly welcome when having an onboard shower.

Britannia’s half-inch diameter plastic water pipes were the same age as the boat, more than 40 years old, with a maze of connectors, in a tangled mess at the bottom of the bilge. I was frequently repairing or replacing sections, which leaked or cracked, whenever the automatic bilge pump alerted me to it by switching itself on. So, I was fully aware that the whole water system needed upgrading, but then so did a lot of other things aboard Britannia. It was always part of my routine to turn the water off at the dock tap whenever I left the boat, even for a short time. Whenever I left her for a few days or longer I would disconnect the hose at the dock entirely. This, however, was the one time I forgot.