Water Ballast Design

A lot of research and planning went into the design of the new water ballast system in ROARING FORTY. The baseline of the original system was a manifold of 1.5" pipes leading through ball valves to fore (600L) and aft (400L) tanks on both port and starboard sides. A large agricultural cast iron, engine/belt driven pump with a brass manifold served up the water with pressure that would make a cotton farmer happy. I suspect belts may have been an issue because there were about 15 spares! The pump hung off the front of the old Sole Mini 26 engine and a 12v clutch (like your A/C in your car) engaged to drive the pump. The whole system did not meet my requirements so we cut it all out so my design could start with a clean canvas.

Old  1.5" water ballast system.
The eight alloy blobs in the middle are handles!

The agricultural transfer pump

I used Banjo Flange fittings from the US (fortunately I was in the US at the time). This enabled me to design a system that could transfer water between tacks via 3" diameter pipes/hoses. The beauty of the flange system as opposed to pipes and hoses in tight locations is the ability to undo two clamps, slide out the fitting to replace a seal or faulty component and then insert a new one without disturbing the system up/downstream.

 Six Valterra Knife valves diverted the water....Fill/Empty/Port Aft/Port Fwd/Stb Aft/Stb Fwd. Two Rule General Purpose 3800gph pumps satisfied the fill and empty side of the system. Remote controls in the cockpit enable me to operate the system without going below deck. I have separate switches near the actual pumps below as backup.

There is 1000 litres of seawater ballast per side separated into 600L (fwd) and 400L (aft) integral tanks.

Total fill time for all tanks is 20 min so approx 6min and 4min for each tank.