HP Watermakers
HP Watermakers
HP Watermakers launched the new HP SCA DOUBLE series of desalinators at the Cannes Yachting Festival 2024
HP Watermakers showed some very interesting new items to the visitors of the Cannes Yachting Festival, which was held on the Côte d ‘Azur from 10 to 15 September.
“A great technical innovation, the new HP SCA DOUBLE series, which greatly reduces the size of the desalination units in the engine room and two important new entries in the ‘Together We Boat’ strategic alliance. These two prestigious partners, Mapei Marine and Feit Pompe, will complete the range of our offer.” There is no doubt that Gianni Zucco, co-founder of HP Watermakers, is very pleased as he returns from the French festival.
HP SCA DOUBLE, an innovative series that is even more compact without sacrificing efficiency
HP Watermakers thanks to their complete automation guaranteed by the RP Tronic system, offer a considerable advantage over manual watermakers, eliminating the need for continuous pressure adjustments in the engine room to adapt to fluctuations in salinity and water temperature. But, above all, they perform an effective rinse at the end of the cycle with the valve fully open, thus making it unnecessary to chemically wash the membranes to remove accumulated salt.
“For ‘automatic’ to really mean automatic, a number of careful arrangements are necessary, including in the installation phase: with the new HP SCA DOUBLE series we believe we have provided the answer that shipyards and shipowners were expecting,” explains Gianni Zucco. “Specifically, the innovation consists in the decision to remove the low-pressure pumps, the ones that bring seawater to the desalination unit, from the frame, reducing the footprint of the current SC Double series by 33%. We have moved them close to the seawater inlets, making the desalination plant’s seawater supply much more fluid.”
The reason behind this is very simple: to ensure a more continuous inflow, avoiding the (unfortunately frequent) problems of filling the long connection pipes. Air bubbles often form as a result of pipe length and route (which is not always straightforward inside the boat), blocking the desalination plant and forcing the crew or the owner to manually restart the watermaker. It is a very common problem, especially on fast boats, but it also offers designers greater freedom when choosing where to install the seacocks, but specially the main pumping unit.”
The 5 new models of the HP SCA DOUBLE SERIES
Moving the low-pressure pumps also allowed to reduce the width of the HP SCA DOUBLE series box from 1,100 mm to 800 mm, while there are no changes in height and depth (590 and 480 mm). This also made things simpler for designers and shipyards that must always optimise the spaces inside the engine room. The HP SCA DOUBLE series consists of two independent watermakers, set up in the same frame, and has been designed to optimise on-board energy usage and, at the same time, satisfy peak drinking water demand. A yacht that has only the crew or the owner on board during transfers has a limited need for drinking water, but once the guests are on board, the amount of required drinking water is much, much higher. In the first case, a single desalination plant is sufficient, and the energy consumption is lower, but in the second case both units will be in operation to guarantee the needs of the crew but, above all, of the guests. Furthermore,should a fault unfortunately occur, the second desalination plant will always be working.
The HP SCA DOUBLE series consists of five models with a freshwater output between 240 l/h and 1,200 l/h. The HP SCA DOUBLE 440 was on display at the Cannes Yachting Festival (the others are the 320, 540, 660 and 880 models). The 440 unit is the only one in the range in which the membranes are installed inside the box. In the other models, they are separate, which means shipyards can install them where they deem most appropriate. This particular feature made it possible to showcase the product on stand 076 of “Together We Boat”, inside the Palais.
In the external stand, PAN 351, the working WATER PACKAGE of HP Watermakers was on display. The package includes two systems. The HP KILO desalination unit is connected to the navigation plotters through the Part-NET interface system. As it can produce 100 l/h with only one kW, it is the ideal solution for the medium-sized boats that, until now, could not consider installing a desalination unit. The second device is the HP Genius system, the complete solution to provide fresh water aboard and also at home: the water dispenser is connected directly to the drinking water system and produces food-grade still and/or sparkling drinking water.
The “Together We Boat” strategic alliance grows with Mapei Marine and Feit Pompe
The partnership between HP Watermakers, Mase, GenSet and Besenzoni is welcoming two new partners, Mapei Marine and Feit Pompe. Their experience expands the range of products offered by this strategic alliance, which is about to become one of the most interesting players on the nautical scene. In the past few months, new commercial agreements have been launched in Europe and the foundations have been laid for a future collaboration on the American and Asian market, given the long-standing experience that the various partners have in that area.
Mapei Marine is the line dedicated to the naval industry that stems from the wealth of experience acquired by the Mapei Group, with solutions and products developed through a research process in which sustainability and attention to people and the environment are the driving forces. Its production dedicated to the nautical world includes a wide range of outdoor and indoor flooring made with various materials.
“We have known and have been collaborating with the other partners of ‘Together We Boat’ since, well, forever,” explains Pietro Calabrò, President of Feit Pompe Srl. “Since it was established, back in 1947, Feit Pompe has been active in the boating industry and, when my brother and I joined the company in 1997, we started strengthening this sector, expanding the offer with other products, in addition to classic pumps. It was therefore almost natural to join this group because we all have complementary products and each of us ‘does their own thing’ very well. So it is an important commercial support, but also assistance for the various branches expanding worldwide.”
Feit Pompe has long specialised in the production of hydraulic pumps in the yachting and naval sectors. Subsequently, the offer was extended to centrifugal and axial fans and to smoke and fire dampers, followed by the production of air-water separators, tanks for freshwater, grey and black waters, and battery boxes.“In 2019, when Mapei Marine was established, our target was large cruise ships and, until last year, we always avoided becoming suppliers to pleasure boating shipyards, even if there was considerable demand. We just did not have the structure,” explains Andrea Gerardini, CEO and Commercial Director of Mapei Marine and Product Manager of Mapei Spa. “Then, first at the METS trade show and then in January at the Boot, I had the opportunity to meet the other members of ‘Together We Boat’. I appreciated their enthusiasm and spirit of collaboration and therefore we decided to change our organisation so we could enter the world of pleasure yachting. Today, Mapei Marine buys and operates Mapei products in shipyards, while its parent company markets its sealant and adhesive lines for the nautical world.”
