Posted: January 23 2010 at 20:26 | IP Logged

oshawabob -  trace your city water fill line and look for a diverter valve which diverts water from your city supply to the tank.   It should be a 1/4 turn valve. My 381 had such a valve mounted in the engine room on the bulkhead. Many 381's had this valve installed from the factory.  This was set up so that when hooked up to city water,  you could simply fill your water tank while the hose was hooked to city supply. Pretty nice feature when it's pouring rain outside.  I liked it personally. Unfortunately, you have go in the engine room to divert the water.

I have surveyed a couple of other boats that the owners have installed this type of set-up but with the valve in the galley area.  Some folks like to run off their tank to keep it fresh.  With this valve, you don't have to keep removing the water fill, get the hose out and fill the tank. 

CAUTION: Always remember to turn off the city water supply when you leave your boat!! 

Hope this helps.

Posted: May 02 2011 at 02:04 | IP Logged

Hello oshawabob

Notes from my experience which may be helpful:

When we purchased the wife's 381, it had no shore water connection, the tank being the only freshwater source. As the wife planned to stay on the boat 3 or 4 days a week, we had the local marina plumb in a shore water connection which they TEE'ed into the main water line downstream from the fresh water pump. Even with a pressure regulator (which have been known to fail; 1 out of 2 so far) on the shore water intake line, I did not want the pump or tank to see much more than gravity pressure so I installed a check valve immediately downstream of the fresh water pump for the on-board water system. This prevents any pressure from the shore water system from reaching the pump, tank, or any other parts of the system upstream from the check valve.

As the shore water connection was not installed by CC, neither was the diverter valve noted by Captain Shover; I am going to look into that as the shore water outlets freeze from time to time during the winter around here.

Hope this is of some help.