I'm about to get rid of my old water hose. It's a 25m long heavy yellow snake which never wants to get out of the storage space.
At the DIY market I found the flexible hose from Gardena (not the ones that extend in length). They are lightweight and - well - flexible.
The question now is: 1/2" or 3/4"? What are you guys using?
I'm tempted to go 1/2" because of storage requirements.
Long heav yellow snake hose from Italy, 16mm ID, UV resistant and with a black inner liner so algae doesn't grow (because it blocks light).
Lay-flat hose and shrink-short hose have been unsuccessful experiments that either died quickly, were very annoying in practice, or both.
We do have a bit of spiral hose on the bow, which is doing okay but not exactly easy to stow (we just toss it on top of the sail locker). It's useful on occasiona, like when pulling it up and down the forestay to clean the luff groove for the sail, which tends to get full of sand in winter.
Might be worth considering the Gardena Liano hoses, which are textile-covered, very light and flexible.
Yep, the Liano is exactly what I'm going to test. Currently, I have a 3/4" regular hose and the Liano is available as 1/2" and 3/4".
I just ordered a 3/4" version to check how heavy it is and how much space it uses up. May go back to 1/2" if it's too much.
Agree with Yngmar, all the orange stuff isn't worth the price due its short service life. dropped all that junk and kept the yellow water hose back, which we seldom use since we operate our watermaker......