Fuel Tank (May 1998)

We had a scary night in May when we discovered that the original, steel fuel tank was dripping gasoline into the bilge. Fortunately, we were safe in our boat well. We went and bought some gasoline jugs and pumped the fuel into them from the inlet fitting of the fuel tank. Later, we emptied the jugs into the fuel tank of our vehicle. The fuel tank is located below the cockpit sole in one of the least accessible areas of the boat. We managed to disconnect the fuel and vent lines and the straps that secured to tank. We removed the tank to a safe place and finished draining fuel into the jugs. Most of this effort was completed in the dark of night under the light from a flashlight. We were concerned, properly, that any lights that we turned on might cause a big explosion. We soaked up the remaining fuel in the bilge. We left boat to “air out” for a while, thankful that it had not blown up. The next day, we found that the root cause of the leak was a rusted through weld seam on the end of the fuel tank.

We searched and located, at Boat US, an 18 gallon, rotationally molded, polyethylene fuel tank that fit the available space below the cockpit. This tank has fittings and a fuel gage sender that matched those on the old tank. This made installation a lot simpler. We adapted the mounting area to accept this tank used a set accessory hold-down brackets to retain the tank. Acquisition, Installation and testing of the new tank was completed within 10 days. This picture shows the connections to the new tank.