Go Ahead, Drink the Water

this was covered by flooring and we knew the area was squishy, but the amount of rot was impressive...

I’m not sure how many entries we have about our %!#&! water tanks… The saga started on our first sail after leaving the dock in July 2009. After a boisterous passage across Georgia Straight, we discovered water on the floor of the starboard hull. Initially we decided it was just a leaking hose, but as the months went on we realized that our integral tanks were rotting away.

So in May Evan ripped out the starboard tank and rebuilt it. The plan was to do the port tank as soon as the starboard one was watertight. But that happy day never came. Every time we tested the tank water would spurt, burble, or trickle out of some miniscule breach in Evan’s glass work.

So the port tank—which was rotting under our feet—remained our primary tank, despite the fact we had to filter out splinters after a particularly bumpy wind event…

After making four attempts to find and patch leaks in the starboard tank—Evan became serious about replacing the portside built-in tank with a polyethylene tank. He found a company called Ronco plastics that seems to make tanks in every conceivable shape (except, of course one that would fit in the same place that the built in tank was located…)

our new 44 gallon tank

 But we found a spot (outboard, where his tool boxes had been), ordered the tank and had it shipped to Arizona. We brought it home and got it installed, and then turned the floor tank into storage. Then he did one final fix on the starboard tank—which seemed to take.

Evan built a new plywood/epoxy floor to cover the storage area...

 So…

That project just might be done!