Pulling Out the Water Tanks

[John Stone]

One of the advantages to rebuilding your boat is you can do all kinds of things a production builder can't afford to do. Today I enjoyed some of the fruits of all our hard work during the six year gut job/rebuild. When I returned from the VI in July 2019 the boat went on to the hard, then I started the engine installation right away. So the FR sat for a while waiting for some love while I drilled holes and sanded and generally made a mess inside when boat. It's been 22 months since we went on the hard.

When I rebuilt the boat I wanted all the tanks to be easily removable. That way I could clean them out and also remove them and wash the bilge out keeping the boat smelling clean.

It takes about an hour to take the tanks out. Today, I also removed the grey water tank and all the fiberglass trays the tanks sit in. I dragged a hose into the bilge and scrubbed it clean from now to stern with a little soapy water. Then I scrubbed out the tanks on the dock. I set fans up in the boat and dried out the inside of the boat. Then, I reinstalled everything. She is good to go.

Yesterday I rented a scuba tank for $6 and used my Hookah diving rig to install the new propeller blades sent to me by Flex O Fold. Pretty easy. I used less than 200 pounds of air. If the wx is settled in the morning Gayle and I will take the boat out and test the new prop and see if we can attain the max RPMs specified by Beta Marine.

It will be nice to get the engine install fully completed so we can start sailing again.

[S/V Ethan Grey]

Nice. I pulled my water tanks too. I haven’t cleaned them yet, but I will before reinstalling. On my CD30, I’m going to only go with one tank on the port side and leave underneath the starboard side berth for storage, rather than a second tank.

Nothing is better than a good smelling boat!

[gonesail]

all tanks should be easily removed .. unless they are integral. something many boat manufacturers fail to understand.