My Tanks can't hold water to yours

After removing the galley and dinette furniture, I was finally able to verify what I actually had for tankage on Harmony.  I knew from the design specs of the Westsail 42 that the boat could have 200 gallons of water tankage and 200 gallons of fuel tankage.  However, the survey I had indicated something a bit different.

Since the deck in the galley/dinette area was suffering from both dry rot and weakening from multiple access holes, I needed to remove it entirely.  Fortunately, the decking was originally installed in pieces that could be taken apart.  However, this meant dealing with more stripped screw heads and splintering plywood.

Port Side Aft of Dinette Area Decking

I attacked the aft area of the decking first and that exposed an interesting find.  The much maligned black steel fuel tank was a no show!  Apparently, the prior owner had it the original tank or tanks removed.  Now, if you remember, my survey made mention of a black steel tank.  Hmmm, I was beginning to have grave doubts about both the validity of the survey and the integrity of the surveyor.

Anyway, I was able to chat with Peter, the skilled mechanic from Bardens' Boat Yard who had done a lot of the work on Harmony over the years.  Beth and I had also benefited from Peter's skill on Poetry.  Peter said that Harmony originally had 3 steel or cast iron tanks with a total capacity of 200 gallons.  Sadly these tanks leaked like sieves and the prior owner replace them with a 105 gallon polyethylene tank.

Polyethylene Fuel Tank on Left, Port Water Tank Bay on Right

While I would like to have the 200 gallon fuel capacity, I was happy to be able to avoid the task of cutting out some monstrous steel tank with messy diesel residue.  Given our intended cruising plans and prospective new engine, the 105 gallons should gives us a motoring range between 500 and 600 miles.  This should get us between critical ports.  Besides, Harmony is a sailing vessel and the sails are there for more than decoration, right!?

Now that the diesel tank mystery was solved, I could focus on the water tanks.  These were housed in the forward section of the galley/dinette area.  After ripping up the decking, I found 3 stainless steel tanks secured in 3 bays.  The port and starboard tanks were about 50 gallons and the center tank had 100 gallon capacity.

Forward area of Galley/Dinette - 3 Water Tank Bays - 200 Gallons

However, on closer inspection I discovered that the each of the water tanks had evolved into air tanks!  Each tank had become perforated at the weld points for the baffles.  That was not a good thing!  How did this happen?  Well, I soon found that one of the tanks had not been winterized, meaning that it was full of water!

What happens when water freezes?  Well, it becomes ice and it expands.  Stick a full bottle of water into your freezer and see what happens.  Anyway, the continual freeze/thaw cycles wrecked havoc on the interior baffles and the weld points on the tanks. Damn!  I now needed to remove and replace all three water tanks, and this was not in the original restoration plan.


Center Water Tank - 100 Gallons - ready to lift out of boat

After the efforts to expose the tanks, I ended with a mixed result.  On one hand, I save a heck of lot of work and money by having the fuel tank situation resolved.  But, the removal and replacement of the water tanks added time and cost to our project. Yeah, but its only boat dollars, right?  The silver lining is that we'll have beautiful, strong, and clean NEW water tanks for our voyages with Harmony.  Drink it up!!!

Fair winds and Following Seas!