I may be jumping the gun a bit, but it seems to be a fact that these Taiwanese steel tanks do fail and at 30 years of age, about time. However, as I don't travel far, if I ran at 1/3 tank, probably ok for a while.
I could possibly try sand some of the lightly rusted spots and see what I find underneath. Where the tank is there is no water hitting the tank sides and the top is dry and dusty.
Had another thought and I will climb back down there soon. The cockpit has a large rectangular bait tank and storage box that appears to sit over a raised lip. It may also be possible to remove this box to gain access to pull the tank. I have to pull the stairs to the flybridge to do this though and then find new SS rivets to reinstall later.
There would be no other way to place a new tank into the old one, unless the bait tank removal shows an opening, or, chain a few tanks together that will fit through the current opening.
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