If I were to scrap the fuel tanks and replumb the water tanks to carry diesel and carry milk crates with gallon jugs of water where the fuel tanks were, I might could move the crates out when I wanted to move myself outboard of the engines to do stuff.
It would be fairly easy to remove the water tanks to rework them and coat the interior of the tanks if needed.
Thanks for any and all input,
Mike
Mike, you do have choices here. However, I didn't, the PO had decided to avoid the cost of trying to remove the old tanks which had some rust holes on the top, (they were larger than really needed here anyway, being 1000Litres each), and he had grabbed the stainless steel water tanks in the lazaret and converted them to fuel before I bought her. I knew what I was doing, and that arrangement has worked well for the last 15 odd years. They give a combined fuel load of 800Litres, (400 a side), which is plenty for most usage, and although he was making do with bladder tanks, I put food grade plastic tanks put in between them forward in the lazaret against the bulkhead, giving me 500L of water, which is also plenty.
The empty sealed off old fuel tanks in the ER are now 'buoyancy tanks' as far as I am concerned, I don't need them removed, being a single there is still plenty of room. Strangely, the more aft and lower weight seems to have even improved the trim and weight distribution serendipitously, as I can literally surf her down large waves, (I've seen 11.4kn on the GPS), with no heaviness in the helm, or tendency to broach.
Just another possibility. I agree the idea of multiple jerry cans for water is not really on.