NorthLights
Member
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2020
- Messages
- 7
- Location
- USA
- Vessel Name
- Dewy Decimal
- Vessel Make
- Kong Halvorsen/44 Island Gypsy
As part of our currently on-going deck replacement on our 1983 Island Gypsy, we had our deck fills pulled off. In one case the fill happened to come with a significant part of the aft port fuel tank. 
When we bought the boat in 2020 we knew this tank had been damaged by an exhaust leak and had been hoping it would hold out a few more years. The damage was in an area that was not easily reachable, so the extent of the damage was hard to measure.
Initial review after removing the top... points to us needing to decommission/replace the tank as the damage is on a corner and in a spot that doesn't lend itself to repair.
We have reached out to a number of tank repair shops to get their thoughts on if anything can be salvaged but believe that we are likely going to have to decommission the tank.
Replacing the tank does not seem to be a real option without fully pulling the engine and another tank. We assume at some point we'll repower and are hoping to save the pulls for then. Saving grace for now is that we have a 4 tank setup and the other tanks don't have the same damage.
My question comes around options for keeping the undamaged aft tank in-service. Our 4 tanks are balanced port/starboard forward/aft. With one tank out of commission we could be unbalanced by 170gal / 1190lbs. How can we best manage the potentially unbalanced load?
Current thoughts are to add some weight (water bladders, tank fill, or something we can remove in the future) to simulate about a half tank load to minimize any unbalance to ~500lbs max which given our size shouldn't produce a huge list.
When we bought the boat in 2020 we knew this tank had been damaged by an exhaust leak and had been hoping it would hold out a few more years. The damage was in an area that was not easily reachable, so the extent of the damage was hard to measure.
Initial review after removing the top... points to us needing to decommission/replace the tank as the damage is on a corner and in a spot that doesn't lend itself to repair.
We have reached out to a number of tank repair shops to get their thoughts on if anything can be salvaged but believe that we are likely going to have to decommission the tank.
Replacing the tank does not seem to be a real option without fully pulling the engine and another tank. We assume at some point we'll repower and are hoping to save the pulls for then. Saving grace for now is that we have a 4 tank setup and the other tanks don't have the same damage.
My question comes around options for keeping the undamaged aft tank in-service. Our 4 tanks are balanced port/starboard forward/aft. With one tank out of commission we could be unbalanced by 170gal / 1190lbs. How can we best manage the potentially unbalanced load?
Current thoughts are to add some weight (water bladders, tank fill, or something we can remove in the future) to simulate about a half tank load to minimize any unbalance to ~500lbs max which given our size shouldn't produce a huge list.
