Aaaargh!

Took our boat to the yard three weeks ago for what was supposed to be two weeks of fiberglass repairs, main engine, genny and systems servicing, valves installed on fuel tank sight tubes, electrical and safety upgrades, cosmetics, etc. etc. in preparation for a long trip next year.

Okay, it turned into three weeks. It was a long list, and Labor Day intervened, so a delay was not unexpected.

Finally, splashed today, Friday.

The last yard guy got off the boat at 4p.m. and the boat was pronounced "done" and we planned to clean her up tomorrow and take her "home" Sunday and enjoy what little remains of the season here before hauling for the winter.

I then went down to the lazarette to get the vacuum cleaner out and noticed that the sight tube on the 120 gallon fresh water tank (the tank had been half full when we went into the yard) still showed one half full of clear water. But the whole top half of the sight tube was now filled with a REDDISH colored liquid.

Caught the service manager just before he left for the weekend. He came down to the boat, loosened the sight tube at the top, poured it into a container, smelled it, and ........ well, you all can guess what it was.

Nothing can now be done til Monday.

What should be done to ensure that we can safely drink the water soon?

I have heard a lot of horror stories of the idiot workers, supervisors and managers that Boatyards employ; and charge us $120 /hr. for, but this one takes the Blue Ribbon award.

I sincerely hope you can get some kind of restitution from these guys for all they have put you through.

They know what they have to do. You will need to make them do it. drain the tank, rinse, rinse rinse, repeat. Detergent, rinse rinse rinse, repeat. Denatured alcohol, R R R R. Time consuming and expensive. Until the water is up to your taste standards it is not good enough, yet.

I'm supposed to have my boat hauled next week. I'm having second thoughts now.

I try to do my own work but sometimes you have to haul out and get the yard involved. So far I've been lucky with three boats and have not had problems with yard workers. We'll have to haul out around years end and get cutlass bearings. I've never done it so I'll have the yard do it. I'll be a parrot on that guys shoulder so I know how next time (even if I don't do the job.) Good luck getting your tanks back to normal.

kulas44 said:

They know what they have to do. You will need to make them do it. drain the tank, rinse, rinse rinse, repeat. Detergent, rinse rinse rinse, repeat. Denatured alcohol, R R R R. Time consuming and expensive. Until the water is up to your taste standards it is not good enough, yet.

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Figured out that it would take the R R R R squared, plus detergent. Denatured alcohol?

Let me take that back. We had the sailboat hauled and new standing rigging installed. When the yard put the stick back on the boat they shorted out the coax for the antenna. We sailed to Long Beach using an emergency antenna on the radar arch. Then we pulled the mast and rewired it with continuous RG-8U. Never had another problem and never went back to that first yard.

After the tank is "cleaned" I would fill it with water and then get the water tested by a lab for contamination.

Good Luck,
Dan

Greetings,
Mr. dw. NOT good! Sounds like you're going to be getting a total potable water plumbing rebuild from the yard. I wouldn't trust a fuel contaminated water system at all. I don't care how many times it's washed and rinsed ANY plastic in the system will have absorbed who knows what which will leach into your "fresh" water system for years. Shame to be without a boat but more of a shame to be without the ability to use it. Ditto on the lab testing.

The mechanic in the marina I keep Northern Lights is very capable of doing quality work. His shortcoming is not bringing everything he needs for a job when he goes to the dock and then making 1 or more trips back to the shop. I do all my normal maintenance, engine work, most electrical A/C & D/C and mounting and wiring in new electronics. He is very skilled at fiberglas and gelcoat so he gets all of that. I'am also going to have him replace my water tank this winter along with new bottom paint and anodes. Good trustworthy mechanics are difficult to find and if a owner doesn't have some mechanical knowledge he can't be sure that he has one or not. I trust him to do good work and that is worth a lot of peace of mind.

I doubt that tank can be cleaned properly unless it is opened up and steam cleaned or mechanically cleaned. What a F-up. How in the world did that happen???

Man, what a bummer. Whatever you do, make sure the water tastes the way you want it to before you leave that yard, and I don't mean the water they poured in a half hour before. Let the water stay in at least overnight and then try it before giving the OK.

Ski in NC said:

How in the world did that happen???

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Still to be determined. All yard guys disappeared for the weekend.

They have done good work on our boats in the past and I have been friendly with many of them for years, including the owner, and a goodly number are former clients of mine, so I am not going to start the blame game.

I just want all to be put right, asap.

DW,
First of all my condolences on your boat issue...

Document everything.. I am totally against suing people for mistakes but you may be in for a long fight to get it correct.

As said before.. the entire system will need to be cleaned, sanitized and then checked for contaminants.. not going to be a afternoon's work.

Do not remove the boat from the yard until you are satisfied.. no matter how bad you want to use it.. of how much the yard guarantees a fix will happen.

Good Luck and keep us posted
HOLLYWOOD

Have you used any water from that tank??? If not then replace the tank and all is good, if yes then you need to insist on replacement of tank and all lines (water heater) that have been contaminated. No other way, you will never get the diesel out of the system by cleaning, never, no way, I don't give a sh** what they say.

Ask them what they would do if you pissed in their coffee pot, rinse or replace?

SCOTTEDAVIS said:

Ask them what they would do if you pissed in their coffee pot, rinse or replace?

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:lol::lol::lol:

Remove, filter, and place the red stuff in an appropriate tank.

Ski in NC said:

I doubt that tank can be cleaned properly unless it is opened up and steam cleaned or mechanically cleaned. What a F-up. How in the world did that happen???

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I certainly hope it can be fixed, but I would document what happened, take pictures, etc. Steam cleaning may be necessary to remove all residual taste. Long after the water is theoretically safe to drink it may still have a slight tang of diesel, which the admiral isn't going to like.

Really sorry this happened, but you need to hold the yard fully responsible to set it completely right.

How much access does the tank have ? Can they pull plates and clean it ? The diesel will be on top and if the system hasnt been used it will be contained to just that tank. Now may be a good time to have clean out ports installed (no tank on a boat should be without).

That has always been one of my potential nightmares, confusing the deck mounted water and fuel fillers. I think the IG32 has the same system as the 36'. Seems like that is what has probably happened.

At first glance I thought RT was on the money, replace the whole fresh water system, however if the the fresh water system in the boat has not been used since the fuel was dumped into the water tank you may find the contamination is restricted to the tank alone, as it may not have been pulled through from the tanks.I note that the sight tubes showed clear water half way up the tank.

For what it's worth I would make sure they emptied the tank by sucking up the fuel/water rather than draining it, because the fuel, as it stands, may only have contaminated the top half of the tank, by draining the tank you are introducing the contamination right through the tank. At least ways that is how I understand it.

Still a bugger, but may not be a complete and utter disaster,well I hope so for your sake and that of Emily Anne, for she is a great looking IG.

What material was the tank fabricated from?

I'm not clear how the fuel got in the sight tube. Unless they drained the fresh water, added half a tank of fuel, and then another half tank of water I don't see how the fuel got in the tube.

refugio said:

I'm not clear how the fuel got in the sight tube. Unless they drained the fresh water, added half a tank of fuel, and then another half tank of water I don't see how the fuel got in the tube.

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Maybe after installing the valves on the fuel sight tubes they refueled using the water fill instead of the fuel fill. The fuel would float on the water and end up in the top of the water sight tubes.

Dave

If you can determine how this happened please post.

My opinion; a good yard manager would find out how this happened and take responsibility. Determining how this happened could uncover some other mistakes.

Partly for the problem you are going through I try and do most of the work on my boat myself. However there will always be something I can't do and I have to rely on someone else. In those cases I try to oversee everything they do by being on the boat and observing. However that being said there are some yards that don't want you around in which case the yards reputation would be a big factor in releasing work to them.

Good luck in resolving this.

dwhatty said:

............ What should be done to ensure that we can safely drink the water soon?

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The only thing that can be done to ensure clean, safe drinking water is to replace the tank and any water lines that have touched what I assume is diesel fuel.

I doubt seriously that the tank can be decontaminated, at least by the typical boatyard and drinking water with traces of diesel fuel could have bad long term consequences.

I would insist on this. It's their responsibility.

Thanks for all the replies, condolences and helpful tips.

The service manager did find and open a clean out plate on top of the Stainless Steel water tank. He and I both agreed that to start with the fuel would have to be sucked off the top of it, not drained. Followed by a regimen of flushing and detergent. And, maybe alcohol?

I had indeed run the fresh water system before my discovery, but only very little and the hope is that the fuel did not get into the piping as the water supply to the fresh water pump feeds off of the bottom of the tank.

I will send out a water sample at the end of the process for eval.

I had run the tanks down to about 1/4 full each before coming to the yard as the tanks had to be drained to install valving on the sight tubes. This was done by pumping from one tank to the other with a portable fuel pump connected to to the sump valves on the tanks. I watched some of that.

And I gave no instructions to fill the tanks. I was going to do it this weekend. And...the fuel tanks are not filled. And she went directly from the travelift to a berth with no stop at the fuel dock. I was there.

Our fuel fills are located port and stbd in recesses and clearly labeled. Our water fill, clearly labeled, both on the fill cap and on a black plastic plaque, is in a recess in the cockpit.

I'm mad but resigned. No use hopping up and down and screaming.

I'll just have to ride herd on the yard to do what it takes to fix it properly.

Maybe we'll solve the mystery of how it happened on Monday when the yard crew comes to work. But maybe not as it might endanger someone's job to fess up.

[

Greetings,
Mr. dw. NOT good! Sounds like you're going to be getting a total potable water plumbing rebuild from the yard. I wouldn't trust a fuel contaminated water system at all. I don't care how many times it's washed and rinsed ANY plastic in the system will have absorbed who knows what which will leach into your "fresh" water system for years. Shame to be without a boat but more of a shame to be without the ability to use it. Ditto on the lab testing.

__________________
RTF ]

RTF is correct

There's nothing you can do to take that taste out. You'll need to force them to change the complete water system for a new one. Even if they could clean it all, your brain would always bring that taste back to your mouth.
Sorry for the bad news!

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suggestion: Yard is not going to like replacing the tank and will likely argue to clean the tank. Call a tank manufacturer and ask them if diesel can be cleaned from the inside of a tank so that the water is potable and the taste is gone. If they say no ask them to put it in an email to show to the yard. If that doesn't work try to get some other authority to state that diesel cannot be cleaned out of a plastic tank and the water potable.

Good luck

I can't imagine why a worker would put diesel ($$$) in any boat without being told, especially on the hard. Never seen a fuel hose laying around that could get confused with water unless it was tied up at the fuel dock.
At some point the yard is going to say "done", like it or not.

Bay Pelican said:

If that doesn't work try to get some other authority to state that diesel cannot be cleaned out of a plastic tank and the water potable.

Good luck

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Tank is stainless steel. (Albeit Chinese)