Fuel tank repaired in epic fashion

This is one of those projects I have long feared. The diesel tank on a Gulf 32 is below everything, and built into the bilge of the boat. Any trouble with it requires painful measures for either your wallet or your body. The tank on these boats is a generous 70 gallons, which is altogether wonderful except it makes the tank extra large and especially difficult to access or possibly remove.

Let me start with a little background. In this post I intend to fully document what I did and how I did it, because I know for certain this is a common problem on all sailboats past a certain age and like always I wish to aid my fellow sailors facing similar projects. I've previously replaced a leaking fuel tank on our old Ericson 28 and found that project straightforward as the tank was under the quarter berth and easily accessed. Not so easy on a Gulf 32. This project took a solid two months of time, and I estimate I put about a day a week, sometimes two, into it. It is now successfully completed on Aeolus, and I have the test of my repairs. I recognize there are several other ways this repair could have been completed, and I leave it to others to decide for themselves how they wish to proceed.

View of bow side of tank, showing lines marked for cutting. This was the easiest chamber to access. 

Beginning a few years ago, I n
oticed that when I filled the tank completely I would get leaking immediately. I was puzzled by the fact that I was not getting any noticeable leaking from around the fuel fittings at the engine side of the tank. None of my hoses were leaking, nor the sender. This led me to believe that I had a leak in the tank itself somewhere, and I thought it must be at the top in one of the welds or something. Some quick work with oil absorbent towels and the lesson learned, I stopped filling the tank all the way. Since the tank holds 70 gallons, it was never a problem to only have 50 in it. But I knew this was no good, and I put it on the list to finally resolve the problem of the leaking tank.

The general area of the stern side of the tank, showing sender location and area of hatch cut. Just out of view are the fuel lines in the tank. 

MLK weekend journey to Jones and Stuart Islands

We penciled this trip well ahead of time as we love to get away sailing for all three day weekends. On this occasion it was extra special because I had just finished repairing our leaking fuel tank, in rather epic fashion, which I will write about in my next post.

But first, the tale of this MLK weekend. The forecast was for stormy conditions and did not disappoint! We entertained a number of our favorite places as destinations: Tumbo, Sucia, Jones and Stuart. We had to head somewhere with good protection from SE winds, as that is the winter storm direction. We decided to let the conditions we saw dictate our destination. Sensible sailors we are!

Rejoicing in the stunning views of the entire world. This is looking  SW. 

We drove up Friday night and slept aboard, as we always like to get our full three days of fun on these weekends. Also, Amy and I have long understood that you are not anywhere, until you wake up there. Travelers know what we mean. You can fly your body anywhere in the world, in a day, but until you wake up there, you are not there. Your spirit, in some way, is not there. By going up on Friday, we allow our subconscious or spirit or whatever less overt aspects of our awareness catch up to our physical bodies, and when we wake Saturday morning, we are fully present and in adventure mode, not work, home or commute mode.