Deck-Fill

Annie has two diesel fuel tanks: starboard and port. Each tank holds approximately 35 gallons of diesel fuel. The starboard tank has a deck-fill but the port tank did not. Access to the port tank was granted by opening the lazarette and then removing a bronze 1.5 inch plug. The opening to the tank was actually tucked well under the fixed deck and beyond the hinge of the lazarette hatch. You could get a pump handle in there to fill the tank but it wasn't easy. Actually... IT WAS A PAIN!

Easy solution; add a deck-fill.

This job should have been quick and easy but a miscalculation on my part made complicated the job, (I hate it when that happens). Despite my precision gaze and engineering optical skills, I did not drill the hole for the deck-fill fitting directly over the tank opening... I was off about a half inch, maybe three quarters of an inch. This mistake complicated a should-be easy job into a difficult one. The misalignment of the hole to the tank opening required a hose that had a degree of flexibility... fuel tank hoses are rigid and don't bend well... especially when they are only eight inches long. Fortunately, I was able to locate a hose that possessed the needed flexibility and was tough enough to pour diesel fuel through.

The deck was actually thicker than my hole saw. The balsa wood core was very dry and firm, (that's a good thing).

I had to order a hose fitting from Amazon, none of the local hardware stores carried a fitting that would work, (add three days to the job).

In the end, the deck-fill was completed in four days instead of the anticipated one hour. Everything takes longer on a boat!

And of course, Fuji thought about me as he waited at my office in the A/C.

Fair seas and God bless.