Practical Boat Owner — January 2018

PRACTICAL

When Rob Gibson bought his Trapper 500 he inherited a leaking

fuel tank which, after ignoring for a while, he set about replacing

W

hen I bought Meg my

Trapper 500 she came

with a small cup hanging

under the fuel tap and had

obviously been leaking diesel into the

starboard locker for some time. The

initial jobs list was long and inevitably

grew as we tackled each task, the

result being that my funds ran out long

before we reached the end. A familiar

story, I’m afraid.

With a limited amount of time to get her

ready for our trip home and with my funds

totally depleted I had little choice but to

ignore the fuel leak and set sail. I

promised myself that fixing the leak would

be the first job when I was on my home

mooring and I had replenished my funds.

Throughout the six-day trip home from

Portsmouth to Pill, on the River Avon, we

endured a slightly smelly locker and it

became clear that everything in it had

become saturated in diesel or the smell of

it. We tweaked and tightened all the

connections, mopped up spills and,

where possible, washed out the locker

with hot soapy water. We did manage to

improve the situation a little, but a

somewhat bumpy ride around Land’s End

confirmed that this was not a job that I

could postpone indefinitely.

During the first leg, Portsmouth to

Penzance, we suffered light winds and

motored for much of the time. The fuel

tank only held 27 litres, so this meant

refuelling at sea from a 20-litre fuel can

during each mini-leg. Although we

managed this without spilling too much

diesel it was not something I wanted to

repeat. The thought of having to do it in

any kind of sea was not comforting.

Predictably enough it was some months

later before I was able to address the fuel

leak. My first avenue of attack was to

remove the fuel tap and find a

replacement, as this seemed like the most

likely culprit. This proved harder than I

thought. First off I noticed that the washer

between the tap and the tank was the

wrong size; the inner hole was far too big

and the body thickness far too narrow.

Sage advice from work colleagues led me

to purchase a Dowty washer of the correct

size, which I duly fitted.

I was starting to feel pleased with myself,

but had I cured what had obviously been

a long-term issue with a 50p washer? The

Isolator tap was thought to be the culprit answer was sadly not. The leak endured.

Fit a fuel tank

The new plastic diesel tank fits snugly in its wooden box – a pleasing result in the end after a lot of trial and error

The old tank was rusty and leaking