Hello, all.

I have a steel hulled cruising boat, presently in NL. The ship is
eight years old. The fresh water filters are filling with flakes of
rust, suggesting that the epoxy coating of the tanks has failed, and
needs to be cleaned out.

This raises a number of questions:

+ Has anyone else experienced this?

+ What was the solution?

The tanks were made of ordinary steel, painted with an epoxy paint,
according to the manufacturer. In retrospect, perhaps they should
have been made of stainless steel.

The shipyard says they will have to remove the flooring of the head
and most of the cabinetry to access the tanks. I'm thinking that it
may be easier to haul the boat and cut a hole in the bottom of the
hull to access the tanks properly.

What are your thoughts? Obviously this needs to be solved or the
ship will die.

I have asked, but not yet received an answer from the manufacturer
on whether the tanks are mounted separately in the interior of the
hull or if they are "waist" tanks, that is, using the hull for part
of their boundary. In the former case it would be a matter of
cutting out the existing tanks and replacing them with stainless
steel replacements. In the latter it is a matter of cutting out the
rusting parts, installing new separate stainless tanks, and then
accessing the replaced hull portion to prepare and paint it.

Not a pretty picture in any regard.

I would deeply appreciate your insights on this matter.

Best regards, Andy