On Fri, 27 Jun 2008 01:31:53 GMT, Jere Lull wrote:

On 2008-06-25 23:24:41 -0400, Wayne.B said:

Even with proper diesel inboard aux, most of the serious cruising
sailboats that we see are carrying 40 to 60 gallons of extra fuel on
deck. These are boats that actually go someplace of course.

OMG! That'd give Xan a conservative 1,400-2,000 mile range under power!

The idea of 3-500# of fuel up on deck, though.... I'm always surprised
that they don't just add tankage. Doubt there's a boat over about 25'
that doesn't have some out of the way place to stick another tank, and
it doesn't take much to add 40 gallons.

From my experience amongst fellow cruisers, they don't simply add
tankage below due to space constraints. Also, in many ports it is
necessary to use jerry cans to ferry the diesel between the pump and
the boat. It is not as straight forward as using a dock hose in many
places in the world when there are no marinas or alongside fuel docks.
Therefore one may as well keep the jerry cans full of fuel on the
deck. I carry two 20 litre (take 24 litres each) plastic jerry cans in
the sail locker beneath my forward double berth as absolute emergency
fuel. I could of course build a tank in there but I would rather keep
it as a pure sail locker. I could of course invest in the inflatable
tankage but would rather spend the money on something else.

Also, regardless of how much tankage, most of us seem to want to carry
that little bit more to extend our range - probably just human nature.
Besides, when one is done with crossing oceans, the built in tanks
will normally be more than enough. It's amazing how much of the space
that could be utilised for extra tankage is readily filled up with
other necessary 'stuff' such as spares, tools, provisions, folding
bikes (2), sleeping bags, mountain tents, scuba gear (3 sets), roller
blades (3 pair), shioes of various types for three people, clothing
for all seasons for 3 people, school books, spare engine oil, gear box
oil, etc., etc., etc., no matter the size of the vessel.

regards
Peter