For 5 years I owned an Islander 44 with a tank in the keel that had no
provision for proper cleanout, nor the room to cut an access port in
unless you had arms 6 feet long.

Although I paid for "tank cleaning" prior to departure on my delivery
trip, from Havre de Grace Maryland to Newport, RI, it was done on land
and in retrospect, could not be thorough enough.

The first day and a half underway knocked enough stuff loose to clog the
first inline Fram filter in about 3 hours, subsequently it took 2 hours,
and the last of 4 filter changes lasted 15 minutes.

We pulled into Cape May and Sea Tow, who was running the only fuel
polishing service in the area, pulled 15 gallons of additional sludge
and contaminate from the fuel.

That pretty well did it, though we removed the Fram filter which was a
bear under way to change and switched to two Raycors, where you could
see the grundge build up. Interestingly enough, the trip down Delaware
Bay, with an almost full tank, appears to have caused most of the stuff
to come off the tank walls, although I wound up changing the primary
Raycor filter about every 10 hours of running time for the next season.

I had planned to build a polishing system, with a separate fuel pump, to
get ahead of the curve, but the problem never quite crossed the level of
aggravation needed to make me actually do it. I just kept a lot of
filters onboard, and in the lazarette I had an additional 20 gallons
tank with what I knew was "pure and clean" diesel, in case something
large and unexpected fouled up my delicate balance.

Jonathan

Vince LoRusso wrote:
I bought a Whitby 42 last June and she has water, fuel and dirt in the
center fuel tank. This tank is located in the keel with an access
plate almost under the motor. I sucked out everything that I could
but the tank is fare from usable.

Anyone have any suggestions how to clean up and seal off this tank so
I can use it?

Thanks,

Vince LoRusso of S/V Horizons