Do you carry spare deisel and water?

MoodySabre

MoodySabre

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I bought my boat two seasons ago. Since then the locker has been cluttered up with two things that I would not have bothered with. Am I missing the point?

Water: I'm in a marina and usually marina hop. I always top up before a trip 135 litre tank and carry bottled water for drinking. Why take a plastic jerry can too?

Fuel: 90 litre tank gets me about 50 hours motoring and I top-up when 25 hours have run on the hours meter or sooner if convenient. Why have a 5 litre can full as well?
 
I only carry a spare can of diesel when cruising. and i fill up the other side with white so it can go in the car at the end of the cruise /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif I carry bottled water when racing ! I have empty water tanks /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
If ether your main fuel or water tank got contaminated you may be pleased to have a backup. I would think water may not be such a problem but fuel could be.
 
We are lucky that we can just look at a forecast and decide to go to France ... or Poole ... or I guess anywhere, anytime.

The large locker on our boat has a lifting floor. Underneath it, out of the way, I carry 5 gallons of water and 5 gallons of fuel plus a spare (small) gas bottle. That's in addition to the normal back up spare that is carried too.

I always try to keep the main fuel and water tanks topped up but it's really nice to know that even if they are both half full we can still just take off.

Guess it depends on how much space you have vs. availability vs. where you go.

Not much fresh water in Poole or The Morbihan /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif
 
1. You are downwind and downtide of the nearest haven. You have, during the night, run the battery to extinction with the nav lights and have a lobster pot marker firmly attatched to your propellor shaft.
Out comes the spare water bottle and hey presto, morale cuppa served!!

2. you are downwind and downtide of the nearest haven. One of your crew is vommiting for Britain and you want to get in sharpish. You transfer the spare diesel to the tank whilst motoring at max revs!

One learns!!!!!!!
 
we carry a 1500l of diesel in two tanks and 500l of water in one tank plus bottled water for cooking and beverages for each trip.

We seldom have full tanks usually about 1/3 capacity for diesel but full for water. however when we went from liverpool to lagos in a single leg we took another 250l of fuel in jerries in the engine room. we motorsailed all the way and arrived with the jerries untouched.

My point is you take enough with you for any particular trip, and then some spare, if you are only doing short trips then leave the jerries empty.

if you carry it around unused, both water and fuel, it will eventually go stale so use it up and leave em empty till you do a trip that requires extra reserves
 
I have;
Dismantled the mountings to a poorly installed 20gallon petrol tank in order to tilt it and collect the remaining gallo or so of cruddy fual,filtered it and jerry rigged the outboard (seagull) tank over the engine to get us home,after burning the Seagulls gallon of 10 to 1 2 stroke mix...All because we were too lazy to top off the 2 empty 5 gallonspare cans.

I have been very grateful for spare water when the freshly topped off maintank tasted odd and cloudy

Each to their own. 5 litres of spare fuel and water dont take up that much space,imo.
 
I've got a 50 litre tank but I also carry 2x10 litre spare diesel as I don't like the tank getting below 50%.

Also I carry a lot of spare water in 2 litre bottles, as these store easily in one of my lockers - used for cooking, making brews etc. The main water supply I only use for washing/washing-up, and I fill that up whenever I can.
 
As a long distance single-handed sailor I carry spares for almost everything except the crew. That includes a couple of 10 litre cans of fresh water and 25 litres of clean diesel. At various times I've been glad of both. It just depends what kind of sailing you do. For me, staying in a marina has all the attraction of a caravan holiday on Tesco's car park. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
I've learned the hard way never to trust fuel gauges - even if they've been reasonably accurate in the past.

This means that (a) when you fill up you should know that you've filled up by something other than the fuel gauge (like actually seeing the fuel) and (b) its a good idea to keep details of engine running time, RPM, etc, and to have a good idea of what your fuel consumption is at various revs.

Of course, this can all be a lot of hassle, and most leisure sailors I know don't do it. Instead they just trust the fuel gauge which, as I've said, is a highly fallable instrument.

THATS why its a good idea to carry a few gerry cans deep in a locker!
 
I do carry spare fuel and water (in 20l containers) as there is frequently a shortage of both in the area we cruise - and as previously mentioned dont trus the fuel guage, - a faulty guage HAS caught me out before but the spare fuel got me home. I banned "Bottled water" from the boat last year as the plastic bottle mountain in Greece is enormous, tap water from the tanks tastes just fine !
 
I carry bottled water for drinking. The water in the tank is mainly used for washing up. I have a small water carrier about 10 litres for cups of tea and coffee.

I have enough diesel in my tank for about 20 hours motoring, so spare diesel is advisable when planning a N Sea crossing in light airs. Last year I had a fuel starvation problem due to air in the system. Topping up from a can of spare diesel solved the problem.

So spare water and diesel can the useful.
 
Our main water tank is is drinkable so we just carry 3 - 4 litres of bottled water just in case.

Like you I am also not sure about extra diesel especially after last week when the plastic container leaked in the dinghy on the way to the yacht. Result SWMBO, dog, laptop bag, shoes et al, covered in diesel /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

BTW, I found a garden cane on board from the previous owners with marks. Yep fits nicely down the filler cap of a Moody 31 as I can't see through the darkened plastic fuel level tube.

Pete
 
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Do you carry spare diesel and water?

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Yes. Along with spare everything else /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

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This explains catamarans

They are carrying a spare hull.
 
A spare can of disease-all is theoretically useful for when you realise the main tank is contaminated, and really useful as a trade/barter item!
Bottled cheapo mineral water is great for tea and cooking if you don't know the tanks are really clean and fresh, and cheap enough for all cold drinking water imho. It might be different if the boat was used a lot more!
 
[ QUOTE ]
This explains catamarans. They are carrying a spare hull

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...are trimaran owners suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder? /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
When I go out I only go into marinas in an emergency (once, when it was the only safe haven for a long way). I carry several hundred miles worth of diesel, including 4 jerries. This is partly to help with the trim, because my tank is in a port locker, but also so I don't have to refuel anywhere(hopefully).

I have a couple of gal containers of water for spare, and lots of small bottles tucked away all over the place (collected from issued packed lunches on courses /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif )

There is also a good cellar under the forecabin floor /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
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