I need to get the water out of the starboard fuel tank......600 quid

I have never put water in my tank ( yet ) but being safety aware I did empty the bottom 30 gallons from my tank with an electric drill pump and a hose pipe inserted by the eberspacher take off.

Once the fuel settled in the clear plastic containers I just tipped it back in and threw away about 3 gallons of muck.

Your diesel will float to the top, you just need to get to the bottom of your tank, is there a balance pipe or drain tap ?

If there isnt I dont see fuel polishing as an option as they will polish the clean diesel 3/4 way up your tank leaving the water in the bottom undisturbed.

Is part of the £600 to cut and make an inspection hatch or bottom drain off tap in order to polish the fuel ?
 
Can t see why someone has to travel....what would you do if mid Atlantic after a storm?????

This happens all to often on ships and as the water settles to the bottom then it is only necessary to drain out the water.

Is it not possible to draw the water out from the bottom through a drain or using a suction pipe inserted from the top and a small pump.

You might need to trim the boat in such away that the water flows to the lower corner or something but it is not rocket science.

Any Motor boat carrying more than a token number of gallons surely has drain cocks for this purpose???????
 
I have read what happened and I am sure Bilgediver is also aware.
I agree with Bilgediver, I carry equipment on board for this situation, its a quay side repair not rocket science.


Sealines used to be fitted with the best balance systems , not sure if the newer models still are but I expect so.
My Princess has a balance pipe from one tank to another which Sealines also used to have.

All you do is disconnect the pipe from the port tank, stand the pipe upright and put your electric drill pump down the 1 1/2 inch pipe and open the starboard balance tap take out 30 gallons of water/diesel into jerry cans until pure diesel comes out.

leave it to settle and pour most the diesel back in.

In the absence of a balance pipe/drain off tap then you need to go in from an inspection hatch or remove the fuel sender and poke your hose down
 
[ QUOTE ]
I have read what happened and I am sure Bilgediver is also aware.
I agree with Bilgediver, I carry equipment on board for this situation, its a quay side repair not rocket science.


Sealines used to be fitted with the best balance systems , not sure if the newer models still are but I expect so.
My Princess has a balance pipe from one tank to another which Sealines also used to have.

All you do is disconnect the pipe from the port tank, stand the pipe upright and put your electric drill pump down the 1 1/2 inch pipe and open the starboard balance tap take out 30 gallons of water/diesel into jerry cans until pure diesel comes out.

leave it to settle and pour most the diesel back in.

In the absence of a balance pipe/drain off tap then you need to go in from an inspection hatch or remove the fuel sender and poke your hose down

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't forget that Doug is blessed with D3's which to my understanding will complain about anything other than perfect diesel so needs to make sure all the water is removed. I think I'd have a go though.
 
It cost me £200 at midnight on a bank holiday to get 35 litres of petrol out of my diesel tank on the car. Same principle surely?
 
I agree. Syphon the tank out until you are happy that the you have most of the water out. Darn sight cheaper than £600, and that's all the supplier will do. You may need to keep a close eye on your filter/separators for a while.
 
As stated, jabsco puppy pump, clear plastic hose, several cans, one battery generally fitted to boat, insert into tank to lowest point, switch on and watch, when the cold tea stops, and red wine starts switch off.
 
I half filled the fuel tank with water once. Heres how you get it out.

Go To plumbers merchants. Get a BSP tap same size as drain plug, take out drain plug, hold finger in hole and fit tap quickly. You shold not loose much fuel. Add a piece of pipe to the tap and take it down to the bottom of the bilge, add another tap there. All costs about a tenner, maybe 20 these days.

Right so, first open both taps. (Maybe a bucket under the pipe. Empty the water out, till the clear pipe turns red. You've now got 90% of the water out.

Now leaving the top tap open, close the last tap. Go for a run, or leave for a day or so. Keep looking at the pipe and drain off any water you see. Repeat a fwew times, checking your water traps for water.

Leave the pipe attached and get any water out in the future.

Put some Soltron in the tank as well, just to be sure you dont get bug and all the water is gone.

We did it on holiday, it hardly stopped us for more than a couple of hours to buy and fit the gear, empty the water out, then carried on. Following the method discribed.
 
My boat has no drain plugs...at least none I can see or yet discover and the balance pipe is of school boiler grade plumbing.
So when I wanted to find out if there was any gunge/water lurking in bottom of my tanks aquired 5ft x 1/2" bit of hollow aluminum tube (old homebase CB aerial)and connected it via a short section of rubber pipe to a ordinary oil extraction pump.
Using fuel level dipstick holes at top took out about 5 gallons from each poking the rod into all corners of tank allowed diesel to settle and then poured 99.9% back into tank.
Either the job had been done before by earlier owner or nothing had got into the tanks in the previous 25 years.All residue would have fitted in a whisky shot glass.
 
I did Rob.....hence my comments...The last time this happened to me we didn t even stop....Drained about twenty tons of sea water from the service tank with the drain fully open and managed to keep the water fuel interface below the engine suction. Blimey that was a rough night.

As I said this is a problem with big ships if the tank vent valves fail in heavy weather. The first time it happened I think we were stopped for about an hour while one of us drained the service tank and others flushed the water out of the engine and primed it with clean fuel. That was in the Atlantic....for those who remember them it was a three cylinder Doxford Empire ship built in 1941 with engine driven pumps.

The more water in the tank then the more efficient is this system as you have to get out that water that the fuel is floating on...Then finally get the dregs out. You may have to trim your boat with a last and trim adjustment to get the last drop out but no need to worry about the diesel.
 
Don't forget that Doug is blessed with D3's which to my understanding will complain about anything other than perfect diesel so needs to make sure all the water is removed.
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If they can cope with red diesel from bunker barges then there should not be a problem.
/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
Your ballance pipe, will be plumbed into the drain outlet, it will Be BSP pipe fittings. In your case, just T off into bilge and finnish up like mine, which is bothe a balance pipe from both tanks, plus a water colecting pipe down to the bilge. Any water in the tanks, will finnish up at the lowest point, IE. Down the pipe.
 
Theres nowt wrong with any method that works. The method I discribe is quick, simple and useing readily avalaible matierials. Pllus it's there for next time, or simply adapted into a balencince pipe also.
 
No balance pipes I know of


No drains.....I thought that wasnt done cos it cost the builder 30 quid to add the sensible option


No bunker fuel.....as Kev said D3's dont like anything in the fuel....
INCLUDING THE RED DIE!!!!!!!


So it looks like i shall need to find a lot of gerry cans, pump, access to the fuel in the tank, clear pipes......and even more spare filters than i normally carry....(4)


can i shove a pipe down the filler cap to drain the water off the fuel......I am not getting much responce on accessability to the tanks from.....my favourite boat builders.....
 
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