Protecting Water Tanks From Hull

[natew]

So, I have a bit of a water tank problem on my new boat. The boat came with two vetus 100L flexible tanks in the bilge, however they had some leaks which I tried to repair and have failed miserably. A couple problems I noted was that the material simply aged and got brittle, thus causing the leaking to get worse after I tried to remove and repair them... But mostly importantly was that the leaks all seemed to come from where the bladder had some contact with the hull and had basically been worn through.

At one point when they were installed someone had used some styrofoam placed around these contact points but it was clearly not placed properly and did not extend far enough.

My question for some of you more experienced folks is do you have any recommendations about what I can do to keep this chaffing from damaging the new tanks? I was thinking of either some type of rubber mat that I can line the whole bilge with or just adding some sheets of plywood to even out the area and make one flat contiguous surface. I read that some people used carpet or foam padding from home depot but that doesn't seem like a great idea in the long run as both absorb water and if there was ever water in the bilge there (again) from a leaking tank or another leak of some type I would have to remove the water tank to remove the carpet/padding to allow it to dry properly without stinking up the whole boat which could be quite a pain in the butt and if it happened while cruising would mean i'm out the entire contents of the water tank or stuck with a super stinky boat.

[David M]

I would try some sheet rubber. It won't absorb water and it is relatively soft.

[natew]

I attached a picture of one side of the hull to better describe what I have. Basically, the tank rests in the middle (obviously) and so the problem here is that it touches those ribs along the side of the hull and eventually wears through.