Water Tank Vents

[sailorboy1]

My tanks (3) all have their vents up the deck and into a stanchion. This seems a little crazy to me to have the vents open to any water washing across the decks and therefore into the tanks. Is it just me, or is this kind of normal?

My holding tank has the same type of thing, but this doesn't borther me more (expect when it is overfull).

[James S]

My water tanks (2) vents go up high inside the hull to the gunwales then turn and go down toward the bilge...they don’t actually go all the way down, but to a point that their over flow would get to the bilge.
I would think if your vents were up some distance into the stantions, like near the top, and the stantions were a reasonable length like a couple feet or more, then the chance of gwtting sea water in would be small.

[Talbot]

It took me a long time to work out why a bit of my carpet used to get damp, and then I traced it to having a lower vent and U bend for the air vent on one of my water tanks, than the actual filling point. Thus every time i filled up completely, there would be some spillage through the air vent.

getting a vent that was compatible with the size of the air vent was another problem, but all was solved and now the carpet remains dry.