Can a Sailboat carry to much Fuel?

[Cheechako]

Yes, most my boats have carried too much fuel. Yours is way to much. The fuel gets old, doesn't get used etc.

[Redline452]

as pilots used to say, "the only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire"

[mbuckner]

Originally Posted by neophytecruiser

Just a question out of curiosity, mbuckner, do you happen to know if the owner of this Cal35 converted his water tanks into fuel tanks?

I do not know if the water tank was converted to fuel .....

[tdoster]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Yes, most my boats have carried too much fuel. Yours is way to much. The fuel gets old, doesn't get used etc.

The fuel itself will last many years, it is the critters that grow in it that become a problem.

You can always put in less fuel in a larger tank, but if you need more with a smaller tank, then you have to hang it on deck.

[seandepagnier]

1 liter of fuel is already too much in my opinion

[a64pilot]

Look up storage of ULSD, apparently it doesn't keep nearly as well as the old Diesel did, seems at least the high sulphur content was a sort of natural biocide and there have been wide spread reports of fuel tank corrosion with ULSD, possibly the "bugs' are acidic?

Look it up yourself, some interesting reading, seems you have to take some extra steps with ULSD that we didn't necessarily have to with high sulfur Diesel

[zboss]

This is funny because we were having a similar discussion about fuel capacity just a few weeks ago where several posters said that it would be unconscionable to consider going to sea without the ability to cross an ocean under power. Basically they were saying that any boat under 40 feet with less than several hundred gallons of fuel was considered unsafe.

Your 185 gallons should give you a range of about 774 miles if you burn .7 gallons an hour.

185 gallon x .7 burn rate is about 129 hours of fuel. 129 Hours x 6 knots is a range of about 774 miles - that is a lot for a 35 foot boat.

I think you should consider yourself lucky. With that much fuel you could have a generator and not worry about too much alternative energy sources.

Just don't weigh the boat down too much.

[jreiter190]

Two things, the most important is; does the tank have baffles? You don't want all that weight free surfacing . Perhaps the previous owner wanted to motor through the doldrums or through the Pacific Grye to get to the trades.Or go into a river system without having to refuel every day or so, or take advantage of cheap fuel prices. As others have pointed out, you don't have to fill the Damn thing except when you need it.

[GrahamHO]

No law against not filling the tank but it is a good idea to do so. If the tank is half full of air, that air contains moisture. Tanks have breathers connected to the atmosphere and with expansion and contraction air moves in through the breather. Moisture condenses into the fuel which you might take you a long time to use up. Also if the tank is not properly baffled inside the weight of fuel might slosh around. On the other hand if you are planning on motoring very long distances it could be a good thing. I would do a calculation of how long it will take to use up all that fuel with your planned use. I would also be concerned with how many years the present owner has had fuel sitting in the tank, and about how well the extra tankage has been installed.
I once bought up an extra 50 litres (10 or 11 gals) of diesel when there was an apparent fuel crisis developing maybe a Gulf War. I never used it and a few years later it looked very dark even though stored in an airtight plastic fuel container. I gave it to my friend with a foundry making keels and props to burn in his furnace.
Personally I like nice fresh diesel fuel, but that's just me being fussy.

[Mithril Bham]

Yes, the question is: "Where are the tanks?". I carry 550 on a 44 ft steel boat but she weighs 44 K.
Has scrubbing system plus dual fuel filter system.

[Blue Stocking]

Sure thats not Imperial Gallons >> litres ? Would be 165 litres.

[Jon Eisberg]

Originally Posted by mbuckner

Hello,

I found a 35' boat that has a 185 gallon fuel tank. Sailboatdata indicates that it came from the factory with a 33 gallon fuel tank.

Doing the following calculations:

33 x 7.25# = 239 pounds of diesel
185 x 7.25# = 1341 pounds of diesel

That's an increase of 1102#, before the boat is provisioned and crew get's on board.

How do you determine the safety factor, sailing it, etc, etc, before you buy it?

Any ideas and comments will be appreciated.

Best regards,

Mike

Hmmm, someone was thinking of making the first Northwest Passage on a Cal 35, perhaps?

;-)

I'm finding it very hard to picture where that amount of fuel would be stored on a Cal 35, or how much the boat would be down on her lines... That boat will have a pretty shallow bilge, so chances are the increase was gained at the ends of the boat, likely above the designed waterline, maybe with a big tank placed under the vee-berth, which could be very bad news for her performance and stability in any kind of sea... In any event, this is just the sort of thing that could make Bill Lapworth roll over in his grave... ;-)

Something is really whacked about a previous owner who would make that sort of change to such a boat... It would certainly give me pause, and me cause to wonder about what other stupid stuff someone might have done to her...

[DryRot]

Interesting read considering I am looking at a Ketch with a 3200 gal fuel tank. I had not considered the low sulfur "bug" problem. I will be living aboard and cruising but it will take a long time to get through that much fuel. Hmm, back to more research.

[Jman]

Originally Posted by zboss

This is funny because we were having a similar discussion about fuel capacity just a few weeks ago where several posters said that it would be unconscionable to consider going to sea without the ability to cross an ocean under power. Basically they were saying that any boat under 40 feet with less than several hundred gallons of fuel was considered unsafe.

Your 185 gallons should give you a range of about 774 miles if you burn .7 gallons an hour.

185 gallon x .7 burn rate is about 129 hours of fuel. 129 Hours x 6 knots is a range of about 774 miles - that is a lot for a 35 foot boat.

I think you should consider yourself lucky. With that much fuel you could have a generator and not worry about too much alternative energy sources.

Just don't weigh the boat down too much.

If you do the math right it is more 😀

185 gallons / 0.7 is about 264 hours of fuel. 264 hours @ 6 knots is a range of 1,585 miles.

Not enough to cross an ocean, but most of the seven seas.




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[Blue Stocking]

Somewhere in the equation you reach the point where you are burning fuel just to move the weight of the fuel you carry. In the 60s built strip planked 40 + ft sport fisherman, and always had to convince the owner/clients of this. Of course, cruising sailboat are a different case.