Diesel on the hip

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by AiniA

We had plastic jerry cans on deck for basically all of a circumnavigation including the South Africa part. Certainly had lots of solid water on deck but no problems with damage to stanchions. We also had a knockdown which did other damage but the jerry cans were fine. We used u-bolts, a 2x4 which was warped to a nice angle that pretty much followed the deck curve, and lashings. Perhaps the Bristol had more substantial pipe sections than standard, I don't know. One disadvantage of a centre cockpit is you do not have the voluminous deck lockers where you could hide a bunch of jerry cans. We also had two potable water jerry cans. When you get off the beaten track you often need to use water cans or diesel cans to provision the mothership, there are no marinas and need to go to a water spigot or the local gas station.

Congratulations on your successful circumnavigation with jerry cans lashed to the stanchions. I my view you were lucky rather than clever.

We carry empty (and cleaned) jerry cans below and get them out when needed in third world counties. In our circumnavigation including 35 countries and 18 years, we used those jugs about twice.

[Peregrine1983]

Originally Posted by wingssail

Congratulations on your successful circumnavigation with jerry cans lashed to the stanchions. I my view you were lucky rather than clever.

You must be fun at parties. While I think everyone here, myself included, appreciates your input and knowledge, your pejorative tone is not appreciated.

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by wingssail

What I think you should picture in your head is a large wave breaking over the bow and sweeping the deck, then hitting those fuel cans. Carrying fuel on deck, lashed to the lifelines, is common but that does not mean it is safe or recommended.

Most passages are completed in calm seas. Some vessels however encounter heavy weather and this cannot always be anticipated. Fuel or water containers secured on deck the lifelines or stanchions is risky in the event that heavy weather is encountered.

The force of a wave boarding a vessel is much higher than most people image. Hitting a row of jerry cans it can certainly burst the restraints of bungie cords. Stronger lashings simply transfers the force onto the stanchions. It is not uncommon for stanchions to be bent or broken and the jerry cans ripped off. Other items stored on deck cause similar risks. Kayaks, surfboards, and SUP's are frequently lost and boats are damaged.

Coping with these items when seas are ripping them loose requires going on deck and this is dangerous and distracts the operator from other tasks, such as navigation in the wind and wave conditions which are being faced.

These are facts.

Most experienced ocean cruisers simply will not go to sea with items strapped to the lifelines. Those that do are counting on calm weather, and of course, most passages are completed safely even with items strapped on deck. But the sea is patient. It will wait for the opportunity, then strike. Count on it.

In my view this is not good seamanship and your vessel, if so rigged, is not well prepared for going to sea.

In rare occasions when we have decided to carry extra fuel, we lash it inside of the cockpit and use it as soon as possible. Then the jerry cans are washed out and taken below.

Skippers should learn to sail their vessels to the destination or limit motoring to the fuel carried in internal tanks rather than relying on fuel carried on deck.

I once would of disagreed with you BUT you got to love experience!

I used to have jerry cans on deck ,many do and many circumnavigate this way and many are good sailors, it's a personal choice and most get away with it, so I dont neccesarily judge someone that does do this as a bad seaman.

Mid southern Atlantic I copped bad weather, my jerry cans were very well tired down YET waves over the deck changed this. I could hear from inside that they were sliding on the deck. In the middle of the night in between waves breaking over the boat I'm out there with a knife cutting them free before they ruptured spraying diesel everywhere, being on a deck mid ocean in bad weather just sucks. Lesson learnt.

All diesel is now stored inside, fortunately I have the room.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by Peregrine1983

You must be fun at parties. While I think everyone here, myself included, appreciates your input and knowledge, your pejorative tone is not appreciated.

Sorry, wrong choice of words. I meant, I am happy for you that your didn't run into problems with that set-up on your circumnavigation, and I tried to find a way of saying it is better to be lucky than smart, which is a common saying isn't it?

[sanibel sailor]

Despise on deck storage also.
Smaller boat, smaller tank (31 gal diesel). 2 x 5 gal diesel jugs in cockpit locker. Liferaft hogs cockpit space already...
5 gal gasoline jug, I don't believe, is safe belowdecks. No room in propane locker. I use 1" x 2" oak battens lashed to lower shrouds. Gas jug in Sunbrella cover with mesh bottom lashed to oak battens. My shrouds are inboard, not enough room between shrouds and cabin trunk to easily walk, so no obstruction. The trunk may reduce direct impact of waves. Shrouds are pretty strong, better attached than stanchions and are more closely spaced. Further inboard is good. Worse case scenario, the can is dispensible and if leaking more volatile and less slippery than diesel oil. I still am not in love with it, but I cannot come up with a better solution for gasoline storage on my boat.

[stormalong]

I have six five gallon diesel jugs in a deep cockpit locker. Never fill them above the fill line so there is room for expansion in hot weather. The plastic caps don't leak.

I never have anything on deck when doing ocean crossings. The exception is the inflatable is rolled up and lashed down to the cabin top. Anything that would impede movement on deck in rough weather is not allowed.

I was in a bad storm once and was grateful to be able to crawl on hands and knees to get forward. In that storm we were knocked down, the canvas torn to shreds and two solar panels shattered. The lifelines stayed put. If jugs were strapped to them they would have been gone. This was off the Iberian peninsula in 2003 and a couple of boats went down in that storm.

[slug]

Originally Posted by wingssail

Congratulations on your successful circumnavigation with jerry cans lashed to the stanchions. I my view you were lucky rather than clever.

We carry empty (and cleaned) jerry cans below and get them out when needed in third world counties. In our circumnavigation including 35 countries and 18 years, we used those jugs about twice.

Yah

Jugs on lifelines are bad news ...they will get swept away ,

For oceanic passages , diesel , I use a tank in the cockpit
24 gallon

For gasoline storage I use tanks mounted on the stern pulpit upright tubes 4 gallon

[Dougtiff]

Lost a LIFE RAFT in the Coral sea, at sunrise, guess what, no raft, that was lashed down on the cabin top fwd.

[Allied39]

I did something a bit different to most folks here by the sound of it. I had Garhauer knock me up custom rails. They fit into two stanchion bases and is a solid rail from one base to the other. Vertical to lifeline height, 90 deg bend, horizontal to the next 90 down to the other base. Also solid tube between the rails at the same height as the mid lifeline.
These replace the lifelines just aft of the standing rigging and form the side of my entry gates.
Has been excellent. I have sewn sumbrella covers for the 4 jerry's lashed in this position.
What I do find absolutely stupid is the position of the deck fills on 99% of boats. A deck fill on deck is simply idiotic. One failed o ring and water, possibly salt is headed for the tank.
I built mine into a corner of my cockpit locker, under the lid. I could leave the cap lose, or even off for that matter and water would never get in my tank.
At one point they were thrown into the cockpit sole....AWSOME!!!
Not interested in arguing or dealing with the trolls.

[Reefmagnet]

I have the bungy lashed board thing on my boat. I never carry more than two cans aside so my approach was to use a thin cedar board that will break away if TSHTF rather than rip the stanchions and lifelines out of the deck as it departs the boat.


One suggestion I can give for mounting the board to the stanchions with U-bolts is to cut the ends of the U-bolts down when done so that they can be neatly capped with acorn nuts. This will assist in reducing damage to anything that brushes along them, including flesh!

[a64pilot]

So, jerry cans are unsafe.
But any real ocean going sailor lashes their very much larger dinghies on deck?

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

So, jerry cans are unsafe.
But any real ocean going sailor lashes their very much larger dinghies on deck?

Yes, but sometimes you have to choose the best of two evils. I would also argue that the dinghy shape etc allows water to wash over it where jerry cans provide a wall, not much give.

Dont get me wrong ,I'm not an old salt that judges those that do this as bad non seaworthy sailors, Im just suggesting if theres another option then take it, I learnt this the hard way. Dinghy stayed secured jerry cans did not and I very much did not enjoy risking my life to deal with the situation.

Ultimately its upto the individual.

[sanibel sailor]

Don't like either dinghy or fuel on deck, but seems better than the alternatives.

[CaptTom]

Related question: Anyone in the US find a source for six-gallon portable tanks?

For some reason they've all gone to five-gallon max. Six is the maximum allowable under federal law, so I assume some state chose to implement their own restriction, and now five is all I've seen lately. I'm not really sure what they think we're going to do with that extra gallon...

[BlackHeron]

We store a couple of empty diesel jerry cans and a couple of water cans. All strapped to a piece of composite deck lumber held onto stantions by U-bolts. We also carry a couple of small 1.5 gallon gasoline jugs for the dinghy.

The gas cans are the only ones we ever store filled on deck. The diesel and water jugs are for transporting fuel and water from shore in the dinghy. The diesel 5-gallon jugs are made by Blitz and the water jugs are actually 6-gallon and made by igloo.

I hear a lot of experts say they never carry jugs on deck. I don't know where they have the room to store them belowdecks and actually live in their boats
We are full-time cruisers and the boat is basically stuffed to the gills with gear, provisions and supplies. I also don't know how people get by without jugs. We don't often go to marinas so water and fuel are usually transported by dinghy.

Fuel can usually be found at fuel docks in popular well-travelled areas but we tend to gunkhole in places where there are few larger fuel docks and diesel just isn't always available -often they have oniy gasoline. We have often purchased diesel at regular gas stations, and transported it from shore in the dinghy many times. We have been at anchor for months at a time without touching shore with our mothership, going to shore only by dinghy. We don't burn a lot of diesel while in anchor but now that we have a diesel heater we will be needing to keep the tank topped off in colder climates.