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El Pinguino · 17-01-2015, 01:26

Most of my fuel comes aboard in 20 litre bidones and is then filtered into the tank via a pretty basic 20yo plastic filter funnel which picks up a bit of sediment... (and supposedly water... but I have never had a water problem).
There is a bit of sediment in the bottom of the tank maybe 5 mm deep ( pick up is at about 25mm above bottom... high mounted 200l tank behind the engine) so every few years I use a very basic 'polishing' system.... garden hose lashed to a bamboo stake inserted down the fill pipe so the pick up is in the very bottom of the tank..... suck out about 100 litres.... settle in the bidones... take off the 'tops'.... settle the sludgy bits... repeat etc... last time I did it I ended up with about a litre of wet sediment.
Once when decanting dieso I found some had gone waxy with the cold... we just put it aside until in warmer climes.. same same as required re the use of 'alpine diesel' in NE Victoria on Campo del Ping in the winter....

Re keeping a tank full... as much an issue of leaving any sludge undisturbed... full tank = little movement of fuel when rolling.... near empty tank = everything jumping around and happily mixing...

Pix.... Bunkering in Puerto Eden.... and the bunker station an hour later.....

El Pinguino · 17-01-2015, 01:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

We use a funnel similar to the one below.

Ed Zackery the same one I have..... works good... but can't use when bunkering directo from shore.
I think the water separation issue is handled by mesh size rather than settling...

**Wotname** · 17-01-2015, 01:43

Luv the brolly

**Wotname** · 17-01-2015, 01:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

No bad diesel??? HAH!

As mentioned above, try buying fuel in the Solomons, where a previously rusty drum was delivered to the village a year ago where it was then left out in the rain with the cap not down tight until the day you, in desperation, bought some of it! Obviously, prefiltering helps in such cases, but surely, this is BAD diesel!

.............
Cheers,

Jim

Yep Jim, Ya right

.
I've been first worlding for way too long

. And I do recall the diesel I purchased in Indonesia; certainly qualified for a baaaad baaad bad diesel award.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

I view this figure quite differently

.
A whopping 42% of people voting have had problems, and almost a third of those "More than twice and to the extent the engine won't run and/or needed multiple filter changes."

Given how vital an engine can be in an emergency and given how vital clean fuel is to an engine running, these figures indicate bad fuel (which is most likely poor maintenance) is a huge concern.......
.

You mean only 42% had some problem and only 12% had significant problems. So the vast majority (88%) did not have significant problems.
Hardly worth thinking about

El Pinguino · 17-01-2015, 01:58

Got to have a brolly..... 20 miles from Cabo de Hornos January 2006

Your not seaworthy without a brolly but I wish Hemple would make one that fitted the socket thingo on top of winches.

Sorry .. serious thread drift... need a brolly thread....

**Seaworthy Lass** · 17-01-2015, 02:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wotname

You mean only 42% had some problem and only 12% had significant problems. So the vast majority (88%) did not have significant problems.
Hardly worth thinking about

Not in a duelling mood today - lapping up the sunshine here and feeling especially mellow, so I will just have to agree that the 12% who have encountered significant problems is totally insignificant. In fact why on earth would anyone ever worry about clean fuel at all?

SWL x

El Pinguino · 17-01-2015, 02:14

Its a bit like hotel/resteraunt( never have been able to spell that) reviews.... people with a good experience just get on with their life but them as had a bad time will tell the world.... things are squewed( can't spell that either) towards the negative... we have a sample here of 58.... out of ?????? cruisers...

**Wotname** · 17-01-2015, 02:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

Not in a duelling mood today - lapping up the sunshine here and feeling especially mellow, so I will just have to agree that the 12% who have encountered significant problems is totally insignificant. In fact why on earth would anyone ever worry about clean fuel at all?

SWL x

Good oh

Silly poll

Enjoy the sunshine; we've had rain and wind all day with snow above 1000 m and it's high summer

**Wotname** · 17-01-2015, 02:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Its a bit like hotel/resteraunt( never have been able to spell that) reviews.... people with a good experience just get on with their life but them as had a bad time will tell the world.... things are squewed( can't spell that either) towards the negative... we have a sample here of 58.... out of ?????? cruisers...

LMGTFY.
Restaurant
Skewed

And a CF cruiser is worth 1000 or more other cruisers so a sample of say 60,000 aint bad.

or perhaps

**Seaworthy Lass** · 17-01-2015, 02:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wotname

or perhaps

I think this thread needs to be combined with Dockhead's gin tankage one. Not only should the gin tank be installed with the ability to easily extract a metered dose for sundowners, but also to calm the waters and the skipper when he finds himself in the 12% group encountering engine trouble due to grubby fuel.

Now where was I with those martini experiments? I probably need to start afresh tonight when the sun kisses the horizon

.

SWL

**Wotname** · 17-01-2015, 02:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

I think this thread needs to be combined with Dockhead's gin tankage one. Not only should the gin tank be installed with the ability to easily extract a metered dose for sundowners, but also to calm the waters and the skipper when he finds himself in the 12% group encountering engine trouble due to grubby fuel.

Now where was I with those martini experiments? I probably need to start afresh tonight when the sun kisses the horizon

.

SWL

Am I the only one who thinks SWL really is incorrigible

**Seaworthy Lass** · 17-01-2015, 02:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wotname

Am I the only one who thinks SWL really is incorrigible

Me?

Oh, my, just look at those poll results!!!

SWL

**boatman61** · 17-01-2015, 05:15

As a delivery skipper this is a fairly common problem..
Last time this happened was last summer while delivering a Garcia 45 to the UK from France..
The boat had been on the hard a couple of years I believe.. the 'new' owner then filled her up.. apparently he'd fitted new filters and all went well the first few days.. then.. as we had to motor a lot the 1st filter failed.. two more changes and we were out of filters so we pulled into Sotogrande and bought some more..
Stopped in Gib for cheap top up of the tanks.. owner hummed and hawed over a polish.. in the end did not opt for it so we sailed on..
Anyway.. to cut a long story short as we worked our way up the Thames Estuary to make Sheerness against a F6 on the nose every 1/2 hour it would be engine off.. owner below and me tacking back and forth holding ground while the owner shot below and changed the clogged filter for one drained and banged cleanish.. and off we'd go again. There were 5 filters lined up on the salon floor.. change tap clean.. place to back of q for re-use.
Normally I carry clean fuel in a 25L can and if there's a problem I set that up as an emergency tank.. however this had been poured into the main tank..

Dirty fuel is more common than folk think.. various reasons and countries.. even 1st world.. all you need are old and rusting tanks.. a crack in the joint and 'Bob's yer Uncle'.. if it happens at garages with who knows how old underground storage.... how much more likely in marina/docks etc..