This is "Baffle"ing Me

[ovrmyhead]

I have been spending the day scrubing out my diesel tank. It has four baffles in the main section that reach all but the top four inches of the tank, making five compartments. This is what is making me scratch my head. Two of the baffles do not have cut outs at the bottom allowing fuel to pass through. I can tell they are sealed because I drained the front compartment but the rear held fuel to the top of the baffle. Can there be a reason for this? It seems to me that the lower section of the tank is totally unuseable making my 90gal tank more like a 55 to 60 gal tank .
Hope I explained this well enough for everyone to understand

[colemj]

That is unusual and the only explanation I have is either the tank builder made a mistake on that baffle or you have a clog on the limber hole through it. It really should not have a limber hole, though - it should be a largish cutout.

A WAG would be that it is like an old 1960's Motoguzzi bike I had that had a small compartment in the main tank that filled up when the tank was filled but stayed full as the fuel was used out of the main tank. When you ran dry, you flipped a valve and had some fuel to take you somewhere to fill up again. Didn't old VW bugs have something similar?

I've never heard of that in a boat tank - are there any pickups in that section?

Mark

[ovrmyhead]

No pickup, the other baffles have big cut outs and I cant see any way for a valve to be in there to open them up. Manufacturing mistake is what came to my mind too but I thought I should ask around before I did something drastic. I think I'm gonna cut them out tomorrow unless somebody gives me a reason not too.

[Astrid]

That is rather unusual. Your Union 36 is, I believe, a pirated Bob Perry design (for which he did not receive any royalties). You might write him or give him a call and he might be able to shed some light on it.

Robert H Perry Yachts Designers Inc. Home Page

The Union 36 was based on a 34 footer he designed for John Edwards of Hans Christian Yachts and made in Taiwan. Later, after Edwards had a falling out with the original Union Ship Co. yard, the yard started producing a 36-footer after upscaling Perry's original drawings. Perry himself was not connected with the Union 36, but might be able to offer some insight on the fuel tank question.