Hello
About two years ago I got a wild hair and when I was redoing
parts of the
boat, I lightly sanded and painted the
interior of my
water tank. It had been leaking around the rim (someone had fitted and sliconed a piece of
plywood over the opening). I decided to
paint the
interior with one part yacht enamel cause there were cracked "scallop eyes" in the finish that simply proved too deep to sand out. So I thought painting was the best way to solve the issue. However, my prep was poor and back then I did not know the proper steps to take in painting
gelcoat and I ended up with a trillion
fish eyes. In the interim, I moved to
San Diego and became a
live aboard and never really needed the
water tank to function since I had dockside water and days
sails were liquidated in other ways. Now, I am push to finish this
refit process and I want that water tank functional.
My friend who is life long serious sailor says I have to install either flexible
tanks or have custom ones built since the
tanks are now ruined and that the inherent flexing of the tanks will cause
paint to microscopically chip and contaminate the tanks and cause brain regression, emotional impulsivity, and unplanned peter wilt. In his mind the tank can NEVER be used safely again since it was once painted.
I am willing to do the labor to
work to strip the paint out since flexible tanks or a custom job is (in my mind) a damnably frivolous expense. BUT as always, when it comes to
safety and brain
health, I am willing to go the extra mile and truly do the right thing.
1. If I strip the paint, can the tank be safely used?
Or
2. Do I really need to switch to another system (flexitanks or custom hard ones).
As always, I appreciate your responses.
Michael