32' Hatteras Fuel Tanks

[Captainfred]

Greetings fellow Hatteras Owners. Haven't posted on this site in quite a while. Although my 36' 1971 Sportfish "Christina's Hatt" has given me five years of good service and enjoyment it's time to downsize. I am considering purchasing a 1984 32' Hardtop as I have always admired that style and size. My question is does anyone know if this year vessel originally came with fiberglass tanks and, if so, were the tanks laid up with the E10 resistant resin? I replaced the tanks in my 36' and I don't want to go through that ordeal again. Missed sharing ideas with all of you however my 36 has been relatively trouble free so not much to talk about. As always, any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Captain Fred
Christina's Hatt

[34Hatt]

1984 Is close to when they did the switch but I think it might be 1985.

Best thing to do is call Hatteras with the Hull # they can tell you!

[Captainfred]

Dan,
Good point. Thanks for the reply. I am still in negotiation's with the owner however if we can nail down a deal that's exactly what I will do. As an afterthought, did Hatteras become part of a conglomerate in the 80's and, if so, did those boats have the same quality as the older Hatteras boats? I think it was AMF that took over.

Fred

[jim rosenthal]

Over the years, Hatteras Yachts has been owned by several different larger companies or groups: North American Rockwell was the first, I think; others are AMF, Genmar, and now Brunswick. If there is one period that is questionable, it may be the AMF period, but plenty of my friends own boats built during that time that are just fine. I think overall the quality stayed up pretty well, although over the years as we've discussed here on other threads some equipment got cheaper. The only specific model I know of with problems is the second 41 convertible with the cored bottom- and I think some of those boats were fine, too. But not all of them.

[Flick]

I called Hatteras severals years ago and they said it was mid 1986 before tanks were made with ethanol compatible resin. I'd give them a call and ask about the modle you care looking at.

[Captainfred]

Gentlemen,
As always you have provided me with some good information. Thanks very much.

Fred

[Blind Strike]

A question on this issue, if you have the older tanks and are in an area that only sells high ethanol fuel, is there anything you can add to minimized the effects to the fuel tanks.

Thanks.

[Boatsb]

Nothing can be done to stop the ethanol degradation. Just wait they want to make it a higher concentration of ethanol now.