Forward Tank - Fuel Or Holding?

[Seas the Moment]

I have a '79 58' MY. The previous owner converted the forward 90 gallon holding tank to diesel tank. This of course leaves me with a single 60 gallon holding tank. Fills quickly. PO ran between Ocean Reef and Bahamas often and I guess needed the extra fuel, plus he installed a fuel polishing system moving fuel from forward to rear tanks. The log book indicates that all fuel was moved through the fuel polishing system. This was a single owner boat so he used the boat through the 80s and 90s. Boat was the ROTO-X out of Ocean Reef, some of you may know her? So, I was considering converting back to a holding tank, but since this system is installed, I was wondering if it would be a continued benefit to use this system front to rear fuel polishing or was the fuel much worse back in the 80s and 90s and not to be a concern today? If the fuel polishing IS a benefit, I could live with the 60 gallon holidng tank.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[MikeP]

Our 53 MY had its forward 105gal holding tank converted to fuel when the boat was new (1980). The PO (2nd owner) quit using it in the mid 90s for that purpose but never actually converted it back to waste. In fact, it was still full of 1995 diesel when we bought the boat in '04.

If you have the oem GM heads, they use a lot of water and having just the 60 gal holding tank is, IMO, not workable. THe PO discharged all waste overboard - to his credit, there were (are) waste treatment systems on all heads - so it wasn't an issue for him.

I assume the 58 has at least the 700gal fuel capacity of our 53 which, for our style of use, is plenty of capacity for anything we would do. The boat has a comfortable range at 9 knots of 600NM and there is just no way we would ever need that. SO I'd suggest it depends on your expected use; If you are doing a lot of off-shore distance cruising, that extra 100 gal might be useful but if not, there isn't much purpose IMO.

Also worth at least thinking about re fuel capacity is the fact that the more fuel you are carrying, the more fuel you are using just to carry it. IOW, if our 53 is going on a 100 mile run, it would be a lot more efficient to carry enough fuel to do that + reserve - say around 1000 lbs of fuel as opposed to having full tanks and carrying 4000+ lbs of fuel. Though I realize it's more convenient to not stop for fuel as often.

Using full tanks we normally we fill the boat once per season.

So, I'd recommend that the forward holding tank be changed back to a holding tank unless you are going to do a lot of offshore running where you need that fuel capacity. Of course if you are offshore a lot, the holding tank capacity may not be an issue at all since you can legally pump overboard offshore.

 

[Seas the Moment]

Thanks, Mike for reply and advice. I really don't need another 90 gallons in fuel, but I was curious if it made sense to keep the forward tank simply for the fuel polishing aspect? Does it really matter? Good to do, nice to have, not necessary or good precaution to polish fuel? I cruise Chesapeake and up and down ICW and take on fuel anywhere from Deltaville, to Cape Charles to Gloucester Point and down the ICW. Is there really any reason to be concerned about fuel quality these days?

Thanks again,
Loran

 

[SKYCHENEY]

Fuel can be polished with or without the fwd tank. For us on the Great Lakes, the holding tank is more important.

 

[GJH]

Loran, as i recall from Hatteras class, you are based in the Norfolk area. That's fuel heaven there with several high volume fuel docks and low prices. Portsmouth Boating Center, Tidewater Yacht, Ocean Marine, and up the ICW in season, Atlantic Yacht Basin, Coinjock (2 spots) and more. Many "snow birds" make a point of stopping at one of these to top the tanks.

Up the bay, plenty more in Solomons, Annapolis and Baltimore that I know of. Ditto Cape May if you get up that far.

I think I can name all the good spots from Massachusetts to Key West by heart. Once you know them, no worries. Perhaps your PO had issues over in the Bahamas back in the day.

 

[sandspur1966]

Those who know me know that i almost never advocate for the addition of new systems.

I, Like Mike P am very sensitive to the incremantal weight gain that our yachts endure each and every time someone adds some magic improvement so this is unusual for me...but you may want to consider a very nice treatment system I saw at the Lauderdale show.

Hamann AG in Germany builds a truly equisitely engineered "super-mini" system that fits right in front of the holding tank in our generator rooms.

http://www.hamannag.com/files/Super_Mini_Prospekt_RZ-1.pdf

specs here, the system is fully automated and I just removed the GM heads for 32 volt Atlantes fresh water versions. I plumbed 3 of my 4 heads to use fresh water and the forward head can be switched from fresh to salt in case of a fresh water shortage.

All 4 heads now feed in to the forward holding tank and the aft holding tank adds an extra 100 gal of diesel should i need it.

As far as fuel polishing I removed the complicated Hatteras manifiold system (also unusual as I have great respect for OEM sytems but 30 year old copper was compromised and it had an old freeman fuel monitoring system that was inoperable and full of leaks.

I use the forward keel tank as my day tank and transfer fuel to it from the aft tank or forward tank using a parker-Racor fuel conditioning pump/filter (the P Series.)

This way all the fuel that ends up in my 400 gal "day tank" is prefiltered and the fuel lines are simple runs making both contamination and leaks less likely.

(Also, when I say "I" it isnt accurate. I have had Bruce Morrison from Beufort NC do the work and with decades of hatteras experience he did a perfect job as usual.)