Minimum Tankage

[sab30]

Just a quick question as I am in the final decision between a couple boats and one issue is tankage. Being that I have never cruised I thought the opinion of experience would help. As a liveaboard doing mostly 80-85% coastal cruising (50% of time at anchor) and 15-20% blue water for passages what would you say is the recommended minimal tankage for fuel and water?

[kwaltersmi]

Wow. The answer to those questions varies widely depending on your usage (obviously). Do you plan to use a rain-catch or watermaker on your passages to supplement the tankage? Do you plan to shower daily on your passages?

What boats are you considering? The size of the boat, sailing characteristics of your boat, and the length of your intended passages will play a big role in your minimum fuel tankage.

Sorry I don't have a better answer, but hopefully the above has helped.

[camaraderie]

I would just offhand look for tankage that would allow motoring for 300 miles (gallons would depend on engine size/displacement = mpg's) and about 50 gallons of water per anticipated crew DIVIDED into at least 2 tanks in case one gets corrupted.

Obviously...you can get by with less or add a watermaker but I would consider less tankage "roughing it".

[Valiente]

You can also carry fuel and water on deck lashed to the mast, but on a 30 footer, that idea gets negative fairly quickly.

You might be interested in some of the Pardey's ideas on tankage and stowage on smaller boats. Not universally applicable, but thought-provoking, nonetheless.

[gnsail]

This post reminded me of The Voyage of the Frog by Gary Paulsen. Odd flashback of 5th grade. From reading that book, the more tankage the better. (Sorry for the distraction.)

[Melrna]

Coastal cruising generally means never being away from a port with services for more than a few days. So fuel tankage will vary with the engine consumption but as camaraderie mention 300 miles is a good start. I am not a fan of lashing fuel or water Jerry cans to anything on the deck. They are safety hazard to both crew and boat in my humble opinion. Water to be carried is one gallon per person per day and that doesn't include any water for showers. Most people say 1/2 to 3/4 a gal per person but that is just for drinking and no other uses like cooking, cleaning and person hygiene. If you are the hook 50% of the time you still should be able to get to services to top off tanks and dump the waste tank.

[camaraderie]

Mel...I was more thinking of the 15% blue water cruising planned as this is really the only mode in which it is really important. In any other mode...low tankage is simply a pain! (g)

[Melrna]

I saw that too about offshore cruising. But the flip side to all the fuel and water tanks is most day sailors and coastal cruiser don't use that much fuel and water in the first place through the season. If the same fuel & water is in the tank season after season nasty things start to happen inside the tanks. Instead of sailing, one has to more boat work ( it isn't enough we have more than we can handle now) like fuel polishing, algae control, tank cleaning etc..... So plan according

[PBzeer]

I have 66 gals of water (including WH), but I carry gallon jugs of distilled water for human consumption. I try to stock up (at least 12 jugs on hand) whenever I'm in a place I can get transportation. I also carry individual bottles of drinking water as well.

I have a 28 gal fuel tank, and also carry two five gallon jerry cans, plus two 2 1/2 gal cans for the generator and dinghy motor. To this point, I haven't run out of fuel, the longest run being Destin to Tampa, which was three full days offshore.

[LyleRussell]

In the Army we were allowed 2 quarts per man per day. Backpacking we seem to use (drink & cook & brush teeth) 1 gal per man per day. Showers figure 6 gals per man per day.

The only place this really matters is your offshore legs. Tankage determines the duration of voyage between ports.

Avoid lashing jugs on deck.