Tanks & Last-Minute Glitches

[wungout]

I have a friend who's worked hard to depart Florida for distant shores this month. He has, however, discovered a slow leak in one of his water tanks. His boat is a Baba 36. The tank is stainless steel, about 60 gallons, and apparently was the second thing laid down after the keel. To remove it would be major surgery, especially for someone anxious to get going. He isn't exactly sure where the leak is yet, and he can't reach the entire interior of the tank easily, but he's hoping to be able to patch the leak--when he finds it--with something applicable from the inside. Epoxy? Rhino-Liner? Baffles make installing a bladder problematic. Anyone have experience with this? I told him I'd ask. Thanks!

[RichH]

That tank should be easy to pull from the keel cavity .... just remove most of the removable sole hatches/panels, cut through the sole cross beams (cleat them back together with aluminum plates & bolts). Probably will be a corroded weld seam near the fore/bottom of the tank ... easy spot repair.

If the tank has adequate access/inspection ports ..... clean out the biofilm, sand grind all the bottom seams, overlay with several layers of FG cloth and WEST, etc. All repair epoxy should be overcoated with a NSF rated epoxy certified for use with potable water .... such as: www.nsp-specialty.com/page2.htm Its really easier to do such epoxy repair with the tank out of the boat .... as you usually need to cut additonal access/inspection ports onto the top so you can access between the baffles.