Starboard Fuel/Water In Cockpit Locker

[Steve Bates]

As a new owner I have been sailing since my acquisition of Poppy and have been wondering why I have two fill points, Port and Starboard, both marked ‘Water’.
The port side is fuel and I couldn’t figure the starboard side as I have been filling water directly into the tank in the cabin sole as instructed by the P.O. However on digging around the Starboard Cockpit locker I have discovered a tank hatch and on inspection the interior of the tank looks like it has never been used, it appears to have the original paint and has no smell whatsoever. Does anyone know if this was a standard or optional fitment. I cannot find an outlet from it without starting to disassemble furniture and I don’t want to put water in it if it’s a fuel tank and vice versa.

Thanks in advance

[Moderator]

Wing tanks were optional – our boat does not have them. Others do.

You can read some other discussions about these within other postings. Check out:

Isolation valve discussion

Filling diesel tanks

Marilyn

[Rhapsode]

Hi Steve,

Our boat has both wing tanks. The port one is for fuel and the starboard one for water. The isolating valve for the water tank is towards the aft end of the engine bay. The breather is a hose leading off from the top of the wing tank at the forward end which remains curled up inside the cockpit locker. When filling I uncurl the hose and lead it out of the locker so that the overflow water goes in the cockpit and ultimately the cockpit drain.

The main tank breather goes into the sink.

There is only one filler pipe which is on the starboard side. This feeds into the main tank. When it’s full the pressure in the pipe pushes the water up into into the wing tank.

On a couple of occasions during our last sailing season when the boat was rolling at anchor (not heavy rolling) there were loud percussive bangs emanating from the main tank. It was obviously an air bubble so the solution was to drain off a little water. This had never happened before and I have yet to discover why they happened this year. Maybe next year…

Peter

 

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