[Public-list] Fuel tanks

[Don Campbell]

Recently there has been some comment on the list about fuel tanks and
ethanol degradation on fiberglass tanks. I had the problem of a leaking
metal tank in #528 several years ago and did a bit of research into
replacement tanks for that one then. The company that made the original
is still in St. Louis and still makes that tank size but I felt it was
expensive at the time (and  probably more so with a weak Canadian $).  I
had my tank epoxied on the inside.
    From what I could find available at the time, the safest tank for
high octane fuels was one made for race cars and available at any custom
speed shop for anyone who wanted to race cars ( any style from stock to
dragsters)  whether the fuel was gasoliine or alcohol (methanol or
ethanol). There is a  requirement that the fuel tank for race cars
cannot leak if the car rolls and I thought that was a reasonable safety
consideration for a sailboat too. The only problem I had with the tanks
that I saw was that the fill system did not fit an Alberg 30
particularly well and some changes needed to be made for supports. This
was several years ago and so there may be something different now. They
were heavy (almost 1/2" thick) moulded plastic, and with anti-spill
components, all of which looked excellent for our application. I have no
idea of whether they would be acceptable to ABYC regs though.
Don
#528