On 26/02/2010 20:13, Phil Rushton wrote: > I wouldn't assume that all 57 ft Heron boats have the same capacity tank. I > remember a few > years ago when Liverpool Boats changed the radius of the stern but kept the > same > position for the bulkhead which formed the front of the tank. The result was > several boats > having fuel capacity of only approx 10 gallons :-( > > Is your fuel tank built in to the stern with the uxter plate forming the > bottom and the rear deck > forming the top of the tank? > If so you can easily calculate the capacity and calibrate an accurate > dipstick: > > Next time you top up the tank insert a length of dowel through the filler > and then mark on............ Hi Phil,
The uxter plate certainly is the bottom of the tank - although I'm not completely positive that the rear deck forms the top (I'll check on Sunday). I did exactly what you suggested when I first filled the tank to the brim and I calculated the tank's capacity at a tad under 220 litres; but then, when I next took on fuel (from Andy, on the K&A) my calculated quantity to fill to the top again was considerably out - which then put the tank's capacity at around the 180 litre mark ... My son used the boat over the half term break and I dipped the tank before he left so I could be sure he had plenty of fuel for his planned cruise, which was only some 35 miles, plus about four or five hours anticipated for battery charging/hot water. There was rather less fuel than I had expected to remain in the tank and I made a mental note to look into the calibration of the dipstick when we swapped back again. When I moved 'Wyrd', a few days back, the engine initially appeared to be suffering from fuel starvation under load; this led me to dip the tank again (as part of my initial fault-finding checks) and the tank again appeared to be substantially lower than I had expected, especially when the actual engine hours were taken into consideration, which again suggested that the initial markings on the dipstick dowelling were inaccurate. As the weather was being rather unkind to me (putting it mildly, lol, as the rain reminded me of living in the tropics during the wet season), and I was also in a great hurry to get away, I've not been in a position to investigate any further as of yet. My only thoughts have centred around the ideas that either the tank is not linear, as I had previously thought, or that some of the last 'fill' has been misappropriated in some manner - or though how the latter might have occurred is not really clear, as the only times 'Wyrd' has been unmanned for any length of time recently was when she was iced in.. I'll be taking some diesel up with me when I go back later today so I'll dip, before and after putting it into the fuel tank, in order to check my initial calculations. The only other thing I've managed to do so far was to ask the question about capacities. The engine 'problem' may well be simply down to water condensate in the fuel tank as with the fuel level being considerably less than expected, and the weather so cold, it is a definite possibility. I'll also have to make more of an effort to get hold of some water finding paste than I've done in the recent past! Thanks for your useful, and comprehensive, post - I appreciated the time you put into making it and I'm sure others will too :-) Trevor [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
