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From: Tom MacNaughton
Date: 14 Jan 2008
Time: 15:04:25 -0500
Remote Name: 66.252.35.229
My favorite material for fixed water tanks is stainless steel. These should be very carefully constructed and should not be very light gauge. They should be divided up into several smaller tanks connected to your pumps through a manifold. All this should be arranged so that if a hose breaks no water in a tank is lost and if a tank develops a pin hole leak only that tank will lose water. Synthetic bladder tanks seem to be a good idea but they should be within specially design areas which contain nothing else and which will contain the fresh water if the tank leaks. Also at least some earlier bladder tanks imparted a disagreeable taste to the water. Some people with more recent experience than I will have to say whether that can be a problem these days. For diesel fuel tanks I would always choose aluminum. Aluminum tanks are less likely to develop a pin hole leak when used as fuel tanks than stainless tanks. When constructing tanks there should be the absolute minimum of welded seams. Of course I’ve got to admit that on all our own live aboard boats we have adopted a system of carrying a large number of 1 gallon polyethylene jugs. If stored in carefully planned racks this works well. It is amazing how much of the time you have to lug jugs ashore to get water anyway so why not just plan for it from the beginning. This also divides your water supply up into many small containers and allows an easy visual check on water consumption. We would never integrate tanks into the hull structure. With fuel tanks it is now illegal in many jurisdictions to integrate tanks into the hull.