[Myfathersson]

Now you might expect the next post to be the cap being married back to the hull...but it's not.

I hadn't figured out my fuel tank plan up until this point, but I decided it was time to solidify that portion before I put the cap back on. In modeling the target tank I decided that while I probably COULD get the tank in through the hatch...it's going to be whole hell of a lot easier to do BEFORE the cap goes on. So, since the stock market and economy have been doing better than I feared they might back in the early spring (I work in the restaurant industry so...), I felt comfortable in ordering the fuel tank, the Oceanlink FOLT5007 I mentioned earlier in this thread. It's a 50 gallon poly belly tank. Less capacity than the original tank but more than enough for my anticipated use. And most importantly it fits within the dimensional requirements of the original tank compartment!

With the tank settled I began formulating a plan for supporting it. I gridded out the hull line from the stringer top, and modeled the hull in Fusion360, as well as the tank. After locating the tank at the height I felt was appropriate I then created a platform which matches the tank profile. That platform will rest on a riser assembly which spans the innermost set of chines. The riser will get epoxied and glassed to the hull, the platform will get epoxied to the riser and glassed to the stringers on either side. There's 1½" of gap between the bulkheads fore and aft of the platform so any moisture that does happen to get down in there can find it's way all the way down to the bilge and out.




At the ends of the tank I will wedge in a few strips of 2" insulating foam to lock the tank in between the 2 bulkheads. I'm fabricating the hold downs which will provide the rest of the rigid mount from a piece of 18ga 304 stainless salvaged from a bar renovation so the tank should be well anchored, fully supported, and last the remainder of my lifetime.

Here's the riser assembly that I started yesterday morning:




And the platform I glued up this morning:




The platform will receive (2) 4" diameter holes matching the tank design which aren't cut yet.

And here's cutting up the stainless for the hold downs:






The flux core stainless wire will arrive at the end of this coming week but no rush on that as the tank has a minimum 3 week lead time - should be plenty of time to get all the glass work done on the riser and platform and get them mounted into the hull, and finally weld the gussets on the brackets.

And THAT catches the thread up! I've gotten a lot more accomplished this summer than I thought I would.

Hope you enjoy! Thanks - Greg