Learning the hard way...

When purchased Sarah Claire was obviously in need of some tlc. The previous owner had done some nice things to her, but neglected a lot as well. She had been mostly idle for some time.

Endeavours are great boats, but not perfect, no boat is. They are know as great liveaboards, handles well in a blow, but sails reasonably well in light airs. Comfortable down below, with more room than many similar sized boats. But they are not without their problems.

The main one is the tanks. All the tanks are in the bilge. That's both good and bad. Good in that valuable storage space is maintained for ship stores. Bad in that poor or no air flow, standing salt water, and time causes them to pit, and the welds on the aluminum tanks to leak eventually. The tanks will last a while but on a old boat like Sarah, they leak. And while my surveyor found no evidence of leaking, I knew they did, as I got a nose for diesel fuel. The smell makes me ill. So I knew the first thing that had to be done was replacing the fuel tank. No easy task! First I pulled up all the flooring (sole) to expose the water tanks. These also leaked and had large mineral deposits throughout the tank. They had to go. Out came the saws all, and they were gone. The tanks were built in to the boat before the deck was fitted, so there was only one way to get them out. Cutting them into little pieces. This was laborious work. Once done I then had to cut large oak stringers and a part of the engine room bulkhead to expose the tank face. I found several inches of diesel sludge in the lower bilge. All the bilge pumps were coated in it, and the bilge hose was choked with it as well. This was a major safety issue. Using a large pry bar, crow bar and just plain old stubbornness, I managed to get the tank out. This was of course after I drained out 55 gallons of diesel fuel into smaller tanks. The tank was full of sludge and the exterior badly pitted. All this was done by myself. But getting it out required Julies help. Once out, the bilge was scooped out, degreased, and painted with interlux bilgekote in white.

The tank was removed to my home where it was cleaned, degreased, pressure washed and new access hatches cut into the top. The interior was sealed with blue coat, and the exterior was marine texed, then painted with bilgekote. New fittings, new gaskets and I had a somewhat new tank.

The water tanks were replaced with Ronco poly tanks. http://www.ronco-plastics.net/

These tanks are not custom made, so you have to pick the right ones out of hundreds of sizes, shapes and configurations. Unfortunately for me, picking the right tanks proved to be time consuming, and then the wrong fittings were ordered. I now have additional work to do on them.

As in most things the leaning curve can be steep at times. More on that later.......