Water tank now finished

2 weeks ago I finished grinding and sweeping out the inside of the tank, I climbed out to let the dust settle and have a coffee.  When I got back into the tank after cleaning my dust mask and glasses I spent the next 2 hrs grinding the rust I had missed. The inside walls, floor and roof have now been painted and the access cover replaced and sealed. I had hoped to re-paint the Foredeck and Anchor Locker but this has been rained off this Easter, on the bright side it is good to have water in the taps again.

 

Weed Hatch now re-assembled

The Weed Hatch, cover and new seal have now been painted with Bitumen and reassembled. The clean steel and rust pot marked areas were treated with a rust treatment as advised by the people who supplied the Bitumen, this converts the rust areas to a solid state so the top coat will stick for a longer period, time will tell and we’ll see during Winter maintenance next year.

Water tank woes

3 weeks ago in a moment of madness, I decided to check the condition of the forward water tank as it had been drained for frost protection for the Winter, perhaps more to the point no one had looked inside it for 12 years. The access cover was secured by 20 set screws, all of them rusted in and most of a weekend was spent drilling them out. 

After removing the inspection cover I discovered the welded seems were rusty and the floor of the tank was covered with about 25mm of mud so 2 weekends have been spent grinding out the rust and cleaning out the mud and more work is still required.