OK, to paraphrase Pogo, I have met Murphy and he is me. After running the motor in the barrel on the front tank with no problems, I decided to put some gas in the rear tank yesterday to prepare for sea trials today and check out the tank switching and gauge readings for both tanks. I got about 9 gallons in and started to smell gasoline. All my connections are above deck and accessible, so a quick check indicated it had to be below deck problems. After a panic search for a piece of fuel line long enough to connect to the rear pickup and out through the transom drain, I siphoned all but a quart or so out of the tank, but that had ended up in the bilge. It looks like my craigslist bargain 34 gal tank may have a hole or crack in it. I can't believe I did not test it before installing it, but it was poly and looked fine. After getting in a funk about the situation, I decided to sleep on it and this morning decided that since I still have a 27 gal tank up front, and I have the bilge pretty cleaned out by a good flushing, I am going to put off tearing the deck out to get the bad tank or whatever is wrong repaired or replaced. That can wait until the end of the season or at least until I have a good plan of what to do. The rear tank will be flotation for now. Still, I did have to take a few gas lines and under splashwell rigging out and so there will be a bit of a delay in getting splashed for the first time while I put things back in order and bleed the air out.
The silver lining is that I have made the deck and sidewall take out easier to do by using removable fasteners. And the deck could use a recoat of paint and non skid after construction scratches and a bit of red over spray.
Moral of the story, take nothing for granted.
Ron
