Where's the Fuel?

Dan Cross, who is managing the various small projects that are we are doing on OceanFlyer as we wait for YachtPath, called today. The reason he called was to ask if we wanted him to add fuel since there was none showing in the sight gauges.

He later called to say that even after adding 50 gallons per side, there was nothing showing in the sight gauges. We went through the usual checklist of what could be going on. The most likely problem is that the valves that control access to the sight gauges were not working properly.

Dan checked those values and they were all OK. To make a long story short, the ultimate mystery was a result of the fact that the tanks have a very sloped bottom. They slope at about a 15 degree angle from the front of the tank to the rear. The angle matches the prop shaft so it was done to accommodate the latest tank possible in the space above the prop shafts.

The boat has a Tank Watch fuel gauge so we will put more importance on it than the sight gauges as the fuel gets below the level of the forward edge of the tank. Just reinforces that no two boats are the same.