In my last post, Adventures in Fueling, I briefly discussed my fuel tank and its vent, or lack thereof, as I told Ned, the hovering powerboater. I’ve not had my boat a year yet, so I’m still learning new things about her and of boats in general. So, naturallly, when I said that my boat didn’t have a vent, lots of savvy boaters chimed in and said that all fuel tanks have vents. That’s what I love about the boating community: helpful and friendly at the same time.
My fueling vent is on the transom, and is like an aluminum button nose, with two tiny nostrils. I’ve wondered what the heck it was, and now, thanks to all of you, I do. It probably needs a good cleaning, which I’ll be sure to get to soon.
In one of my first boating posts, I said something like “wisdom is knowing you know nothing.” Which makes me very wise when it comes to boats. I admit, I know just about nothing, but love learning more every day both on my own, and from readers like you who lovingly refrain from targeting me with blonde jokes. Though I do like a good blonde joke every once in a while, as my sense of humor is pretty basic.
Your previous story about fueling cracked me up! We also had this issue, and partly resolved it by cleaning the vents (we have 2 tanks, both of which were clogged by spiders (ugh!) when we got the boat). Don’t know if it would be practical for you, but we often get around the problem by filling jerry cans at the fuel dock, then bringing them to the boat to fill at our leisure. This also let us baja-filter the fuel as we were pouring it into our tanks – helpful if you’re fueling in sketchy areas. And, saves us the trouble of moving the boat around to the fuel dock, then back to a marina slip, if we’re coming in as transients. That’s if we’re traveling a lot, as we do on the north-south migration. Other than those times, though, a tank of fuel lasts all season – it’s a SAIL boat, after all. We were advised to use a fuel stabilizer, to avoid problems associated with less-than-fresh fuel. (I forgot, does Libby run on gas or diesel?)
Diesel!