Tank Storage On Sailboat

[Luis H]

I lived on my Slocum 43 for a bit over 5 years. We kept four tanks (in a tank rack I made) below the floor boards on both sides of the mast step (high out of any bilge water). I can’t remember where I kept my small sets of double, but I think one was under the V berth.

Securing them down is important. The sun will not hurt them, but the deck is a bad place. They will get in your way and they will be vulnerable to impact from other deck gear. IMO, sailing across you want as clean deck as possible.

I have seen many sailors securing all kinds of gear on deck to find it either damaged or washed overboard during even a mild offshore crossing. One of my worst ocean crossings was between West Palm Beach and West End.

If you must secure them on deck, make sure they are in a well secured tank rack (preferably horizontal to provide a lower profile to any green water flushing over the deck) and protect the valves from impacts. Locate them as far aft as possible, never forward of the mast, but preferably in the cockpit, perhaps in a lazarette.

If a tank breaks loose on deck, all you can hope is that it ends overboard before it does some real damage.


Talking about tank overboard, my LDS has an aluminum tank that a fishing boat brought up in its net. It was full, but looking at the amount of external corrosion and pitting it looked like it wasn’t going to hold pressure for too much longer.

 

[rleslie]

Thanks for all of the input. Your comments have caused me to reconsider and I've decided to build a rack out of 2x6s in our laundry locker. The compartment is the perfect size & easily accessible. I will epoxy the rack to the hull and use ratchet straps to hold them in place.

Thanks again
Roger

 

[Piro]

we bungied 4 inside while underway to one of the aft cabins, inside in the "just enough space to stand up, hit your head, and cuss" area,wrapped them in beack towels to stop from clanking, and bungied em to a hook.

Then at anchor we moved em around out of the way, occasionly on deck under rhe biminee,

but whatever oyu do, DO NOT TAP THE VALVE TO KEEP WATER OUT, the sticky on the tape leave a residue and before to long will warp the o ring size/ height, or jsut pull it out, and if your in an area that fills are hard enough to find let alone spare parts, i would buy a fwe extra o-rings, for cameras,lights, tanks, and such, also take exta grease.

Have a blast

 

[NorthWoodsDiver]

Dont buy black tanks if you can help it. The black tanks heat up a bit more in the sun and the tank pressure increases more because of it. Of course that doesn't mean its gonna be enough pressure to blow the burst discs but I dont like having them with more than 3200 psi in aluminum 80's. In fact the best choice would be aluminum no coat tanks I would think but I dont know how the salt water would affect them.

I would suggest you pick up a few items to keep on hand for a more advanced "save a dive kit" including but not limited to.

-a handy tool kit with pliers, screw drivers, hex keys and what ever other tools you might need specific to scuba. I have a $45 Stanley kit in a handy plastic case for diving. another handy item to carry is a small pair of bolt cutters and stainless steel pliers. I might also carry a sewing kit capable of sewing heavy nylon materials.
-a good O-ring kit. I have seen many nice kits available but reefscuba.com is one of the best I have seen.
-a variety of zip ties, latex tubing, bungee cord, marine grade rope, cave line, 1" & 2" nylon webbing or any other line you think you may need.
-hardware backups like a variety of bolt snaps, quick links, carabiners, belt slides, D-rings, plastic buckles (if you actually use them) and maybe a grommet repair kit.
-lift bags, marker buoys, reels, spools, or any other lifting/marking devices.
-backup low pressure and high pressure hoses and a couple hp and lp port plugs.
-any gear specific repair tools like drysuit patches and aquaseal or even some 5 minute epoxy.
-a few pounds of extra weight and a spare weight pouch if you use weight pouches
-batteries and a spare dive light if you need lights and a mesh bag would round out the list.

I follow murphy's laws so I pack for the worst case scenario and more often than not I never need any of the gear but that 1 time I do makes if all worth it. BTW I have a small duffel that I carry all of the above mentioned gear in for every dive. hope that helps