I glassed the outside of the dagger case grey tanks up to the last still open panel. I will fit the top of the tanks skin fittings during the week and close it up. I will also fit the top of tank skins to the other 3 tanks and close them up also, hopefully during the week and start fitting them into the boat next weekend (all except the dagger case tank which must wait until after I put the side deck on).
I started cutting and fitting the 2 fresh water tank dividers today. The area is 1200mm x 1100mm deep x 600mm wide which is about 790mm cubed which in turn is 790 litres. With 2 x 18mm spacers (the internal dividing walls) each tank becomes 388mm x 600mm x 1100mm which makes each tank 256 litres full.
The first panel was easy to tape the first side because of the rest of the space in the opening, and I only did the tape on the open side of the space, but once it is in and set, I have to tape a 1100mm deep panel in a 400mmx600mm space. Not so easy. I think I am going to have to try a coving tool on an extension and then figure out a way to get the tapes on well by leaning into the tank upside down. I have tried to reach down in a space that tight and it is very difficult.
At 250 litres each there will be a lot of weight and force sloshing around inside the tanks so just to be safe and to limit the free surface area I will build baffles across the middle of each tank (fore and aft, you can see it sitting roughly in between holding the spacing right in the pic) to brace the middle walls from about 100mm from the bottom to about 100mm from the top It will add rigidity to the structure and give me something to glass the intake pipes to. They will draw water from the bottom of the tanks up to the pumps and will draw to about 20mm leaving the very bottom of the tank water there so that if there is any sediment in the water it wont get drawn up into the system. I will also have depth gauges that work with floats inside another pvc tube that turn a dial on a bezel above the tank to indicate the litres left in each tank (once I calibrate them to the depth of the tank). Once this is all done and I have epoxy coated the internal walls about 3 times than applied a couple of coats of non leaching, food grade potable water tank paint, I can build the lids with their various skin fittings (intake, outflow and breather) as well as the gauge on each and close the tanks up.
