Problems to look for when surveying west epoxy Swallow boats

[Graham W]

You can put a camera down there with interesting (to me anyway) results.  The photo below was taken from the ballast tank port forward inspection hatch, looking aft, after I had removed the annoying blue polystyrene blocks from the roof of the tank. I think it looks a bit like an underground car park.

[Sea Simon]

Impressively clean GW!

What has been your operating/maintenance regime?

[graham2burton65@gmail.com]

Nice one Graham W,

I had forgotten this technique.....even though I used it when buying a Fireball via Ebay many years ago. 
thanks

[Graham W]

Impressively clean GW!

What has been your operating/maintenance regime?

Simon,

I don't have a regime - the photo was taken in 2012 when the boat was only eighteen months old!  Mixing salt- and freshwater sailing and allowing the tank to dry out by mostly keeping it on a trailer probably means that it's probably not as dank as it would be on a mooring.  I'll take another photo next time I go garden sailing.

[Sea Simon]

GW

Good point about being particularly dark while on a mooring.
Mine spends the majority of time under a full cover while on the mooring, hence my tank is in the dark.
Also, my hull is navy blue, with copperbot.

Does your boat have a white bottom? Not antfouled I'm guessing?

Will be interesting to see your latest pics. Thanks.

[Peter Taylor]

Re. fouling in Ballast tanks: I'd forgotten about animals being able to grow in the dark! However things like barnacles and mussels are filter feeders that need their food brought past them in the currents. Not much food and not much current in a ballast tank.

Anyway I was intrigued so I've just spent a frustrating time emptying the ballast tanks on Seatern and taking photos... emptying the ballast tank was easy since I have an electric "wakeboard pump" installed - it was getting the iphone to take the photo that was frustrating!

The best photo I got is attached. It's looking aft from the hatch in the floor of the cockpit of the BC20. The ballast tank has been full of seawater almost continuously for over 6 years. The yellow thing to the left is a buoyancy bag which is calculated to displace the same mass of water as the weight of a lead-acid battery which is situated immediately forward of the ballast tank. The floor and sides of the tank look good. It looks like the thick paint coat on the underside of the cabin floor (top of the ballast tank) slumped and bubbled a bit when the tank was put together.  Feeling with my hand the imperfections are not as huge as they look in the photo - they would only have been an inch or two from the camera lens! The brown stuff might some form of (dead?) algal growth but in general the tank looks pretty clean.

Sometimes when I've opened the hatch there has been a slight rotten eggs smell so I guess the oxygen in the water gets used up by any life that comes in (and by the rusting self bailer?!). I do have a course wire mesh filter on the intake side and in line with the filling/emptying pump.

So my feeling is that fouling in ballast tanks that are left full of sea water is not an issue.

Peter

[Sea Simon]

PT
Would tend to agree, that fouling should not be an issue
Unless....like me, you are forgetful and leave the tank open to sea, on a tidal mooring! In my case very short term, so only sand, no fouling.

[Peter Taylor]

That's another advantage of using a pump to empty and fill the ballast tank... too noisy to forget!

[Graham W]

Eight years later, not as grungy as I was expecting.

[Sea Simon]

You have posted an excellent survey technique GW!

Hoorah, we're back on topic!

[MRamsay]

Following this thread as I'm also looking to buy
I appreciate the question getting asked
Thx