Painting the Water Tank

Patience is equipped with a large integral water storage tank built into her bow, with a capacity of several hundred litres. One of the recommendations from the survey was to repaint it with a potable tank paint, as some rust is beginning to appear. Today I plucked up courage to climb into the tank through the rather small hatch in the foredeck, which is visible in the photo at the top of the blog (not for those with either claustrophobia or a bigger than average waistline).

This enabled me to remove the final few inches of water that was trapped below the outlet pipe and make a closer inspection of the tank's condition. I should add here that the tank had previously been drained down as part of Patience's preparation for winter! Although the galvanised steel is in pretty good condition, it does indeed need repainting, with some rust visible and paint flaking off in places. I found a part tin of bitumen paint on board that is advertised as being suitable for drinking water tanks, although Patience is also equipped with a separate plastic drinking water tank in the galley, so we won't be drinking the water from the bow tank. So the next task is to wirebrush the old paint and apply a couple of new coats, wearing a boiler suit and a facemask.