Once there was a water tank and all was good.

But lo these 30yrs(almost) have passed and the once bright and beautiful tank has become a leaky and unsightly thing.

The Devil Corrosion has made his mark and as is his usual way he placed this mark where no man(or surveyor) would be able to see it.

His mark is a corruption upon the face(actually the far end) of the tank, making it useless.

Ok, so enough of the pseudo biblical stuff.

The water tank has a leak. No let me take that back. It has a hole. A good one by the look of how fast the water going in is coming back out.

This is the layout. The tank is 4'long x 10"deep x 9"wide and is firmly attached to the hull by 4 fiberglass straps. It is also below the beautiful teak and holly sole(floor for you nonsailors). The choices for removal are cut the sole or take the tank out in pieces.

Pieces it is.

So how do you remove a tank of these dimensions through a 12"x10" hole you might ask? Well if it was your boat I'd say "Geeze I don't know, eh" and find some other place to be before you ask me to help.

This was the most horrible job I have ever done on any boat, anywhere, anytime, including exploding heads and rotten fish guts in the deepest recesses of the bilge blocking the bilge pump intake.

It may be, that as you age, the pain involved in the job takes more precedent than the actual job. This was a lovely.

In order to get at the tank I had to spend hours(12 of them over 3 days) on my knees with my head down, reaching into the hole you see in the picture.

I cut the top of the tank open with a Sawzall and carefully cut the sides and bottom with a Dremel tool and using a pair of vise grips broke all the first 6" of the tank away. Now I could get at the straps. I had to make 4 cuts on each side of the tank using a pruning saw with an extendable handle I bought for a hunting trip I'd planned. I had to do most of this job blind as the space on top of the tank was about 4"x 5". Also, not cutting a hole in the hull was of prime importance. So with all the care I could muster and much cursing the 8 cuts were made. To my never ending surprise when I applied the 3ft prybar to the tank it move forward just like it was supposed to. There was no inrush of saltwater and the deck didn't cave in.

Wonders may never cease!

So that was day one. Day 2 and 3 were much the same except I traded the Dremel tool in for the much more robust RotoZip.

A word of caution to anyone who purchases one of these little wonders.

BE CAREFUL!!!!!!

They are not only capable of cutting almost any type of material known to man, they seem to have a taste for human flesh. When they say in the instructions that the Flexishaft may whip about if dropped they aren't kidding. If it hadn't thrashed itself into a corner and actually turned itself off I might not be here to tell the tale.

I used(and abused) my SawZall for most of the heavy cutting but the side cuts next to the hull and the bottom cuts next to the keel had to be made with the little fibre reinforced cutting wheels. They don't last very long cutting 1/8" aluminum and I went through 28 of the little devils before the end requiring me to remove my gloves and straighten up each and every time one broke. I was usually just getting comfortable(a very relative term) when the little SOB broke.

Cutting the tank into pieces while on my knees reaching 10" below the deck with a wildly spinning cutting wheel on a snakey Flexishaft inches below my bare throat was as much of a nightmare as I need for a while.

The other picture is of the monster dismembered and ready for the trash bin.

The Lord High Gunsmith and his implements of destruction have prevailed again.

Now to find a flexible tank to fit in the same space this one just came out of.

Can you smell the money being spent?

Now for a large bourbon and water to wash down a couple of Tylenol PM and I'll be all set.........martin