Buying an old used motor yacht can raise concerns. Some of these shortcomings can be positively alarming. However, the true understanding that purchasing a boat that is in trouble can be approached cheaply is appreciated.

A few weeks ago our 300 gallon stainless steel water supply tank started leaking; the problem was first discovered at 3:00 a.m. because the aft bilge pump was still running. Although the actual leak has yet to be found, we realize that it is at the top. Our ship is 27 years old; What are you waiting for! Things just break.

Mike did a lot of research on both custom aluminum tanks and made the decision to order a 130 gallon polyethylene tank. Polyethylene tanks are molded in one piece and the plastic will never break down. He sent a drawing to the retailer, Plastic-Mart, which revealed the area where all the accessories were to be installed. The retailer asked the manufacturer to email us directly to make sure our fit areas were correct. The water tank arrived on a truck a couple of days later and all the accessories we bought fit perfectly into the factory holes.

The big day was finally here. Our good friend and ship surveyor, Mike Hagan of CYA Surveys, volunteered to help us with this mammoth task. We start doing the work at 9:00 am on Saturday morning. Mike and Mike did the hard work; Nadine and I act as assistants. They operated a Sawzall to cut through the stainless steel tank so we could remove it from the boat. Due to its size, the fresh water tank was fitted to our used trawler before the superstructure was built. They flew through approximately fifteen metallic cutting blades. Just cutting the first tank took about five hours. It was a huge task. They finished cutting the old tank into several different sections. I insisted they wear gloves so they wouldn’t cut themselves on the jagged edges. They methodically lifted each part and put it on the dock. Fortunately, that ended with negligible damage to our teak bulkheads.

The next phase was to build a new casing for the new freshwater tank to sit on and secure. The new water tank is about 3/4 the dimension of the old stainless steel water tank. Mike used 2 x 4’s and built a nice frame for it to stay on. After that, it was time to put the new water tank in his new residence. The new fresh water tank is made of plastic, so it wasn’t as difficult to lift as the old stainless steel tank. All of our custom holes had been drilled in the proper location – my Mike did an outstanding job.

The next step was to connect the new hose to the tank…oops…we bought the wrong dimension hose. At this point, Nadine and Mike broke up. They wanted to go home. It was late and we were all exhausted.

The next morning Mike and I retrieved the wrong size hose and headed out to find the correct hose. We went to Home Depot and Lowe’s, neither of which had a sufficient amount of the correct size. We eventually ended up at Ace where they stored a large number of plastic hoses. We got back to the boat and needed to cut a hole in our head wall to get the new hose through. Burning a hole in a trawler is a scary thing. We stretch the hose from the new tank all the way forward to the fresh water pump. We needed to prime the water hose to get the air out and then we started adding water to the tank. I was a bit worried about completing this task, so Mike kept a close eye on all the accessories to make sure nothing leaked. And we had no leaks…thank goodness!

The total cost of this project was $1,002.00 and it required a number of eleven hours to complete. Our friend refused any cash and I can assure you that if he hired a shipyard to do it, the labor charge would in all likelihood be close to $1,000. So we installed a new water tank at half the sale price you’d get from a shipyard.

Our trawler should be fine for the rest of its life now with the new polyethylene freshwater tank. All said and done, this project turned out to be easier than we had imagined.

So if your trawler needs a new freshwater tank, here is my guide:

You will probably need two men to handle the bulky freshwater tank.

Make sure you have a good Sawzall and about 20 thick metal hacksaw blades.

Make sure you have some towels to blot up the blood… you’ll probably cut yourself.

Keep some gloves on hand for when you need to move the cut tank around the boat.

Keep several blankets to protect teak that may be near your work.

Our next task is the replacement of our fuel tanks. Goodness!