Bouyancy tanks

Discussion forum for the Otter class of sailing dinghy

Moderator: aptanet

Post Reply
Sonic
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jun 09, 2009 9:05 pm

Bouyancy tanks

Post by Sonic »

We have recently bought an old Otter but this being our first fibreglass boat we are not quite sure how much flex/give we should be expecting in the tanks. They seem to creak and flex quite a lot even with pressure just from our hands and neither of us is exactly tiny - should we be able to stand on the tanks with impunity?

Does anyone know anything about the construction of the tanks? Do they have a wooden frame inside? There seems to be bits of rotten wood coming out of the bungs and we wondered of there was some frame inside about to give way.

Ultimately we want to put two adults and two small kids inside for some gravel-pit trolling but we still want to be very confident about the tanks.

Any advice/insight most welcome!

Tamsin

jschwarzenbach
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2009 6:26 pm

Re: Buoyancy tanks

Post by jschwarzenbach »

Hello, yes you need to have this looked at. I have a similar situation, and have inspected the tank. There is wood (like a wood core with fiberglass reinforced plastic on the inside and outside of the buoyancy tank, There is also a seat which sits on top of each side of the boat on top of the tanks. The seat (thwart) in my case is made of wood. The seat is fastened to each tank with wood screws, so there is also wood on the top inside portion, the wood gives the GRP strength to stand or sit on the tank. I have yet to find a solution which satisfies my need for safety. I think both tanks need to be removed, and replaced with new.

Post Reply