diesel tank breathers not breathing!

Hi all,

we have used thousands of litres of diesel on our 630 and every time i put diesel in the tanks we get air trapped inside the tanks and so cannot fill up properly! This has been like this since the begining.

The only way we can actually fill up is by cracking open the actual tank inspection hatches to let the air out, which is very inconvenient and of course the smell of diesel fumes down below is unpleasent for the owner, etc.

numerous attempts have been made to fix this problem by previous skippers and even the hanse engineers, but all have failed!

does anyone else have this problem???

cheers,

david.
630#17

We solved the problem on our Port side since we found that the tubes were bent. They need to be entirely straight all the way to the breather exit. Working on the Starboard side now, but very complicated since we have a much longer hose.

As for letting air in, we found that if you drilled a hole in the round plate that the tank has for checking it and then solder a nut with a bolt and a rubber washer, it works perfectly. You just undo the bolt off, like a valve, and in goes the fuel without any problem. I would use a 10 mm or more bolt, that way enough air can escape. As for diesel smell, sadly, until you fix your breather tubes, you can only do it this way. but it's much quicker and avoids spilling any fuel.

Now that we have a properly working breather tube, we have replaces the round plates with thick Plexiglas plates. This allows us to see when the tank is really topped off or not. Works great and we have kept the two steel plates with the valves as reserve in case we ever have a problem in the future.

Hope this helps.

All the best,

S/Y Athina
Hanse 630 - 004


Edited by Athina Captain - 08 November 2009 at 10:13

That seems strange, with us it comes out from the breathers. Maybe there is a loose connector. It happened to us once, but that was because the round covers on the tanks were not tight enough and when it was full, some came out from there. Obviously we have since tightened them 

Have fun sailing in Greece, no better place to be.

Now I am jealous 

Suppose you had good weather?