Hi Peggy: Last season, as a first year owner of a 1984 Newport 27S, I posted an inquiry about a lingering sweet, petro smell under the companionway.... I scrubbed the entire boat down. Things were better..... till the day I topped off the diesel tank for the winter. I topped it off too well..... right up to the filler neck. Smell was back in a big way within the hour. Upon investigating the inaccessible regions where boatmakers love to hide fuel tanks, I could see that I had a puddle of diesel on top of the fuel tank.....next to a wet, and I'll assume leaking, fuel sender.... The fuel that was contained in the fuel lines ABOVE the height of the tank was causing an overflow out of the sender gasket. It appears that the fuel line and vent lines to the engine are dry and well sealed. The fuel inlet hose's connection to the tank is totally inaccessible, but there doesn't seem to be any capillary action of fuel creeping along the main fuel hose where I can see it (which I'd expect if it were leaking at it's connection to the tank) so I'm hoping the leak is confined to the sender gasket.
I'll have to figure out how to get to and reseal that sender, but my real question is once done, HOW do I evacuate and then eradicate all traces of diesel that has flowed around the tank and then down into the bilge etc.? I'll never be able to actually SEE these areas. It also makes sense to me now that every so often after a roudy sail where the boat was well-heeled, the smell would be back. I'll bet the sloshing around of diesel in a mostly well-filled tank is what did the trick. I'd love to hear if others had the same experience, and how they coped. I look forward to some help here.
I'll have to figure out how to get to and reseal that sender, but my real question is once done, HOW do I evacuate and then eradicate all traces of diesel that has flowed around the tank and then down into the bilge etc.? I'll never be able to actually SEE these areas. It also makes sense to me now that every so often after a roudy sail where the boat was well-heeled, the smell would be back. I'll bet the sloshing around of diesel in a mostly well-filled tank is what did the trick. I'd love to hear if others had the same experience, and how they coped. I look forward to some help here.
