323 Water Tanks

[323Voyager]

During my survey I was warned the tanks were not usable for drinking water. Also the Bow tank was cracked and leaking. Doing some digging I couldn't find much info on replacing them. So I did what any untrained fool would do, and started cutting, I mean investigating...

The water tanks were made of fiberglass and were glassed to the hull. One under each Settee and one in the V Birth. I cut out the Settee tops. They were sandwich construction like a deck, and had 1/2" plywood core and glass on each side. The tanks were glass, and quite thick. It took awhile to cut and grind them out.

[323Voyager]

In the above images, believe it or not, I had cleaned them up with bleach. The insides were coated in black slime and smelled bad. The tanks had baffles, which would have made them near impossible to clean properly if not replacing them.

Here are the pics with the tanks almost entirely removed.

I measured the area available to me, and scoured the inter-webs for premade tanks that would kinda fit.

I designed how I wanted the ports on the tanks and ordered them. Next I will be making supports for the tanks I will glass and epoxy to the hull, for the tanks to rest and get strapped into.
I plan on making the tank "cradles" out of 1/4" marine ply and glue and stitching them together and maybe covering them in chop strand or just epoxy to make them water resistant.

The last pic is just the tank sitting in the space under the settee to make sure it was going to fit.

[323Voyager]

For anyone in the future looking to replace their 323 tanks. These are the ones I chose. I got them from Ronco Plastics.

The two Settee tanks are just a mirror of each other and are the B228, 30 gal Tanks.

The Waste Tank is B226 a 17 Gal tank. (This tank was also in the VBirth, not sure if I'm mounting in same place, or changing head layout and mounting in the head)

The Bow tank is B469 a 39 Gal tank. All fit quite well.
Below are the drawings I made for the tanks and their hose attachments.

[DavidG]

Voyager,
Thanks for the tank information as I have been considering plastic welding my bow tank fitting/side wall that was busted out of the tank (i.e., triangular tank side wall piece along with the hose fitting was busted/separated). It looks like someone stepped on the fitting and the side wall triangular piece busted out from the stress1?  Never the less, your replacement info has me considering replacing the bow tank altogether.  Could you expand upon how you got the bow tank into its location; was there a lot of interference removal required?  If it is not a major ordeal I am considering the replacement otherwise will try my hand at plastic welding as a starting point.  Thanks, DavidG/Independence

PS - I am located on the Sassafras River not to far from your hailing port.

[323Voyager]

Hi DavidG sorry for the late reply, I haven't been very attentive at the forum. It was not too bad, but I'm doing a semi complete refit so all the cutting and fabricating is just a part of it.
I completely cut out the bow and settee tanks. Then built fiberglass reinforced wood cradles, and mounted the new plastic tanks in the cradles.Below are a few pics. If you have the original fiberglass tanks, You can use epoxy and some light weight fiberglass to repair your tank. However my tanks were really nasty inside, there was no way I was ever going to bath or drink water from them. SO I got all new tanks.


Also I decided to move the black tank to behind the head instead of under the V-Birth.

Labor of love Dave.

[323Voyager]

PS forget what I said about epoxy, I just saw your picture. I don't think epoxy sticks to PTFE plastic, which is what that looks like.

It is plenty thick though, I would try welding it. It should hold just fine.

[DavidG]

Thanks for reply, I am going into the yards for bottom paint and some projects.  Thought I would try the plastic welding first since I don't want to remove any bulkheads to install a new tank unless it becomes my only option!  I really do appreciate the tank supplier and dimensions.  I plan to keep these on file for the future.  DavidG

[gdeboisblanc]

I wanted to thank 323Voyager for this post. I am looking to take on a similar project. My 323 has rotomolded plastic tanks. I am unsure if they are original but suspect they are. They have cracks and are brittle.
The models #s you posted saves me a ton of work. I will double check the measurements with my boat and likely move forward soon.

Thanks
323Voyager!

Gregg deBoisblanc
My Girl

[323Voyager]

Glad I could help. Just a disclaimer, I made my own tank mounts from 1/4 in ply and 6 oz glass and glassed the mounts into the locations. The plastic tanks are not direct factory replacements as my tanks were made of fiberglass and glassed to the hull and had to be cut out, but they are close enough.

However if I had to do it again, I'd have a 1/2" outlet in the top of the tank, and pass the 1/2" pex into the tank as a pickup tube. The Starboard side worked fine as per my drawings, but the port side was hard to get to the connection and I had to feed the water line to the locker under the stove where the sea water foot pump is located.
Wasn't a big deal to me, but if you aren't someone that likes to do fiberglass work, I suggest you do the pickup tube instead.

I also used a reducer on the 3/4 in vents to 1/2 in. and a 1-1/2" cap with 1 in elbow to hook up the fill line, as the 1-1/2" elbow was too tight under the settee lid.

Over all it worked fine and I'm happy with it. The changes above are minor but will make life a little easier. The bow tank was fine and I didn't need to change anything.

Attached are updated drawing. If you choose to go with Ronco, They were easy to deal with, and did a great job. I had the tanks delivered to the marina, because they only delivered to business addresses.

Good luck and let me know if you have any questions.

Attached is the modification.