Hell, John, that ain’t nothin’. When Silverheels’ PO left this boat with
the yacht broker to sell, he also (slob that he was) left enough water
in the tanks to stagnate and grow a small rainforest. It was gross! One
of the very first things I did when I bought the boat was to scour those
tanks with bleach and long-handled scrubbers – top, bottom and sides –
and then do it again and again until the gel coat was virgin white. I’ve
kept the tanks that way ever since. But you definitely need 3 opening
ports per tank top to do that because they’re baffled into 3 sections.

I also replaced all the tank hoses and added in T-fittings between the
tanks and the manifold so I can drain them into the bilge sump, for
emptying when storing the boat and for general cleaning and rinsing.
When I store the boat over the summer, the tanks are freshly washed and
thoroughly dried, so nothing grows in there. When I refill them in the
fall they’re clean as new.

I guess you can tell I’m really into clean freshwater. Once I had gotten
the tanks cleaned the first time, I installed a large, generic sediment
pre-filter that ALL my freshwater passes through right after the tank
selection manifold under the galley sinks. I also installed a secondary
Home Depot double-water-filter system at the galley sink. I use the
purified water from that spigot for drinking, cooking, ice-cube trays,
etc. I believe it’s as good as or better than what you buy in jugs from
the supermarket, and a whole lot cheaper than Perrier.

Tor