Keeping the Gasoline Tank Cool (And protected from UV)

By law, above-ground gasoline tanks are ALWAYS painted white or silver. This minimizes solar heating and thus minimizes day/night breathing emissions. I'm a tank inspector from way back. I had a consulting business, and I've been around, over and in thousands of tanks, from 500-10,000,000 gallons. 

 E10 loves to absorb water from the atmosphere. If the water content reaches about 0.5% (more in summer, less in winter), the water will separate, taking the alcohol with it and creating a 15%-by-volume layer that won't burn. Phase separation, as this is called, is very unusual because absorption from the air is a very slow process, taking months. The usual cause, in fact, is a leaking filler cap or vent, not absorption.  It's a slow process, taking months to become important. But prudence requires closing the vent whenever the engine is not in use. Spray can sneak in through the vent.

Water absorption does NOT need to reach phase-separating levels to cause problems. At just a few hundred ppm, sludge generation increases. The gasoline becomes weakly conductive and galvanic corrosion blooms in the carb bowl (brass and aluminum are an active pair). Gasoline also evaporates, and the loss of the most volatile portions can make starting more difficult, and increase gum formation. Better to keep it sealed. 

But a sealed tank builds pressure. Over time, UV damages the tank and the tank becomes weak.  It would be nice to keep it out of the sun. Some people like Sunbrella covers. But on my boat, it would just get grungy with spilled oil, gas, lichens, and algae. 

 Paint is simpler. Since the tank is mostly covered by the seat, there was no need to paint the whole thing. If it was, I might paint the whole thing, leaving only the code stamp exposed (not on a seam).

Simple. The tank is protected from UV and stays cool. It's been seven years, 365 days per year, and the paint is still there.

  

Tiller Pilot Cover

 The leading cause of death for tiller pilots is moisture intrusion in the rain. In the UK they are common on eBay, but not here.

 A few days ago I had to take a 4-hour rainy sail to move my boat between marinas for service. After three years (Total Boat Krypton) the bottom needed anti-fouling paint, and Herrington Harbor North has decided that hauling trimarans scares them, so they won't do it anymore.  

So when the rain started, I pulled out the cover I had made from a scrap of clear vinyl snipped from an old dodger.  No sewing was required. I just folded it, somthing like wrapping a box, and popped a rivet in each of the corners. The bottom is open for ventilation. The tiller pilot stays bone dry, since it produces a small amount of heat in service, sufficient to prevent condensation and evaporate any stray drops.

You can see the buttons and use them right through the vinyl. Very easy. 

You can read the details here: https://www.practical-sailor.com/marine-electronics/no-sew-diy-tiller-pilot-cover/ 

 

Public Service Anouncments in the Election Cycle

No, they are not, Donald. These are taxpayer-funded election ads. 

This is how tyranny starts. He read the tyrant's handbook and memorized it. Please watch this docuseries on Netflix. It is an excellent history of tyrants, starting before Rome, moving through Hitler, Qaddafi, Idi Amin, North Korea, and forward. It is not about current events.

 How to Become a Tyrant, Netflix 

 

Reporting in the White House

 

 

Does he even think about what he says?

 “There’s something wrong with a country that can allow people to write purposely negative stories,” Trump added. “Now, if they want to write them, that’s fine, but I don’t have to let them into my, into the people’s house.”

 No, Donald, it's not your house. You are a guest.

And the Justice Department, the toadies they are, can seem to do much better.

"The Justice Department urged a federal judge to keep CNN, Politico and MS NOW reporters off White House grounds, arguing that President Donald Trump may restrict their access over national security concerns ..."

Let's focus on "security concerns." Either (a) your people are releasing classified information, which is both unlikely and also an internal problem, or (b) the press saying negative things about the administration is treasonous, simply because they disagree with you. Really, it is the latter. You could argue that making the country sound divided and mentioning potential weaknesses is bad for national security; but this forces the leap to saying the administration has the right to control the narrative in all things, and that takes Donald so far past the First Amendment it's just criminal.

I hope this goes to the Supreme Court. He'll get stomped. I've seen a lot in the prior four-year term, and even more in the past 20 months, and this once again goes beyond the pale. The President does NOT get to control the narrative. If he can't take the heat, that speaks to both megalomania and clinical narcissism.

 Say what your think needs to be said.  Check your facts, and then say it. I wish I could keep this a strictly-sail blog, but I've got to say what I have to say. We have a rogue administrator with unrestricted power. A tyrant that believes he is unbounded by law.

  

 

Big Oil

1. An invasion/interference in Venezuela.  An oil deal in progress. Venezuela has 17% of the world's reserves, more than any other country. Not great oil, and hard to get to, but we will.
2. A war that closes the Straights of Hormuz.
3. A war that closes the Bab-el-Mandeb (Red Sea). The US had forces in position that could have impacted this quick movment, but not one strike was made. Either a major f__k-up, or intentional. Too major, I think, to have been accidental.
4. Conversation about ending the war very soon. I'm thinking that is because our objectives, items 2 and 3 above, will be complete.

And so a large portion of the world's supply of oil will be constricted, possibly for decades. 

• Iran is not defeated but rather enraged and positioned to choke the straits. Drones will make it easy.
• By military arm-twisting and bribery, we will have secured oil from Venezuela. 
• The price of oil will soar, allowing Big Oil to print money. Yes, we could restrict exports, but the administration has made no effort to do that and will not. 

This, by the way, is part of why the war in Ukraine was not interesting. No benefit to us. Even among liberals, I think there is a sense that this is Europe's problem first, ours only second.

The business in Gaza is nuts, from the music festival start to where we are now. I think the timing was convenient for the above "conspiracy theory," but probably only that.

Pipelines will be built to the Mediterranean. That will take time.  The straits will become less relevant within 2-5 years. Some already exist, and I am sure they are looking to upgrade this capacity. Not so good for China, but they will find a way.

So is my Big Oil conspiracy theory good for the US or not? It's not nice or globally neighborly, but financially, it's not clear. It depends on how you are invested, to be sure, and how you are employed.  Some benefits will spill beyond big oil, and fuel prices will be up for a while.

But I don't see current events as random.  I see greedy, certainly corrupt, politics. We elected a casino guy--what should we have expected?

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Today Trump asked the Ukraine to stop targeting Russian diesel production. It could cause a shortage. Isn't the hypocrisy in that just mind rattling?  Another example of "watch the shiny ball" to distract people from the important stuff. Unfortunately, there are gullible people.

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Yes, I am posting more politics. Free speech.  What happens when the people do nothing and say nothing? I hope to get back to sailing and tinkering. I'm retired now. That is what I should be doing. But it's raining today.

Hothouse Earth

All the conversation focuses on the next 50 years, because we don't care about people other than ourselves and our generation. I understand. I'm not going to turn the AC off because of something 300 years from now. Having no grandchildren, I don't even have a genetic imperative. Tough luck, folks. The problem is that CO2 is rising to extinction-level event heights, and doing it faster than ever before.

Note: The middle road is not going to happen. We will continue burning fuels, perhaps at a slower rate, until they are gone.  In 10 million years, natural processes will sequester the CO2 and something unpredictable will follow. Of course, that may happen anyway. We're just urging it along; something that might have happened in 100,000 years or 10,000,000 years will happen in a few centuries. We're not good at waiting.

 

 Temperature is going to do the same thing. That means "hothouse" temperatures that, on their own, are nearly unsurvivable. More to the point, ocean temperatures rise, oxygen solubility in water falls, pH drops, and the ocean becomes a very different place. 

 

 

I'd love to go on ice for 500 years to see how the movie ends. I don't think I'd want to live there, but I am curious. The math paints an interesting picture.

 I'm not sayin' there is anything we can do about it. It's like watching an alcoholic or addict crash. Mostly, they have to hit bottom, to where there are no alternatives, and most of the time, they don't change things then. We're going to see this even more clearly in another 50 years, and we still won't do anything, and it's going to crash. We're going to burn all the fossil fuel we can. At most we will stretch it out by a geologically unimportant wink of time.

Sorry. I don't have a solution or suggestion.  I belive the only real solution is to have fewer children and just let it happen. Rather fatalistic, to be sure. Human nature can't make the turn. Just watch politics, for a read on the public nerve. Most don't look beyond next year, and very few look seriously beyond their own mortality. If they do, it's like a person standing on the beach staring at a tsunami, knowing that it is already too late to run. I doubt the universe will notice.

 You can get this at the library. A very good read, about the 6 billion year history of CO2.

The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything: How Carbon Dioxide Made Our World – A Natural History of Climate and the Future of Life

 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXLM5617?lv=shuf&channelId=510&plpRedirect=mhFallback

 

It Seems We Have a Foe That is Stragically Smarter Than Us---Houthis Closing off the Red Sea

Even my conservative side finds Trump unaffordable.  And it's not just him. He has a Congress full of lickspittle toadies with no shame.

I can't say that I am surprised.  I was wondering when this would come. I'm not surprised. What does surprise me a little is that apparently neither the US or Saudi Arabia saw it coming. That's a stratigic and military f__k up of epic proportion. We had assets on-site.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/analysis-houthi-advance-yemen-puts-131834732.html

 

If the Red Sea is cut off, that could be quite something for oil prices. I wonder what Europe will think of Trump's machinations then.  In fact, I wonder if Trump is not content to see the second straight close, to the considerable benefit of US big oil. They're printing money. 

 

Unreal. Actually, both real and sad, given our leadership. If things are going fine and the market is happy ... let's screw things up to make a buck.

$500 Obamacare Rebate Before November

PLEASE remember who pledged to dismantle Obamacare and who has worked tirelessly to reduce Obamacare subsidies (increase rates). 

He is a pathological liar, hoping people are gullible. He does not think the rules of hinesty aply to him in any way. He is trying to bribe people to get votes. And he will do whatever it takes to reduce Obamacare subsidies (increase rates) as soon as the elections are over. 

He's scared. And he's doing his usual schtick and jive. So transparent.

Think it through. 

Hanger Holder

A trivial DIY project I put together about 30 years ago, but it became sufficiently popular with the family that I ended up making about six of them, some decorated by budding elementary school artists (our kids). A simple modification of a common uniform service tool.

Just some scrap 3/8-inch plywood cut to shape, sanded, held together with drywall screws, and painted.  Not beautiful nor perfectly crafted, but very handy. We keep almost all of our clothes on hangers (double rods in every closet), so we have a lot of hangers. Taking the hangers out of the closet frees up space in the closet.

 

DIY 6- to 8-inch Screw-Out Deck Plate Wrench

rev. 9-10-2026 

In this case, there is no good commercial option. As common as these are, I have no idea why.

My F-24 trimaran has 8 of these hatches on the outriggers (amas), and when sailed in spirited conditions, they go underwater a lot. The hulls pant a little with the water pressure, and unless snugged down, they leak a lot. It can be gallons per hour. Snugged down properly, they get stuck. Keep em' clean, keep em' lubed, they can still stick.

  

Beckson makes a crappy wrench. People tap them with blocks of wood, use oversized Crescent wrenches, and even metal pin spanners, all of which can be damaging. 

 The solution is a DIY wrench made with custom fitted stubs that fit the pockets, bolted or screwed to a wooden handle. A bad picture, but there will be a better article in Practical Sailor.

 

 

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In fact, after further searching, there was a guy who marketed a version milled from King Starboard, out of his garage. That was 14 years ago, and the website is gone.

Easy Out Deck Plate Removal Tool