Diesel Leak

[Admin]

While sailing back from South Beach (San Francisco) to Pt. Richmond, sailing in a stiff breeze and healing to starboard, I started to smell gas.  Looking down at the fuel gauge, I noticed that there apparently was a diesel leak as the gauge showed almost empty.  Earlier in the day, sailing over to South Beach, we sailed almost entirely on starboard tack, and while we had healed quite a bit, noticed no problem.  Other that the fact that the throttle had been open during the sail back (with the engine off) there was nothing unusual on this return sail.  No diesel appears to be in the bilge and the engine and engine compartment appears fine.  

Any ideas as to my problem?

David Smith, Bear Territory
Webmaster

[Jack Hutteball]

Dave, I had a similar problem when my boat was new.  The fuel tank vent line was run straight to the vent on the stern of the boat.  On a port tack the fuel would simply run out if you were not paying attention. I thought that the first time it was because I overfilled the tank.  I found that it would leak out even under a half a tank on a port tack.  It was corrected by adding a length of vent hose up to the top of the comming in the port locker.  this corrected the problem except that the mechanic kinked the hose at the top causing a different venting problem.  I have corrected that problem myself, and all seems to be working well now.

Jack Hutteball
Mariah lll #1555