Rebekah

Yes it is integral in the bow hence why its out of the budget. I think it had not been looked at for many years. On the trip bringing it back from where we bought it we did use the water, boiled thankfully then realised it started coming out brown, ran it for an hour still brown. You are right i don't think we should attempt to bring it back to clean steel. Thank you for your input

I think bitumen sounds like the way to go. We did spend many hours with a drill and angle grinder with wire brush attachments taking off as much rust as possible. I understand that having the tank replaced is probably a sensible option but its not in the budget currently. Thank you for your advice.

Thank you for your replys. The vatcan instructions told my mum to do 4 coats. The vatcan website recommended 2 Pack polyurethane paint. When we bought the boat we were told the water tank was in good condition (we took someone who lives on a narrow boat to inspect and advise they didn't inspect the basics, now we know we should of inspected ourselves) it was awful, after draining it, it was badly rusted huge lumps so we didn't have clean steel. Another narrow boater recommended vatcan to my mum and she though it was a one and done process but i read into it and realised vatcan recommend an over coat. Can we paint water tank bitumen over it, do you think its a good idea? Should we try and strip some of the vatcan. An old friend of my mums used to work on large boats suggested a cement layer but will that weigh the front of the boat down, will it crack it she dings the boat on a lock? Sorry for all the questions my mums on a budget and trying to do this while still working full time. We have some boating experience but nothing in the way of renovation, also while docked in a marina some people say one thing some say another so I wanted to try and get a good comprehensive view of all options/advice before making any more decisions. Thank you all.

I am currently helping my mum renovate her, we are both complete novices. We are currently doing the metal water tank, we have cleaned it out with a wire brush and applied 4 coats of vactan and are aware we need to overcoat it with 2 pack polyurethane paint but are unsure of which one to go with for safe drinking water. Sorry if this topic has been covered before i couldn't find it. Any advice we would be grateful for. Thanks