The twin 138-gallon aluminum fuel tanks on ûthis Regal Commodore 3860 can be removed ûthrough this 60” x 64” engineroom opening. ûThe engines would have to be removed first.

Our first article about the dangers of poor aluminum fuel tank installations on production powerboats was published in January 1992. “Marine Fuel Systems: Time Bomb Ticking in Your Bilge?” warned against the use of foamed-in-place aluminum tanks that “can crack, corrode and leak—raising the specter of explosion and fire for thousands of unsuspecting boat owners.”

We’re still beating the drum nearly 11 years later—most recently in editorials published in the August 1999 and May 2001 issues. Here, we address the subject again, this time in a photo essay that identifies boats with good installations and bad. Some fall somewhere in between. We took a good look at about a dozen…