This is a really dumb question but this is my first season with our Tartan. The previous owner told me he always filled the fuel tank at the end of the season and I thought he had done so. We are on a moderate sized Minnesota lake and the longest motoring I've done is about 1 1/2 hrs moving from the marina we craned in at to our summer slip. About 8 miles estimated. Other than that, it's been 15-20 minutes or so to motor out into the lake, raise the main sail and away we go. I do make sure the engine has a time to warm up and I do check the temp gauge. Exhaust is a nice light white color, runs great, etc. Every time I looked at fuel gauge, it was reading full so thought, great, not using much fuel. then I noticed that the gauge was bouncing around when I had the engine running and was between 1/2 and 1/4 full. So, now I realize that every time I was looking at fuel gauge was after we were back at dock, with engine off. Duh!. So I proceeded to put 10 gallons of fuel in, have to haul it in by 5 gallon cans as no marina carries diesel, and my question is, how do you know when your tank is full? Unless the engine is running, the gauge doesn't help, I've looked at the fuel tank, still the original as far as I can tell. There are no signs of leakage etc, I suspect, the prior owner meant that he normally filled it each fall and since I bought it in the fall, he hadn't gotten around to that task. So, I'll keep hauling fuel but any guesses as to how much I should try to put in? Again, sorry for the dumb question but I would really appreciate any suggestions.
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