Plastics!

If you’re of a certain age, you’ll remember that multiple Oscar winning actor Dustin Hoffman became famous for his role in the 1967 film The Graduate. He played Benjamin Braddock, a confused and disillusioned young man who, after being seduced by the wife (Anne Bancroft) of his father’s business partner, falls in love with her beautiful young daughter (Katherine Ross).

Mr. McGuire, a well-intentioned family friend, tried to give Benjamin some career guidance in the following exchange:

Mr. McGuire: I want to say one word to you. Just one word.

Benjamin: Yes, sir.

Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?

Benjamin: Yes, I am.

Mr. McGuire: Plastics.

Benjamin: Exactly how do you mean?

Mr. McGuire: There’s a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?

Believe it or not, that’s #42 in the American Film Instiitute’s list of the Top 100 movie quotations. Perhaps you had to see the movie in 1967 for that to make any sense.

We were reminded of plastics earlier this year when both of the 17-year-old fuel tanks in Profligate developed slight leaks while in Mexico. Often times you can get metal work done for less money in Mexico than in the States, so we were a little surprised to get a quote of, if we remember correctly, almost $3,000 for two tanks. Ouch! So as a temporary solution we just had the holes in the tanks patched.

When we got back to the States, we started looking into standard size stainless tanks, aluminum tanks, bladders, anything that might not be so dear. Then we wondered about plastic tanks.

A Google search took us to a cruising forum where an ‘expert’ declared that the only thing wrong with permanent plastic tanks is that they would never be approved by the Coast Guard. You know, fire dangers and such. We did a little bit more research and discovered that facts declared on cruising forums are not necessarily true. Shocking, we know.

In fact, plastic — more specifically cross-linked polyethylene plastic tanks — are indeed approved for diesel by the United States Coast Guard, the NMMA and ABYC. What’s more, the 50-gallon tanks by Moeller Marine Products we bought cost — sit down for this one — just $269 each. A pleasant surprise.