Fuel tank vent not connected- WTF

[trode]

Not sure how or why this has happened. I recently bought a 2004 240- walkaround and covered for winter after purchase, now opening for duty and notice a strong smell of fuel in the cabin when I open. A little search finds that the fuel vent line at the tank, accessible by round plate on floor, is sitting there not connected to the tank!! The vent fitting is not plugged and the hose is just lying beside it with the clamp loosely attached to hose. Clearly, has not fallen off, as it is tucked aside several inches away from the tank!! Any idea why someone would intentionally disconnect, of is it feasible it was never connected at construction? The tank vent fitting dose not appear to have any indication that it has ever had a hose attached, it is dirty and has some corrosion on it. I am puzzled by this. Also, would like to know about the efficiency and effectiveness of the "vent in cap" style fuel filler that Wellcraft uses here, every other boat I have owned has had a vent fitting in the back or side of hull leading directly to the tank, and not in the filler cap.
Not sure how the vent works with the cap on the filler fitting.

Thanks ahead for any input here, guess I will just connect the vent line and see how things go. I was very relieved to find this situation after the discovery of gas smell in cabin, of course my worst fears were a leaking tank!!

Tom

[trode]

Up date on this issue and would like to here from others:
I connected the vent hose to the tank fitting, then I started the engine only to find that after a few minutes of running the engine would starve for gas, suspicious now that the vent was the issue I removed the gas cap and it ran fine. Now I suspect that the "vent and filler in one fitting" is malfunctioning. I am now getting ready to just run a new fuel vent out side of hull to avoid the issue and plug the hose where it meets the filler fitting.

Would be really interested if anyone else has had this issue. Maybe I should change the cap on the filler fitting first?

Help please

[Whitey]

I would check where the end of that vent hose comes out make sure it is not blocked if anything try blowing through the vent hose and then where the vent hose connects to the fuel tank make sure it goes through into the tank bugs will sometimes get in there and plug stuff up.