Fueling and Blowers

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MikeeH

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Don't forget the hazards of fueling and/or starting tour inboard gassers!

Pennsylvania Boat Explosion Leaves 1 Dead, 6 Injured

Published May 31, 2011

ERIE, Pa. -- Officials say a powerboat exploded after refueling at the Erie Yacht Club, killing one person and injuring six others.

Mike Lynch, the general manager of the Erie Yacht Club, says the 32-foot vessel had just been refueled at about 6:30 p.m. Monday and was being started when it exploded.

Lynch tells the Erie Times-News that five people were on the boat at the time of the explosion, including the woman who was killed.

Four of those injured were passengers on the boat and the two others who were injured were employees of the private 1,200-member yacht club.

Lynch says three of the injured were transported to a Pittsburgh hospital to be treated for burns.

Neither the woman who was killed nor the injured were identified.

An investigation is ongoing.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/31/pennsylvania-boat-explosion-leaves-1-dead-6-injured/#ixzz1NvoVQQVj
 
Even before you start the blower(s), open the hatches and activate your Mark I sniff-o-meter.

Fueling safety is easy and effective, but you must do it right, every time. Do it by the numbers.
 
Mike, I got an email on this one this morning, really sad. I haven't heard anymore details other than what the Times printed. Anytime I have gotten gas there they have had young people working the gas docks. Heck of a way to start our season up here in Lake Erie!!!

Niles
 
I rarely see people opening engine hatches to sniff after refueling, it makes me nervous to see that, knowing that it does not take much to cause a fuel leak. I guess especially with the engine under the seats on many boats, people may not feel like getting passengers up to move, even though passengers should be off the boat during fueling, but I always check...
 
Found this on Boat US website..Proper fueling procedures are very important in preventing onboard fires. Gasoline vapors are heavier than air and
can spread rapidly into enclosed spaces. You should check the bilges and all closed compartments for gasoline vapors. The sniff test is the most effective method for detecting fuel leaks

•Secure boat to the dock
•Switch off engine(s)
•Extinguish all open flames
•Do not use electrical switches
•No smoking
•Ports, hatches, and doors closed
•Make certain all passengers are ashore
•Determine quantity of fuel required and make sure it is the proper type of fuel
•Hold hose nozzle firmly against fill pipe opening
•Do not overfill
•Wipe up all spillage
•Open ports, hatches, and doors to ventilate
•Turn blower on for four minutes minimum
•Do the sniff test
•Start engine(s)
•Re-board Passengers
•Untie from dock and cast off
 
Start at the bow, chasing everyone off the boat, and closing doors/windows/hatches after you pass.

When you reach the aft end of the boat, shut off the master power switches ( all of them ).

Unless prohibited by law, the owner should do the refueling ( hired captain is ok ).

Place the drip catcher under/over the fuel tank vent.

Open fuel tank cap.

While you remain on the boat, have the dock attendant hand you the fuel nozzle. Hold it upright to prevent spills from residual fuel.

Confirm that you have, in fact, opened the fuel fill, and not the fresh water fill, or HT pumpout. ( or rod holder!!! )

Place the nozzle in the fill tube, and keep your hand on it while fueling. Do not wedge it "open". This is a full manual operation.

Do not "top off the tank". LISTEN. When you hear the sound change from a "rushing water" sound to a "gurgling" sound, stop fueling.

Remove nozzle, and hold the nozzle upright to prevent spillage of residual fuel. Pass the nozzle to attendant on dock without leaving vessel.

Return to fill point, remove the drip catcher from the vent, and pour dripped fuel into the fill nozzle.

Cap the fuel fill. Try very very hard to not drop the cap and/or wrench over the side. This is an undesirable action.

Go through the boat, opening hatches and sniffing the bilge. Sniff again. If it smells like "bilge" you are ok. If it smells like fuel, you have a problem.

After performing the sniff test and passing, return to the power switches and switch on the batteries so you can power the blower. Turn on the blower, and let run for at least 5 minutes. ( The law may require more than this. Someone please correct my 5 min statement. It has been a while since I have had to do this! )

Exit the vessel and fill out the mortgage forms to pay for the fuel. Round up your crew/guests who have wandered off to the nearest party.

Return to boat and check hatches near the fill point and tank. Sniff again. Redundancy is your friend. It is much less embarassing to do this, than it is to tell your horror story from an ICU bed...

After you perform and pass the second sniff-o-meter test, and you fail to notice anything "out of place" you may proceed with boarding and engine start up. You may discontinue blower use after a while. Some folks keep it running, others shut it off after 15 min or so.

This procedure is not written in stone and can be improved upon. But the above steps should all be performed each and every time you fuel the vessel.
 
Oh, but there's more.

While we're fueling, the Admiral decides to ask the young dock attendants where they'll be going to school next fall. You finish fueling and hold up the hose but the Admiral has the kids' complete interest in how she graduated from Craggy Rock State College with a major in odd music back before the they were born. Great. Finally one of them breaks away and takes our credit card. There's a problem. It won't scan. I tell them to swipe it again. Still nothing. I take the card back and wipe off the magnetic stripe. This time it works. The Admiral signs and I step up to the the helm. The port engine comes alive, but the starboard engine has always been difficult. I try again. A fart comes out of the exhaust. Good. One more try and she'll start. I look back and the youngsters have untied out boat completely. We are drifting out into the fairway. The Admiral is waving to our young dock attendants. "See you next time," she yells.

Sure. By now I'm sideways in the fairway with the wind behind me looking like a complete jerk. I try the starboard engine again and she fires up like nothing was ever wrong. I hate you, I think, wondering if you can really hate an engine. I do the transmission dance and get us pointed in the right direction.

I look back and see a big cruiser pulling into the spot we just vacated on the gas dock. There is a young woman on the foredeck dressed in about 4 square inches of bikini. She has the complete attention of the dock attendants as she bends way over to give them a line.

Guess that's just part of boating.
 
He only owned the boat for a week!!! I'm wondering what gasket failed? The only one I can think of is the one at the float. Also, what with the pump shutting on and off? Was the boat surveyed? While the results are tragic the sequence of events leading up to the explosion are certainly interesting and will include some new lessons.

To think, if the operator would have done a simple sniff test at the blower outlet all this could have been avoided.
 
quote:
Originally posted by KenK

Found this on Boat US website..Proper fueling procedures are very important in preventing onboard fires. Gasoline vapors are heavier than air and
can spread rapidly into enclosed spaces. You should check the bilges and all closed compartments for gasoline vapors. The sniff test is the most effective method for detecting fuel leaks

•Secure boat to the dock
•Switch off engine(s)
•Extinguish all open flames
•Do not use electrical switches
•No smoking
•Ports, hatches, and doors closed
•Make certain all passengers are ashore
•Determine quantity of fuel required and make sure it is the proper type of fuel
•Hold hose nozzle firmly against fill pipe opening
•Do not overfill
•Wipe up all spillage
•Open ports, hatches, and doors to ventilate
•Turn blower on for four minutes minimum
•Do the sniff test
•Start engine(s)
•Re-board Passengers
•Untie from dock and cast off

Click to expand...


+1
 
Just read the follow up news item, it sounds like a plugged or kinked vent line for the one tank effecting the fill.
I am curious as to what gasket was leaking, fuel sender, clean out access?
 
Rusty,
I think you're onto something with the blocked vent. That could have caused the pump to shut-off and forced the vapors out through any number of other failing gaskets/hoses locations into the bilge.
 
IMHO, it doesn't matter why the fuel system leaked. It was a new-to-him boat and the skipper was untrained in how to prevent a blowup at refueling! That is all we need to know.
 
Regarding the list above, makes more sense to me to do the sniff test before you turn the blowers on. I also routinely put my nose down by the blower vent to see if it's pushing any fumes out.
We haven't heard from anyone who thinks it's a good idea to run the blower while fueling----surprised. I've seen that mre than I want to.
 
I didn't leave the blower on, but I did NOT shut down all power at the panel. I had a fume detector in the bilge that I wanted to have working 24/7. I always had all passengers on the dock until fueling was over and the blowers had been running after the nose sniff test. I was the only one allowed to untie the boat from the dock!
 
Running the blower while fueling is very likely to pull fumes INTO the bilge.
 
Exactly Bill, but you see it often and they are sure it's the right thing.
 
It would seem like a good idea to leave the blowers on especially if it draws air in from the opposite side of the boat away from the gas opening, if there is a gas leak you would surely notice it coming from the air expelled. By leaving the blower on, your not sparking the motor by turning it on which would be really bad if there were an accumulation of fumes. It would be quite cumbersome for some boats to have to take out cushions and lift the engine hatch plus wait 4 minutes at a very busy gas dock I would think....
 
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