A comedy of errors

[Jakester218]

Howdy yall, just a few musings from last weekend, that I figured may entertain some.

I have had my new to me 2000 270 Sundancer for a few months now and decided it was time to try the Kenyon Butane stove out to cook some eggs on. I had previously purchased some Butane and I put a can into the stove. It took a few tries, but it finally went in to where I did not hear any hissing or smell any gas. I opened up the hatch for ventilation and had a fire extinguisher on hand just to be safe. THe stove fired right up, and I was happy. Unfortunately, moments later the pool of butane that had accumulated somewhere below the stove during my previous attempts to light the burner also fired up shortly thereafter. Flames started billowing out from all sides of the burner. In a panic the fire-extinguisher (powder) was discharged in full. I spent about 3 hours cleaning all of the powder out of the boat, but after cleaning the burner out and making sure no extra butane was pooling up, I got my fried eggs.

A few hours later I was using a few 5 gallon gas cans to top off the tank. The tank was approximately 1/4 full when I started. I had also added a can of Seafoam to the gas to clean everything out. Midway through the first can I noticed that gas was not going in smoothly, like the tank was full . . . when it clearly was not. I turned on the blower, started the engine and hoped that a little suction would remove whatever kind of air bubble had been trapped in the tank. No joy, so I proceeded to just fill very slowly . . . until the rather large air bubble decided to come out. Like a guyser, all of a sudden gas shot out of the tank about 3 feet high and went in my face/eyes and all over, before I had the sense to cover the opening with my hand. I probably lost a gallon. Fortunately the marina had showers avaliable and my vision was bad to begin with.

Aside from the weather not cooperating and a small clog in the sink drain, I actually had a great time on account of bringing way too much beer. Troubleshooting is not too bad when you have decent music, understanding friends and plenty of booze.

If anyone happens to know, the drain for the sink had a zip-tie making kind of a loop in the plastic drain pipe. I had to cut this to work the coat-hanger through the clog. Is that zip tie supposed to be on there?

If anyone is a pro on those butane stoves, please let me know, because I damn near had a heart attack.

Happy boating.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Play the lottery. Either that, or you are part feline and just used up a few lives!

Gasoline: Check the vent line for kinks or low spots in between the tank and the actual vent. Check the vent on the side of the boat for debris/gunk/spider webs.

Zip tie: Yes, put the "loop" back in the line. That is there to keep outside water from coming in. I think there's a CG requirement on that, but not sure.

Butane: Sorry - I've never had a problem with them. My "guess" is that the process of reinserting it a number of times enlarged the hole in the can and allowed the gas to seep out. Try a new can.

 

[sdarc]

Yep. Zip tie creates a P-trap. Sea Ray engineering.
At the start of filling with fuel mine does the same thing. It definately likes it slow. Check your vent just to be sure. Bees love making nests in there.
Never had a problem with my stove though I didn't use it much.

 

[Jakester218]

Would somebody mind shooting me a picture of the Zip-Tie P loop, so I can re-work my correctly next time I go up. I honestly don't remember which way it went.

Thank you;

 

[Lazy Daze]

The only thing that matters is that the loop goes "up". It should be higher than the thru-hull. Just make it as smooth of a bend/loop as you can. There's no real magic to it. Oh, obviously make sure the top of the loop is lower than the sink drain. But, with the amount of hose that is there, I doubt you could even make that mistake.