Boat explosion Tampa Florida

Hi, I'm a new 1990 220 Sea Ray DA owner, by about one week. I have four blower tubes in the engine compartment. One from each side is just laying on the engine compartment floor. Should they be attached to something? The other two go behind the engine and I can't really see where they go.
 
Wolfpacker said:
Hi, I'm a new 1990 220 Sea Ray DA owner, by about one week. I have four blower tubes in the engine compartment. One from each side is just laying on the engine compartment floor. Should they be attached to something? The other two go behind the engine and I can't really see where they go.
Click to expand...

No...they are there to vacuum fumes from the lowest point of the bilge.:thumbsup:
 
My 270 Weekender has 4 tubes, 2 are connected to 2 blowers, port and starboard sides of the engine room. The other 2 run from the bottom of the bilge to the external vents.

As you are another new boat owner, get the gas sniffer installed.

There is no good reason why all boats should not have them fitted. If you can afford the boat and run it you can afford to make it safe.
 
Four Suns said:
Boat fires, let alone explosions, are pretty scary on a boat. However, most fires are not caused by gasoline fumes. The majority are caused by AC/DC wiring issues... And boats are not required to have smoke detectors (like gasoline vapor sensors) on them.. Seems ridiculous to me.
Click to expand...

Electrical fire and a gas fueled fire are not quite the same thing, in terms of consequence. (yeah. .. I know. . .electrical fire can lead to gas fire).

Hmmm. I wonder how a CG vapor sensor would react to the act of fueling a boat. I guess if you don't spill any. . . you are fine. I wonder how people could trained to react to the inevitable spurious alarms these units will produce.
 
The CG methodology seems to be more directed toward prevention rather than dectection, so we have braided fuel lines, spark arrestors, ignition protection, etc. instead of fume detectors.

Another reason sniffers are not required may be because they are notoriously unreliable. The sensor must be mounted low in the bilge and any water splashed on them will ruin them. I had one on my gas 390EC and had to replace the $30 sensor about every 6 months.
 
I have to confess, while I do run my blowers before starting the engines, I’m not sure I always run them for a full 2 minutes. My typical run time is closer to 30 seconds. (that will change after reading this story)

I wouldn’t be upset if the boat was designed in way that prevented the engines or generator from starting without first running the blowers for 2 minutes. You could have an override switch for emergency starts.


Update.

I happen to find this patent applicaition from 1976! I guess the boating industry didnt embrace it.

http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/3951091/description.html
 
Last edited:
Here's my thing...are you listening Sea Ray and other manufacturers? My blowers on my '06 Sea Ray cut out on thermal overload after running more than 10 minutes on a hot day. My Sea Ray dealer tells me the blower motors aren't rated for continuous duty. Why is this? Why shouldn't you be able to run them as much as you wish in the name of safety. It only adds a very small cost to upgrade the motor and wiring for continuous duty.

How would Sea Ray take it if it turned out these unfortunate soles had their blowers turned on only to have them cut out allowing fumes to build and cause this explosion?
 
We could all probably spend a little more time in the engine compartment checking for leaks and other problems.

How hard is it to install the sniffer?
 
I have a 370 DA that holds about 275 gallons of gas. I continously monitor the engine room below for smell of gas and also run my blows continously, except during fill up. At least once every week I go below and check fuel lines. It seems a bit much, but when you have your family aboard it is a tremendous responsiblilty.
 
Aerobaticflyer said:
Here's my thing...are you listening Sea Ray and other manufacturers? My blowers on my '06 Sea Ray cut out on thermal overload after running more than 10 minutes on a hot day. My Sea Ray dealer tells me the blower motors aren't rated for continuous duty. Why is this? Why shouldn't you be able to run them as much as you wish in the name of safety. It only adds a very small cost to upgrade the motor and wiring for continuous duty.

How would Sea Ray take it if it turned out these unfortunate soles had their blowers turned on only to have them cut out allowing fumes to build and cause this explosion?
Click to expand...

You are right! This is why I got rid of the blowers and went to continous squirrel cage motors. Not only are they quiet, but they move a tremendous amount of air and I keep them on all day.
 
anytime the generator is running....also at least 3 to 4 minutes prior to cranking generator bilge blowers should be running...
 
roadkingh1 said:
I have a 370 DA that holds about 275 gallons of gas. I continously monitor the engine room below for smell of gas and also run my blows continously, except during fill up. At least once every week I go below and check fuel lines. It seems a bit much, but when you have your family aboard it is a tremendous responsiblilty.
Click to expand...

I used to run my blowers during fuel up. A boater friend was at the pump with me once and he told ne never to run blowers during fuel up as the blowers can actually pull fumes into the engine compartment.

So now I shut them off and run them before I start back up at the pump.

Very good tip I think.
 
I like the idea of the gas fume detector - but not sure how much I would trust it. I think it's a good addition to a normal pre-start safety check but wouldn't rely on it to be my only input. My kids think I'm nuts when I sniff the blower vent - even the dog looks at me funny but at least I know what's happening down there - and that is after a visual inspection every time I clean the boat and before I go out.

Accidents like this are a good reminder to ensure we are up to date on maintenance - replace that old fuel hose, check all of your clamps - check your fill and vent hoses to make sure you don't have cracks or problems.

For the original accident - I wonder how long the boat had been anchored up? If it had just been a short time (an hour or less maybe?) it wouldn't seem like fumes would accumulate enough - so maybe they had a fuel leak. It wouldn't seem as though enough fumes could build up so the genny could ignite it - esp. if it was a marine genny. I really hope everyone makes it ok!
 
I love diesel...

(this forum needs some excitement... getting too boring... so flame away)
 
It has never ceased to amaze me why there are still boats being manufactured with gas engines. There are very reliable smaller diesel engines that would work in all kinds of different applications. No longer would you have to worry about gas fumes. Diesel doesn't make it fail safe but i'm about 99% sure my boat won't blow up.
Jack
 
fwebster said:
The CG methodology seems to be more directed toward prevention rather than dectection, so we have braided fuel lines, spark arrestors, ignition protection, etc. instead of fume detectors.

Another reason sniffers are not required may be because they are notoriously unreliable. The sensor must be mounted low in the bilge and any water splashed on them will ruin them. I had one on my gas 390EC and had to replace the $30 sensor about every 6 months.
Click to expand...

I agree on the reliability comment of these sensors. They have an enormous "nuisance alarm" potential. And nuisance alarms can be a really bad thing.

As related to the "prevention rather than detection"; I am all for that. BUT. . if the prevention was really that fool proof. . then we wouldn't need blowers, right?

Aerobaticflyer said:
Here's my thing...are you listening Sea Ray and other manufacturers? My blowers on my '06 Sea Ray cut out on thermal overload after running more than 10 minutes on a hot day. My Sea Ray dealer tells me the blower motors aren't rated for continuous duty. Why is this? Why shouldn't you be able to run them as much as you wish in the name of safety. It only adds a very small cost to upgrade the motor and wiring for continuous duty.
Click to expand...

My '97 blower will run for hours and hours with no problem. Have you ruled out a boat specific problem? "Continuous duty" means 24/7/365. Running your blower for 24 hours then shutting it down for a week is not continuous duty, and you should be able to do that.
 
earthmover17 said:
It has never ceased to amaze me why there are still boats being manufactured with gas engines.
Click to expand...
Until they stop gouging such a price premium for the diesels (in the US market anyway) it's not going to change. That and diesels don't provide the same instant off the line power of a typical gas setup. Sure, for everything other than towing sports this doesn't matter, and diesels are often a fine solution. But when they tell you it'll be at least $20k extra, PER ENGINE, buyers chose otherwise. Given the payback cycle it just doesn't make economic sense. But I'm with you on the safety argument.
 
Four Suns said:
I love diesel...

(this forum needs some excitement... getting too boring... so flame away)
Click to expand...

No flaming - my new tow vehicle is diesel and I'm sure a future boat will be. Once I hit the lottery that is....:smt038
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,202
Messages
1,428,452
Members
61,108
Latest member
asigman
Back
Top