Advice on Fuel Spllage Please!!

[Andrew38]

I'm down in the Real Juan Carlos Marina in Valencia, about 90 miles away from home base of Sant Carles.

I refuelled on arrival and later in the evening my wife said the boat smelt of diesel, went down into the engine room and found it literally awash with diesel. The local V-P agent had been working on the fuel tanks, installing new senders and had forgotten to reconnect the filler hose on one side. I estimate there's about 100 litres in there!

The work was under warranty for Beneteau/Volvo.

The boat absolutely reeks of diesel as do our clothes, bedding, furnishings etc.

Any advice appreciated in terms of will the smell ever go? is there possible permanent damage? legal rights? anything we should or shouldn't know/do?

Called V-P 24 hour helpline and dragged some poor Belgian girl out of bed at 11pm so they should respond this morning.

 

[Robert Wilson]

That's dreadful. I pity you in such a plight.
I can't help with a solution but in my experience diesel smell takes forever to disappear. At the VERY least "they" should provide you with a suitable replacement boat and then totally clean the boat inside - everywhere. And launder/dry-clean all your clothes, bedding, furnishings etc. And fill-up your tanks for free!
As to long-term damage, I'd be very wary. Diesel is not nice stuff but I don't think it may be corroding anything.
I truly wish you the best of luck and a hassle-free successful outcome.
I would think you have every legal right on your side, but it may come to a fight in the Spanish courts/legal system and in my limited experience of the Spanish system that is something I'd not be looking forward to.
Compensation for a ruined holiday/cruise or whatever would be a nice gesture too.

Please keep us posted on the sitution and outcome. Thanks

 

[kashurst]

Don't panic, I had a similar amount in the bottom of the boat last summer when a fuel pipe split. Pump out all the diesel, asap, The sooner the better, don't waste time waiting for the daft engineer to come back take some pictures first then argue with him later about damages, repairs etc. Then - preferably buy some containers from a DIY store or get a inline fuel filter and pump it back into the tank.

Yes there may be a bit of water and some grit rubbish etc going into the tank but don't worry about that as you have a great big engine pre filters for exactly that reason. Clean all around the fuel tank with Gunk spray if you can get it or straight fairy liquid - it will turn the diesel into a water soluble emulsion.

Turn off or isolate your bilge pumps, then empty an entire bottle of fairy liquid into the bilge and start filling the bilge with water from a hose. You want it at least 6" to 12" deep depending on your boat
Take the boat for a drive around the bay slowly doing figure of eight turns to swill it all about. The diesel will be cleaned off by the fairy liquid. ( as a test get some diesel on your hands then wash them with fairy liquid and water ) After 20 -30 mins of this turn the bilge pumps back on whilst still out in the bay. Once the bilges are empty go back to the marina and open all the doors,hatches and windows on the boat- especially the forward hatch

Go for a walk or something for a hour and then go back and see what the boat smells like then. You will possibly need to do this process 2 or 3 times. The last time I did it I used an entire bottle of bathroom cleaner and the boat smelled lovely after. The smell will go away as diesel only creates a smell if it is present on surfaces, it's not a smell created by bacterial effects but for the first few days you will still pschologically smell it. Your clothes etc probably need washing but the sofas cushions etc as long as they haven't actual had liquid diesel on them will be fine - or give them a good spray with Fabreeze. Be careful in your choice of washing up liquid as this will leave a residual smell so pick a scent you like. My engine bay still smells vaguely of Pine trees

being in San Carles will be helpful as the summer heat will make any diesel oil evaporate completely, (In the UK that could take a long time) and surprisingly quickly. Just leave the windows and hatches open at every safe opportunity so the wind can blow through. It will be OK

 

[jrudge]

Boat dealers use a wet vac to get the last of it out. Buy a cheap one (£50) and then bin it.

To clean my bilges generally I do the above and it does work. Once t is basically clean you can turn bulge pumps on, turn a hose on and this will then finally flush it. Wet vac will remove the last bits.

That said the whole thing is the Volvo dealers problem, but as above I would get the worst of it out ASAP. Personally i would chuck the stuff and let the dealer pay. Old 25l oil drums should be freely available and are a decent way to store the stuff.

 

[Ripster]

I had a small version of what you have suffered from a leak from a heater fuel feed - pond of diesel in the bilges. I did similar to what others have done, got most of it out with a handheld bilgepump, wiped out what I could with rags etc. Then made a sotution with some bilgex (because I had some, otherwise, agree Fairy L will work fine) to try and clean the residue and kill the smell. Now have no diesel smell and very clean bilges - all worked fine.

 

[Beamishken]

most of the above is fairly good advice however once the bulk of the diesel was pumped out for filtering & re use before I started using detergent id use a couple of oil soak pads to skim the residue of fuel off the bilge water . They are designed to soak oil etc but not water

if you start using detergent while there is even a small amount of diesel left you will leave a rainbow pattern slick behind which will linger for days once you pump out

the oil pads will pretty much do the same as a wet vac but you wont be left with oily water to dispose of

 

[Canopy Locked]

I had a similar problem (much smaller scale) of heating oil leaking from a boiler in a house. Advice from this forum about smell was to spray with something that had an active enzyme - it was suggested that cat urine odour remover worked... It did !! Got rid of the smell from the soft furnishings and carpets - will still need to do the fairy liquid wash out.

 

[Freebee]

Remember that Fairy liquid contains salt and long term it will rust any Mild steel cast iron etc, and make sure you use only freshwater for the swilling process & its probably best to wash down the whole area with fresh water afterward then a bit of anti corrosion spray on exposed metals.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Take the boat for a drive around the bay slowly doing figure of eight turns to swill it all about. The diesel will be cleaned off by the fairy liquid. ( as a test get some diesel on your hands then wash them with fairy liquid and water ) After 20 -30 mins of this turn the bilge pumps back on whilst still out in the bay.

Be very careful where and how you pump out the bilges as you may be contravening local environmental regulations. I witnessed a mobo which had inadvertently discharged some spilt diesel being boarded by Spanish police off Majorca once. I would go several miles offshore and only turn on the bilge pumps when you are sure there are no other boats around although of course, the bilge pumps will come on automatically unless you switch off their individual breakers

 

[Elessar]

I'm down in the Real Juan Carlos Marina in Valencia, about 90 miles away from home base of Sant Carles.

I refuelled on arrival and later in the evening my wife said the boat smelt of diesel, went down into the engine room and found it literally awash with diesel. The local V-P agent had been working on the fuel tanks, installing new senders and had forgotten to reconnect the filler hose on one side. I estimate there's about 100 litres in there!

The work was under warranty for Beneteau/Volvo.

The boat absolutely reeks of diesel as do our clothes, bedding, furnishings etc.

Any advice appreciated in terms of will the smell ever go? is there possible permanent damage? legal rights? anything we should or shouldn't know/do?

Called V-P 24 hour helpline and dragged some poor Belgian girl out of bed at 11pm so they should respond this morning.

I've had this - cat's piss stink remover does the trick for the smell. WOrks on leaky holding tanks too. It removes rather than masks the smell.

 

[kashurst]

Deleted User has a point about pumping out the bilge at sea. If you just pump any straight diesel or oil overboard thats going to potentially get you into trouble, however judging by the amount of diesel some fishing boats trail behind them, as a one off event when you pump out your greatly diluted and emulsified remains over board I wouldn't worry. You won't leave an oily film but a slightly foamy one that will disperse immediately. Although this method works well for cleaning bilges I wouldn't recommend it unless a very good reason and definitely not in a marina as water circulation is often poor and it won't disperse.

Generally chucking anything in the sea is a bad idea however when BP had the big valve leak in the US Gulf, they pumped umpteen million barrels of crude into the ocean. Short term a serious problem for everything in the sea. However about two years later cameras went down to see the state of the sea bed and the oil had gone - eaten by various bacteria apparently.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Deleted User has a point about pumping out the bilge at sea..

The regulations are quite strict, at least in the Med. I don't fill my fuel tanks to the brim anymore since an incident a couple of years ago when I brimmed the tanks and fuel started to drip through one of the vents into the sea. The fuel station manager went ballistic and shouted at me in some foreign tongue which of course I didn't understand but I got the message loud and clear that the authorities were going to nail him for my spillage. Agreed that the effects of oil spillages tend to be overstated but that argument doesn't wash with bolshy officials