Fuel and Dangerous Substances in harbours and marinas

[bert49uk]

I was told at a meeting in the week that they are now tring to stop the use of bleach ( a substance that turns to salt in sea water)to remove weed on steps and slipways at harbours. Bleach in a diluted form is the only thing that successfully removes weed, how many people will be injured and how many court casses will result from this crazy piece of legistration

 

[Uricanejack]

Sarabande,

the only vaguely related risk I can think of is onboard barbecues; if I had a marina berth and someone alongside had one of these home bonfires I'd be alarmed and very peeved.

Perhaps more thought ought to be given to cutting boats on fire loose, and dragging them away from the rest of the boats ?

This would require some sort of alert crew in fire resistant gear etc; so presumably would be better as a specialist sub - branch / team of a few firefighters in each likely station, trained and equipped for this - inc boat -in vulnerable areas like Chichester, Hamble, Cowes, Burnham, Falmouth etc ?

The much more common hazard I've come across in marinas is icy pontoons in winter / Spring - I have nearly gone in myself and last I heard - a long time ago - a local marina had 3 separate fatalities due to people going over the side of pontoons in the dark, in winter time; does this count ?

I have a propane barbecue on the rear end of my boat, I regularly barbecue steaks, burgers, kebabs, and all sorts of tasty items on board. Which I enjoy with a cold beer.
I barbecue in dock at marinas, at anchor, I take it ashore for picknics, I even barbecue under sail of shore, one of the sausages went overboard. But the steaks worked great.

I don't think my barbecue is any more of a hazard than my propane stove in the galley. Less even if it leaks the propane blows away rather than gathering in my bilges

Commercial vessels carrying hazardous goods are required to rig fire wires so they may be towed away.
This code be required for boats in marinas but the risk appears to be extremely low.
Pehalps just requiring fire hydrants on pontoons would be more effective.

Slips trips and falls of docks are probably a much greater risk for most of us.

 

[William_H]

It is inevitable that regulations be put in place for Dangerous goods in harbours. The Aviation inductry have had a very comprehensive and internationally accepted sytem of control of dangerous goods. It is not a question of simply banning dangerous goods. It is a system of identification of DG, specifying pakaging and handling and in some cases banning carriage all based on the nature of the goods and the quantities being shipped. I presume or at least hope that all these factors will be built into HSE legislation for ports and therefor marinas.
I feel confident that your average pleasure boater will have no need for concern about realistic legislation. Things like explosives (falres) or flamable goods petrol and cooking gas being in such quantities as to be of no concern. Or at least in these cases of fuel requiring standards and inspections that are already in place and totally reasonable.

Howwever if an oil tanker was parked and unbloaded near your mooring with say 50000 tonnes of petrol or LPG you would want to know that it was being handled in a safe manner. Or preferably far from your boat. In the second world war there was an ammunition and explosives storage down the coast. A separate jetty was built so that loading was carried out away from anywhere an explosion could cause harm So even then the spirit of this legislation was complied with even if it was not codified.
I say pleasure boaters have nothing to wory about but every reason to feel more confident the beaurocrats are working for you. good luck olewill

 

[JumbleDuck]

I was told at a meeting in the week that they are now tring to stop the use of bleach ( a substance that turns to salt in sea water)to remove weed on steps and slipways at harbours.

Who are "they"?

 

[Uricanejack]

Who are "they"?

No clue. But if they exist I would expect the relevant they are most likely to be an environmental protection group, lobby or agency. Rather than a health and safety organizing of them.

 

[coopec]

I started to read through the posts but then lost interest as they seemed repetitive.

It may have been mentioned before in a previous post that linseed oil left on a rag can start a fire through spontaneous combustion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yq6VW-c2Ts

Also may dusts can be explosive.
http://www.vac-u-max.com/pdf/OSHA-combustible-dust-poster.pdf

 

[Seajet]

I was told at a meeting in the week that they are now tring to stop the use of bleach ( a substance that turns to salt in sea water)to remove weed on steps and slipways at harbours. Bleach in a diluted form is the only thing that successfully removes weed, how many people will be injured and how many court casses will result from this crazy piece of legistration

This has long been the case in Chichester Harbour, years / decades ago our club had to stop using any chemicals on the weed / algae on the two concrete slipways.

Meanwhile I have seen a lot of boat-savvy people have nasty falls there, including a chum whose head hit the concrete with a sickening thud, and my mother breaking her wrist; just two ambulance jobs among many, but that's alright as long as some snail isn't bothered...

We now have a very powerful petrol engined pressure washer which has to be carried by at least two people, and the hose laid, across a very busy road which itself has seen some serious casualties including fatalities; but that's alright, some snail is happy.