Sleeping with petrol fumes next to a battery!

[Zagato]

Bit of a conundrum about where to store my battery as my Drascombe is designed to have the petrol container for the outboard stored in the lazarette. This lazarette is not sealed from the cabin and people have given up trying to and now common practice is so tie the petrol container on deck!

I would like to store my battery in the lazarette but my reserve petrol can will be in their and as a result most owners put their batteries in the cabin. When I say in the cabin, in such a small boat I mean 12" away from your head when lying down without any barrier. Don't these things give off fumes and blow up sometimes. I don't fancy cooking in the cabin with batteries around

 

[lw395]

The battery will not give off any significant fumes unless it is either being charged or heavily discharged.

If you must store any petrol in a space that connects to the living space, make sure the can seals really well and wash the outside before putting it away.
You are unlikely to blow yourself up unless it really leaks, but the smell won't help with seasickness and gets into everything.
We store ours in the anchor well.

 

[Seajet]

I fitted a tube from the battery relief vent spigot to a deckhead ventilator for this reason; the battery only discharges hydrogen when charging I believe so the idea is the lighter than air gas will know to kindly go through the ventilator. I also have a specially big ' no smoking ' sign by the battery vent - my boat is No Smoking anyway but my ex' sometimes had a crafty fag ! I'd certainly rather cook near to a battery than a petrol can ( or gas bottle ) but battery explosions do happen and can be very nasty.