Today I almost lost my friends and my boat

kengill

kengill

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Last Night I had some friends along for a weekend, One VI and her new boyfriend and his daughter.

We'd gone into ipswich haven and parked after they'd closed for the night. I put the shore power on and we enjoyed a convivial night.
About 0100 I went for a wash - as you do - and got waylaid by a neigbouring boat plying me with alocohol.. After many tubes i finally made my way back to dear Vitality. As I got onboard I smelled acrid smoke and rather quickly looked around

I saw smoke starting to billow out of my stern cabin so I threw a convenient pan of water (with last nights stuck pasta soaking away in it) at the source of the smoke. I was rewarded with a large hiss so I turned on the taps and continued the treatment.

I saw smoke coming from my duvet so i threw more water on it and then picked it up to throw it into the cockpit then I threw more water on the smoking bunk cushion and the smoke stopped I chucked the bunk cushion and all the bedding into the cockpit and let rip with an extinguisher which did exactly as it said on the tin. I chucked a few buckets of water on the soggy pile to remove all doubt.

Fire out, but what caused it ? It seems that a fancy roaming Halogen reading lamp that I had acquired, which was mounted by a strong clip onto the cabin shelf, had its clip vibrate off or just fell off while we motored upstream. When we docked I went into the cabin before I had plugged into shore power and I must have unknowingly knocked the duvet over the light. When I plugged into shore power the 20 watt light came on under the duvet so we did not see it.

So the insulation of the duvet let the 20 watt light heat build up and eventually set fire to the bedding.

Was I lucky? - you bet your sweet bippy I was - a duvet, two sheets a duvet cover and an upholstered berth cushion - but I could have killed my freinds if I'd returned five minutes later.

Lessons learnt - Yes

I should not have let them continue to sleep,
I could have risked electrocution if the light was 240 volt instead of a transformered 12v.

NEVER USE a wandering clip based reading lamp - I'll fit new proper ones now.

Whew!!! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
 
Obviously your guardian angel was working overtime that night. best not to dwell on all the what ifs.

On my small boat a plywood lid slides over the cooker when not in use making a large chart table. One night before turning in I slid the lid on to get it out of the way for the night. In the morning the top was warm,it transpired one of the burners was very slightly on all night. A bit more could have caused a tragedy.(whole family on board)

One idea you could consider is smoke detectors in each cabin.
 
Lucky break, but it does say something for the change over to less flammable bedding materials used nowadays.

Glad no-one was hurt, reminds me of when my daughter cooked her duvet when reading in bed under hers, she came screaming out of her bedroom that night I can tell you.
 
My Foxcub (and a friend's bought new in 1977) both had heat resistant material above the hotplate. Probably something terribly toxic when the boats were built, but you can get safe sheet material nowadays from central heating suppliers. Tthere's bound to be one in your town or city.
 
I left a 6volt battery mini floodlamp with 20W bulb switched on in my trouser pocket --smell of smouldering, holes burnt in pocket. Ironic or moronic since I was engaged in Surveying for "Hot Spots" using a Themal Imaging camera.
 
With regards to electric shock; this is where having the right breakers on the boat are vital. You need an RCD which is not just a normal circuit breaker (MCB). The RCD protects against earth leakage. Should the water from the pan have connected anything to earth then the circuit would be isolated instantaneously, before there was enough time for you to get a shock.
 
Good point.

All 240 volt from the shorepower goes through an RCD first, but i also have a second 240volt circuit from the inverter to power my breathing apparatus at night. Could I fit an RCD in that as well? if so would I need any form of secondary earthing to a ground plate or some such item?

I'm still getting the shivers when I think of it. The dear Lord was merciful that night.

Many thanks for the observation
ken
 
We had shore power on the boat but no circuit breaker had been fitted. Over the winter when she was laid up I left a small tubular heater on to avoid dampness. I arranged with a professional electrician to have the proper circuit breaker thingy fitted.

The day before she was due to go into the water Mrs Dougie and I went up to get things ready and I told her we would be able to use the heating. When we arrived the fitment was gone and I thought someone had vandalised it. To check I phoned the electrician and he told me that it had been fitted wrongly and the bottom section was almost full of water. Due to the dry winter it had not yet reached the electrical contacts, but he said that we could have been electrocuted very easily.

He not only fixed the circuit breaker to make the system legal but re-fitted the shore electric fittings out of the way, safe and dry.

Always better to use a professional when it involves dangerous stuff like gas or electrics.
 
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