Twin diesel vs twin petrol conundrum...

The picture of the Ocean 37, if taken 12 years ago, shows a pair of 30 year old diesels on fire. To be fair, the old 6354s often smoke that much on start-up anyway!!

Out of interest, does anyone actually know the cause of that fire?

Could be some useful learning points for all.....
 
mlines said:
Probably caught fire from a passing burning petrol engined boat which has already exploded and sunk before the picture was taken.
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If I were No Regrets, I'd be more worried about ice than fire if profile pic is anything to go by... :D More seriously, I think corrosion probably accounts for more sinkings than fire from I've seen.
 
Adding another layer of complication ,
A diesel with petrol outboards tender --
A diesel ". ". ". ". With a gas hob thrown in too.

How safe is the petrol storage and transfer ?
How safe is -are all those gas pipes

Never mind just the main engines running on flammable stuff .

So how many boats are totally petrol free and gas free ?
 
Murv said:
I must admit, I'm more fascinated by how the "diesel motor yachts carburetors" work!
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Two boats the freeman 22 was a petrol and took down the DIY ers diesel .
Strange thing to report its in his wife's name -that more odd to publish by the jurno rarther than get in a muddle over carbs .
 
Are we perhaps going overboard about the dangers of petrol boats ?
The actual petrol on most petrol inboard boats is kept in Al or stainless tank with only a couple of small bore outlets and inlets.
I'd imagine it is very rare for a petrol boat to go off like a bomb in the real world.
What I have heard of is un burnt petrol fumes igniting in small engine spaces, like the type found on small bayliner speedboats. The type with the wee removable grp box around the engine and between the two back 'jump seats"'.
This usually happens on carb boats running rich with choke on either upon first start up at idle or slow speeds with out the extraction fan on.
Other than that, there surely can't be that many petrol boats exploding as perhaps imagined.
No doubt diesel is safer. They are also much more expensive, down on power to weight (getting better), more expensive to maintain, noisy, smelly....
All the above perhaps refers to all but the most recent boats.
 
This threat became a bit of a hornet's nest! :rolleyes:

Just to update, we are negotiating on a single engined diesel at the moment, so if anything comes of it I will do a new post.

Nothing to do with explosion risk, fuel availability etc - just an interesting opportunity and means we can do now rather than wait on sale of flat etc. A big saving on annual costs too as trailerable and single engine/drive, so we can extract ourselves for annual maintenance etc. Not quite as old and agricultural as some oil burners either... :cool:
 
QBhoy said:
They are also much more expensive, down on power to weight (getting better), more expensive to maintain, noisy, smelly....
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Unless coming late in your progression up the slippery pole of income vs outgoings many will start out with a small petrol powered boat.
Most would be outboard driven UK speedboats or USA sourced outdrive vessels with a cabin of some sort.
Thats it, not much else around. Probably the more sensible get out of boating while they have a chance at this stage.
Due to the size of boat/power source trips tend to limited in duration and actual hours moving on the water will be short.
If for some insane reason, you stay with it, then a larger boat will appear,usually because you want to stay out longer and go further,the transition to diesel normally happens here.
Going to argue that diesels are not that much more expensive if you divide the costs by the number of hours the boat is used.Fuel also limits petrol boat use.A dozen trips over an entire summer round the bay in a petrol boat will probably only equal a decent weekend trip by diesel boat actually going somewhere.
Over normal period of any boat ownership and barring major catastrophies ,suspect the over all costs are very similar but the diesel boat will have been out far longer and taken you far further.
PS. Legs are for people not boats. :)
 
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oldgit said:
Unless coming late in your progression up the slippery pole of income vs outgoings many will start out with a small petrol powered boat.
Most would be outboard driven UK speedboats or USA sourced outdrive vessels with a cabin of some sort.
Thats it, not much else around.Probably the more sensible get out of boating while they have a chance at this stage.
Due to the size of boat/power source trips tend to limited in duration and actual hours moving on the water will be short.
If for some insane reason, you stay with it, then a larger boat will appear usually because you want to stay out longer and go further,the transition to diesel normally happens here.
Am going to argue that diesels are not that much more expensive than your petrol equivilent per hour run.
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If you don't go very far the petrol boat is cheaper.

My first boat a was a 25ft single engined diesel. The chief officer and I went some distance in that in our first year of boating . That included two week long summer holidays. We had that boat 6 years . I know others who do likewise . So its wrong to assume small boat results in limited hours used. Indeed the cheaper running from a single engine meant we went out while others were looking at their wallets.
We have a 33ft twin engined boat now, in large part due to the desire for more comfortable accommodation space. The move has doubled the annual cost ......still doing about the same hours run per year. For the moment I dont have to think about fuel cost but that might change in the future.
Some of our cruising range has been curtailed by the bigger boat (and low bridges). On the other hand other opportunities have been opened up.
 
oldgit said:
Unless coming late in your progression up the slippery pole of income vs outgoings many will start out with a small petrol powered boat.
Most would be outboard driven UK speedboats or USA sourced outdrive vessels with a cabin of some sort.
Thats it, not much else around. Probably the more sensible get out of boating while they have a chance at this stage.
Due to the size of boat/power source trips tend to limited in duration and actual hours moving on the water will be short.
If for some insane reason, you stay with it, then a larger boat will appear,usually because you want to stay out longer and go further,the transition to diesel normally happens here.
Going to argue that diesels are not that much more expensive if you divide the costs by the number of hours the boat is used.Fuel also limits petrol boat use.A dozen trips over an entire summer round the bay in a petrol boat will probably only equal a decent weekend trip by diesel boat actually going somewhere.
Over normal period of any boat ownership and barring major catastrophies ,suspect the over all costs are very similar but the diesel boat will have been out far longer and taken you far further.
PS. Legs are for people not boats. :)
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Can't agree with a lot of that.

We have had our little diesel engined boat for 9 years now and have taken her far and wide, far further and wider then some with much bigger boats will ever dream of. The size of the boat needn't limit your enjoyment of it. We comfortably stay aboard for two and three weeks at a time, which is all that work allows us for now.

Despite all of the dire warnings from yourself, our leg has yet to drop off, self combust or sink the boat.
 
Small petrol boats do not go very far or run up any serious hours .......

"our leg has yet to drop off".....Give it time give it time .. :)
 
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