Whitelighter
Active member
It surprises me more people don't use the diesel ceramic hob/oven combos. Very inert fuel that you carry anyway and excellent to cook on.
Yacht explosion West Coast Scotland
- Thread starter Cloven
- Start date
FWB
N/A
I considered one when I commissioned my boat. Seemed like too much electronics so I went for a Taylor's instead, very simple to use.
rotrax
Well-known member
I know an owner with one.
He says it is great, but you cant have a quick cup of tea unless it is on most of the time. When it is on in warm weather it makes the boat really hot and uncomfortable.
He is changing to bottled gas.
JumbleDuck
Well-known member
Perhaps just a hint impractical on a Hunter 19?
starboard
Active member
Word on the street is that he is a young Glasgow taxi driver. The Hunter 19 is his first boat that he only purchased two weeks ago. Prior to the explosion he had run aground twice, once off Oban airfield as he had no charts. The story goes that he was changing a gas cylinder whilst having a smoke.....the rest is history.
Seajet
...
Could well be gossip, I hope so as I've been full of admiration for the chap, both his efforts after the explosion and hardships to get the boat - good taste too going for a Hunter 19 !
I did think ' user error ' as soon as it was said ' had the boat for a week then it blew up ' - possibly either a steep learning curve or a short-track Darwin Award scheme.
Hope it all works out for him and boat.
I did think ' user error ' as soon as it was said ' had the boat for a week then it blew up ' - possibly either a steep learning curve or a short-track Darwin Award scheme.
Hope it all works out for him and boat.
Kelpie
Well-known member
This one, by any chance?
http://rnli.org/NewsCentre/Pages/Oban-lifeboat-launches-to-18ft-yacht-aground.aspx
http://rnli.org/NewsCentre/Pages/Oban-lifeboat-launches-to-18ft-yacht-aground.aspx
starboard
Active member
The very same Kelpie!!
Seajet
...
Doesn't say anything about lack of charts etc though.
sailorman
Well-known member
or with a 3` draft he ought to have been able to get her off himself, unless he was going ashore to the pub
A1Sailor
...
How does a single handed yachtsman get a fin keeled yacht off a lee shore in a strong wind on an ebb tide? Does one go waist/chest deep into cold water, push hard, then get back on board to discover the yacht is hard aground on the lee shore in a strong wind? I suppose one could row out a kedge before getting into the water and pushing.
While appreciating the laws of Darwin are important, surely the laws of Newton are also important.
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oldbilbo
...
I, for one, would wish him well. Perhaps someone such as 'A1Sailor' or 'Webby' might pass on my ( our? ) good wishes.
As mentioned here before, I'm very aware of the potential for unnoticed gas concentrations to explode due to my several weeks spent learning which end was which on board HMSTY Lord Trenchard. The back end was blown off her at Poole Town Quay some years ago, taking several bits of the skipper's legs. That boat had all the best gas safety systems and procedures - and still they weren't enough.
A1Sailor
...
I have passed on my best wishes to Mr Fulton - but I haven't a clue who the unfortunate yachtsman involved in the (gas?) explosion is. He isn't Mr Iain Fulton!
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lw395
Well-known member
Actually the Trenchard had a poor installation where the cylinders could, and did, leak into the main space of the vessel.
rotrax
Well-known member
IIRC the enquiry found the gas could enter the living space of the vessel and poor fitting of a cylinder regulator by the crew allowed escaping gas to do exactly that.
Very sad, but a correctly installed system with a properly vented gas locker should be as safe as it can be. Humans like the easy life and gas allows INSTANT flame for cooking.
Many propose alcohol fuel. It is good and certainly should not be discounted, but smell can be a problem as well as fuel storage.
I shall stick with gas, and will continue to test regularly with the bubble leak tester I have installed.
The boat First Mate and I recently purchased in NZ had a gas instant water heater, a two burner gas cooker and a three way fridge box-240v, 12v or gas.
My first job was to overhaul the gas system. It was all in flexible pipe, had two tee pieces, several connectors changing sizes and 14-yes 14-hose clips.
The fridge no longer has gas as an option-there was no flue either-which lost one connector, one tee piece and four hose clips.
All the piping was replaced, a shut off valve installed-there was not one before-and everything was clipped tightly in place bar the flexible pipe for the gimballed cooker.
I am now happy that I have no leaks, good quality pipework clipped so it cannot chafe or be chafed, a shut off valve before the water heater and cooker and a securely fixed cylinder in an overboard venting locker. I will take a bubble leak tester with me next time we visit and improve it further.
JumbleDuck
Well-known member
Well, they thought she had. She actually had inadequate systems and poor procedures. See pp23-24 of
https://assets.digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk/media/547c717be5274a429000013b/lord_trenchard.pdf
JumbleDuck
Well-known member
As so often with accidents, it was a combination of many factors.
3.2 Causal factors
The immediate causes of the accident were:
The root cause of this accident is considered to have been the divided responsibility for
the management of the vessel between JSASTC and other parts of the MoD.
Underlying causes were:
The immediate causes of the accident were:
- the failure to properly tighten the connection on the aft gas bottle in the ready-use locker when the bottles were changed between 14 and 20 June 1999;
- the non gas-tightness of the ready-use locker allowing LPG to migrate into the hull of the vessel;
- the failure of the gas alarm system to identify the presence of gas in the hold space.
The root cause of this accident is considered to have been the divided responsibility for
the management of the vessel between JSASTC and other parts of the MoD.
Underlying causes were:
- The procedures in place for testing the gas alarm system did not ensure that the sensors were tested:
- The vessel management system did not identify that the vessel’s stability data had not been submitted to MSA for approval;
- The lack of stability approval by MSA resulted in the vessel not commencing the annual inspection programme required by the Code;
- The vessel management system did not identify that the documented inspection and testing of the gas installation during a refit in 1996 did not demonstrate compliance with the Code, British Standard or refit specification;
- The vessel management system did not identify a lack of progress on stability submission or non-compliance with refit specification;
- The lack of consistency in labelling gas sensors and the spaces they served generated doubt in the minds of skippers and crews;
- The bilge ventilation procedures, using bilge pumps, were not suitable forremoving large volumes of gas.
A pretty damning report into a culture of complacency and buck-passing. Could the skipper reasonably be expected to take total responsibility for the explosion?
lw395
Well-known member
Otherwise known as the UK Armed Services.
JumbleDuck
Well-known member
'Myes. The downside of the "captain takes full responsibility" notion is that everyone else can then dodge responsibility. It is never wise to be over-reliant on systems and procedures, because even if they are rigorously implemented, they generally only deal with known threats and not unknown ones. The armed services are now geared up perfectly to defeat the Wehrmacht of 1939 and the crew of the Lord Trenchard put their faith in a broken alarm system which hadn't been installed properly in the first place.
prv
Well-known member
Be aware that those absorption fridges work by heating a section of pipework to boil one chemical out of solution in the other. So although the choice of three different heat sources makes them very flexible, when run on electricity they use several times the power of a conventional compressor fridge which is a problem on batteries.
Pete
