boatruptcy
Seaman Apprentice
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2008
- Messages
- 40
a couple years back i was working on my liveaboard 40' 1959 chris craft constellation woody (loved that boat). it was an aft deck therefore the engine room was huge for this size boat, about 5 feet deep. it had twin 454s and i am crazy weird about gasoline and its volatility, run the blowers whenever i board the boat, added a fume detector, everything ignition protected etc.
so in my very active attempt at complete safety i was in the midst of installing in-line fuel filters, i had been dreading this for a while because it required cutting the fuel line, mounting the spin-ons and attaching (i knew some gas would run onto the platform in the bilge). the generator sat between the motors and the fuel lines ran fore from the tanks in the lazzarette up the interior side of the stringers. i had prepared for my task by shutting off both dc and ac panels, even unplugging shore power cord and idiotically i removed the gen start battery that sat in front of the gen right where i was working, the cables were lying on the bilge floor. in hindsight this was the worst thing i could have done because that battery was not isolated and still had 12v running into the pos cable. i was trying to be extra special careful and didnt want the battery where i was working, what a dumbo i know.
well you can guess what happened next, cut the fuel line and kicked the cables causing them to touch and spark. BOOOOOOOOOM, vapors ignite and a fireball climbed right up my chest. the fastest and highest i have ever jumped in my life (remeber the deck is chest high when standing up in the bilge and im 6'1" i leapt in one motion to the deck, dont know how but i could have taken the gold for vertical leap that day. fortunately for me i had a halon system with a manual discharge and yanked the love out of that handle. i am pretty sure i shrieked like a little girl.
while it has somewhat of a humorous aspect when writing in a forum, i hope everyone out there is very diligent about checking their bilges and inspecting fuel lines, the good Lord was watching out for me that day and had that halon not worked i estimate it would have been only a few moments before 200 gallons of gasoline ignited. i hope you all can laugh and learn from my bonehead move. take care and i love this site.
so in my very active attempt at complete safety i was in the midst of installing in-line fuel filters, i had been dreading this for a while because it required cutting the fuel line, mounting the spin-ons and attaching (i knew some gas would run onto the platform in the bilge). the generator sat between the motors and the fuel lines ran fore from the tanks in the lazzarette up the interior side of the stringers. i had prepared for my task by shutting off both dc and ac panels, even unplugging shore power cord and idiotically i removed the gen start battery that sat in front of the gen right where i was working, the cables were lying on the bilge floor. in hindsight this was the worst thing i could have done because that battery was not isolated and still had 12v running into the pos cable. i was trying to be extra special careful and didnt want the battery where i was working, what a dumbo i know.
well you can guess what happened next, cut the fuel line and kicked the cables causing them to touch and spark. BOOOOOOOOOM, vapors ignite and a fireball climbed right up my chest. the fastest and highest i have ever jumped in my life (remeber the deck is chest high when standing up in the bilge and im 6'1" i leapt in one motion to the deck, dont know how but i could have taken the gold for vertical leap that day. fortunately for me i had a halon system with a manual discharge and yanked the love out of that handle. i am pretty sure i shrieked like a little girl.
while it has somewhat of a humorous aspect when writing in a forum, i hope everyone out there is very diligent about checking their bilges and inspecting fuel lines, the good Lord was watching out for me that day and had that halon not worked i estimate it would have been only a few moments before 200 gallons of gasoline ignited. i hope you all can laugh and learn from my bonehead move. take care and i love this site.
