Thread: Gas vs. Diesel
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Old 09-03-2015, 08:15 AM   #201
Baker
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City: League City, Tx
Vessel Name: Floatsome & Jetsome
Vessel Model: Meridian 411
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 7,332
Quote:
Originally Posted by BruceK View Post
I don`t know, in the boat explosion case I was involved in years ago, if the baby blown into the air screamed before dying. The two adults I acted for had horrible injuries, all 4 limbs fractured,weeping infection sites from fragments forced deep into tissue by the explosion, etc. I`d like to forget it, I can`t, I don`t think it is wrong to raise safety as a consideration, as I did previously, without the grisly information above.
Something I learnt (if memory serves) from the investigations is the required ratio for combustion is 95% air 5% gas. A boat can be "safe" if the ratio is richer, but if air is added to the bilge by moving, that ratio can change. The problem lies in containment provided by hull and decks.
Despite my experience, I twice chartered gas boats from good companies, one was Halvorsen, and would nervously poke my nose into the ER. When I bought, I excluded gas engine boats from my search, including on safety grounds.
I am with you Bruce. It has personally affected me. I have seen an explosion where there was nothing left of the boat except what was raining out of the sky. Hollywood could not have done a better job. Amazingly, no one died but all were critically injured and lost limbs and had 3rd degree burns. We even went through the fund raining process afterwards and did benefits to help piece those people back together with prosthetics. If my boat went faster than 7 knots I would have been first on the scene. I was about 400 yards away when it happened. THe only upside and likely the reason no one died was the coordination of the TowBoatUS and the USCG. He had those people loaded into his boat and the life flight helicopters were waiting when he got to a good drop off point.

Another somewhat recent incident in our marina was a boat with a bilge full of gasoline and a not very smart guy who decided to use a shop vac to clean it up. Boom....and he did die. It would be easy to shrug that one off as Darwinism but who knows what was going on. The dude died and many boats burned. Still a tragedy.

Gasoline boats are less safe than diesel boats. That is the reality of it. Can the risks be mitigated...sure. But not completely. You will pay more insurance for a gas boat for the reasons stated above. They burn and they kill(CO poisoning) more than diesel boats do.
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