As I see it, one big problem with gas boats is that not all boats are "Well Maintained". A cracked fitting, loose hose clamp or improperly installed filter can lead to a gas leak. Last year there was a meticulously maintained gas boat in the slip next to mine. Despite the boat looking better than new, there was ALWAYS a smell of gas around it. They clearly had a leak somewhere that needed fixing. I am very glad that it moved to a different slip on a different dock this year.
Furthermore, small leaks can be tough to track down and take time to fix. This season I had a tiny fuel leak on my boat. It was detected by smell, not by accumulation of fuel in the engine pan. After much checking I finally isolated it to a leaking crush washer on the return line on one of the injectors. It took wrapping the injectors in paper towels and running the engine for 2 hours to get enough fuel to leak out to be detectable on the toweling. I spent probably 2 weeks tracking that leak down and then had to wait an additional 2 days for the new parts to arrive before I could repair it. Fortunately I have a diesel boat, so the only problem was smell. On a gas boat the same leak would have created a fire/explosion hazard.
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