RE: Propane Fumes -- Was: Gel Cell or Sealed

Dik Richardson (oldbandito@citlink.net)
Wed, 6 Jan 1999 09:27:13 -0800

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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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This and other similar subjects have really been beat to death on all of the other various sailing mail lists, and I am almost to the point of finding them a great source of amusement. Not that they are subjects to be taken lightly, but how many of these folks sit around and worry about the gas tank in their car exploding, the natural gas hook up to their house blowing up, their neighbors tree falling on them, etc, etc, . . . . . . I have been hanging around boats for about fifty years now, lived aboard for over fifteen years, and have NEVER seen a boat blow up due to escaping hydrogen gas escaping from the batteries, NEVER seen or even heard a SUBSTANTIATED account of a gas engine in a boat exploding unless the owner was doing something really stupid, I did see the aftermath of a boat fire caused by a LEAKING propane tank that the owner had known about for over a month. To listen to all the experts sitting around their fireplace with a great stack of how to sail books, my propane h
eating and cooking stoves should have killed me a long time ago, the ancient old Atomic four gas inboard engines in a couple of my boats surely should have exploded by now and sent me skyward in a great mushroom ball of fire . . . .. . . I must be doing something wrong, because even after knowingly installing all of these systems of doom on my various boats, I'm still alive and kicking (bitching).

Please don't get me wrong, these are indeed serious potential threats, but people seem to dwell on them to the point of becoming absurd. I mean, should I get all crazy 'cuz my heavily ballasted boats don't have floatation? I drove airplanes for a few years, worked as a high-rise window cleaner for many years, and was part of the bomb squad for awhile, and I always felt very safe doing so. Why? Because I paid attention to what I was doing, took nothing for granted, and followed the various rules of safety that applied. I am very safety conscious, and I keep on top of the various systems on my boats, but I certainly don't dwell on them.

Anyway . . . . Rants over . . . . . A very happy New Year to all. I don't see a Baja trip in the near future, so I'm planning on getting to some the Potter functions this year, so I'll let Hamada play here in the Delta this summer.

Dik Richardson
HAMADA HMS 18 #11
LOSBARBAS Ranger 29 #60
VAS KORA Islander 33 #36
Hidden Harbor Marina, Rio Vista, CA

-----Original Message-----
From: JBlumhorst@aol.com [SMTP:JBlumhorst@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 1999 8:06 AM
To: wwpotter@tscnet.com
Subject: Propane Fumes -- Was: Gel Cell or Sealed

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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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Okay, all you chemists and alchemists,

What is the safest place/way to store and use a propane stove and/or canister?
I have a gimballed single-burner Seacook off-shore stove that takes a screw-on
propane canister. I also have a propane lantern....

What are the issues around the safety of using propane on a boat?

Judy Blumhorst, DC
WWP-19 #266 "Red Wing"
SF Bay, CA