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Old 23-04-2017, 09:38   #31
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Re: 3000 explosions a year?

Posted a long time ago, but imho worth a repeat.

Back in the early '70's a neighbor of mine took several years to restore an old wood lapstrake 25 foot cabin cruiser powerboat. He had varnished and painted it and it was beautiful.
Unfortunately, he never fixed the carburetor on the Atomic gas engine because it always started fine, even when cold without using the choke.

On the day he launched it, he took his wife and baby on the maiden voyage down the Sammamish Slough on the way to Lake Washington.
About a half mile down the river, I'm sure you know what happened.
The baby and wife were blown out of the boat, the husband suffered some minor burns, and the boat sank (more or less) in the slow moving river as every seam in the boat had blown open.
Nobody was seriously hurt, and the boat was towed back up the river the next day.

I was present at the small marina when the boat was removed from the water.
The crane operator had put several straps around the semi sunken boat, but was too anxious to get the job done quickly.
As the boat was lifted, water streamed out of every seam, and as the crunching sounds filled the air, it quickly became a pile of separate strips of wood trash.
This now almost unrecognizable pile was then dropped straight into the marina's dumpster.
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Old 23-04-2017, 10:28   #32
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Re: 3000 explosions a year?

"In 2010, there were close to 3,000 boat explosions while fueling..."

I don't see where this figure claims to be from the USA. If there were 300 in the USA alone, then 3000 worldwide doesn't sound like a bad estimate.
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Old 23-04-2017, 10:51   #33
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Re: 3000 explosions a year?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelkara View Post
"In 2010, there were close to 3,000 boat explosions while fueling..."

I don't see where this figure claims to be from the USA. If there were 300 in the USA alone, then 3000 worldwide doesn't sound like a bad estimate.
The statement comes from this website: https://www.reiffandbily.com/injurie...at-explosions/

The actual full statement is: "In 2010, there were close to 3,000 boat explosions while fueling in the United States and most often, the consequences are deadly and catastrophic. "

It is pure absolute BS, because any 'deadly and catastrophic' accident is reported in the USCG numbers and they are NO WHERE close to 3000.

My question is who goes and reads random ambulance chaser websites . . . other than the OP, who also claims to enjoy being involved in courtroom fights, and seemed to want to claim ownership of random unattended boats? I suggest we discourage him from joining boating . . . probably not someone we want in our community.
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Old 23-04-2017, 11:46   #34
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Re: 3000 explosions a year?

barnakiel said he never saw one boom. ok i have seen 3 in san diego at the same texaco fuel dock which boomed during fueling-- because the fuel dock attendants pumping the gas refuse to allow ye to keep the bilge blowers on while fueling--biiig mistake-need that working to prevent initial start up spark in a fume filled bilge, and 2 to clear out the fumes while fueling. duh.
it is spectacular. not fun to watch--much like a train wreck.
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Old 24-04-2017, 00:54   #35
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Red face Re: 3000 explosions a year?

Back in the late 70's I was employed by Ford Motor Company Australia, we had just launched a new Falcon that had a 100% plastic fuel tank, I say 100% as there were a number other vehicles with plastic tanks at the time but they all were connected to metal filling apertures, with the falcon the fuelling hose was placed into a filling aperture that was part of the plastic tank. The big difference was that the falcon tank was not earthed (eclectically bonded) to the vehicle chassis.
What came to pass was that when the vehicle was refuelled from a manual pump, (not all that uncommon then in rural Australia) not a commercial fuel refilling station, in very low humidity days static electricity was created between the moving fuel and the plastic tank and/or the rubber hose, with some dramatic effects.
Without going into all the findings and circumstances, the fix was to recall about 60,000 (from memory) cars and fit a metallic collar to the plastic tank opening and bonding that to the chassis.
Of interest to boaties was that the authorities used the Ford investigations to resolve a few (and I do say only a few) unresolved boat refuelling explosions, where the initial thoughts were poor fuel handling or smoking during the refuelling process.
What was happening is that the fuel was pumped from an on shore storage, in those days we called then 44 gallon drums, a hi speed hand pump into a tank on a boat, without any electrical bonding. On a day of some temperature and low humidity the resultant build up of static electricity caused sparks and the resultant fire works.
These days, but I'm not too sure, the approved fuel delivery lines are electrically conductive which connects the supply and receiving tank, avoiding static build up.
Not to enter the statistical debate, but I wonder if those few instance in Australia are included in the 3000.
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