Gas Explosion

[Emmalina]

Just had a nutcase in a boat next to me explode. He had a portable gas stove in his galley He now has 80% burns on his body no hair and a very modified boat. A flying hatch just missed me...... Is this a darwin award candidate ? Satun Thailand

[DeepFrz]

Is this a darwin award candidate ?

Only if the hatch had hit you.

[Ocean Girl]

Portable stove blew a boat apart? Hatches and all? What kind of portable stove was it? Must of been hooked up to a big tank.
Hope he recovers well and has insurance.

[Emmalina]

Originally Posted by Ocean Girl

Portable stove blew a boat apart? Hatches and all? What kind of portable stove was it? Must of been hooked up to a big tank.
Hope he recovers well and has insurance.

You do not need a lot of gas to make a boat go bang.. Believe me I have just seen it with my own eyes..... It was a wharam catamaran and the galley compartment isn.t that big. It is now ........
Negative on the insurance....
Will go see him in the hospital later.....

[seacap]

A one pound propane tank for grill or portable stove has the explosive power of a stick of TNT.

[foggysail]

About 5-6 years ago, there was a guy at our marina at that time who was installing propane into a 36' trawler. Yes, you guess correctly... there was an explosion. The entire top of the boat blew up, ripped off the gunnels and soared about 3 fee in the air and then came back down. The boat owner suffered burns, he made it but the boat didn't. That was the last year he was there.

[SkiprJohn]

My friend had his boat blow up around him due to a leaky tank of propane straight from the factory. He survived. The boat did not.

Smoking is hazardous to your health. So is a leak in the propane tank.

[Ocean Girl]

I did not think a portable 16oz tank could do that, gulp.

[boatman61]

It can if you changed the bottle when your pissed or stoned...

[hpeer]

Makes old fashioned kero cooker sound pretty good, no?

[wingless]

This reply shows how I store the propane tanks on my boat, the Not Yet Smithereens.

[S/V Alchemy]

I have a camp stove on my 33 footer. I use it on deck, on a plank spanning the aft end of the cockpit, in the open air. It's no more dangerous than a rail BBQ, but then I am careful with threading those one-pound bottles.

The stove inside the boat was pressure alcohol. I had some compelling reasons to get that out of the boat. Open-air cooking is preferable.

Here's the effects of propane in an enclosed boat.

Yachting Monthly's Crash Test Boat - Explosion! - YouTube

[denverd0n]

Originally Posted by Emmalina

Is this a darwin award candidate?

Darwin Awards are for stupid people who remove themselves from the gene pool--either by dying, or by eliminating their ability to procreate. So, probably not.

Still, a good lesson that propane can be very dangerous when mis-handled.

[Tony B]

Overall, it's pretty hard to create a propane explosion. One would actually have to work at it. Think about all of the RV's, boats and homes that use propane. Fire and explosions are extremely rare. I guess you would have to start with really poor equipment and then not be able to smell the gas leak. And when you do, not worry about it.
As long as he didn't blow his nuts off he wont get the Darwin Award this year, however, there is still almost a month left to this year. better luck next time.

[seacap]

We had a huge explosion on a 33' sloop here on st. Thomas. The guy killed his best friend and his dog. The owner ended up in the hospital. The boat was a wreck. You could hear the explosion for miles.

They had set off 2 bug bombs (new meaning to the phrase), which even one in that small space is overkill (sorry for all the puns). I heard there was a gas water heater on board with an open flame (which would be a bad idea too), but have no confirmation. Well something set it off.

Was very sad.