Timely Warning around Carbon Monoxide

[ausaviator]

This happened in Victoria last month. A timely warning for the dangers of Carbon Monoxide. In this case it was the generator that was vented into the yacht, a Beneteau Oceanis 44.

The only reason that they all survived was because the wife / mother in the family had gone for a walk and when she came back her family had all passed out. She worked frantically to drag them all out of the cabin and broke her ankle whilst doing so. She should probably be nominated for a bravery award.


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[dirkdig]

Before summer i am getting some detectors fitted,they are cheap enough and a good saftey item.

[Teknav]

If you're going to use a gasoline powered generator, make sure it is placed/operational above deck and not inside the boat. Where do you think exhaust gases/fumes will go, if placed below deck? A little common sense will go a long way, folks!

Mauritz
Ignorance is bliss, until it kills you!

[Factor]

Seems a strange thing to do? I would have thought that they would have avoided that? I wonder if it was designed that way or there was a fault in the system of that yacht. If there was no fault I would think a product warning would probably be in order.

[ausaviator]

I am doing my best to find out exactly how the genny leaked into the living area, however these people did not stick their genny below deck, they are smarter than that!

My reason for posting is as Factor has said, a product warning for owners of this type of vessel, but that being said I'm yet to find out if the genny was OEM or not.

[MarkJ]

As you dont get carbon monoxide from diesel it must have been a pertol driven generator.

For that folks normally use a Honda type genny on deck. At CO is heavier than air it may have vented below through an open hatch.





Mark

[shorebird]

Um...no CO from diesel?

[shorebird]

A quick check on google shows Mark is correct....diesel burns so efficiently it produces very little CO. Didn't know that...still don't wanna inhale much diesel exhaust...

[neilpride]

Diesel generator produce CO2 , try to turn your diesel car in a closed garage and stay there for few hours, even i got a leak time ago in my perkins at the exaust manifold gasket , imposible to be in the engine room until we open the hatches and ventilate, Gas engines produce more co2 , and the new diesel generators less in acordance with new regulations, but we dont know the generator brand in this case, new or old, could be a fischer panda or small Kolher installed inside of a cockpit locker ... My guess...

[MarkJ]

CO2 is carbon dioxide. Carbon monoxide is CO.


The article said carbon monoxide poisoning

are being treated for carbon monoxide inhalation

[Bash]

Here's a peer-reviewed article about the toxicity of diesel exhaust from the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.

The Toxicity of Diesel Exhaust: Implications for Primary Care

Yes, diesel exhaust contains carbon monoxide, which is the bi-product of incomplete combustion. Fortunately, it's present in diesel exhaust in far smaller levels than in the exhaust of petro engines. Unfortunately, its effects in the bloodstream are cumulative.

[zeehag]

what bash said.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by zeehag

what bash said.

What??????????

Bash, dear boy that he is, has skewed the illness with a different reason. Carbon monoxide is the stated cause of the sickness.

Instead of shooting off on some tangent we should be looking at what the generator was and why it was happening.

A diesel generator running below wont have the CO to make people sick, and the CO2 will not give unconsciousness at that level but will affect long term health of cardio vascular disease.

Can we please all go sniff some CO and some CO2 and note the differnt affects? One you die now. One you may die in a long time.

Even doing a Google search on this string: "acute carbon dioxide poisoning" defaults to "acute carbon monoxide poisoning"

Why am I so pedantic? Because if we encourage BS we will all the air-sealing our engine rooms etc. Thats just not necessary. But what is necessary is being very aware of out petrol/gassoline generators, motors etc.

One place where people like to put their Honda type generators is on the aft swim platform so they dont hear it as much (but the rest of the anchorage does) but often theres windows there and a back-draft. Or on the aft deck near an aft cabin hatch. CO can be sucked right into the boat!


Mark

[ausaviator]

Whatever happened, it was very quick. Unless they were all sleeping at the time which is unlikely as the mother was out for a walk and it's the middle of winter and dark very early at the moment.

[transmitterdan]

Any occupied space should have a CO detector even on Diesel boats. The reason being that not all boats anchored around you will always be diesel. That Honda on your neighbors swim platform can send CO into your boat too.

Diesel engines produce less CO than Petrol/Gasoline engines as we all know. But in today's world there is no excuse for not having a CO detector and teaching everyone aboard what to do when it goes off. CO deaths are truly senseless. I hope these people fully recover and install a CO alarm right away.