Electric/Propane hazard?

Checklists for doing various tasks with the Telstar, for ITOA members only.
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dcsailing1
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Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2009 8:01 pm
Location: Bandon, Oregon
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Electric/Propane hazard?

Post by dcsailing1 »

I am re posting this here from the burned Telstar thread as I believe ours was not the only older boat to have this hazard. I believe some of the later boats were reported to have covered terminals.

I posted a warning about what I discovered in #342 some time ago in the old forum, sans photo. I think it’s worth it to do so again as this could have been the cause for this fire, perhaps luckily while the boat was on the trailer and not occupied.

We purchased #342 as a used boat in June of 08 and during inspections and upgrades found the pos. and neg. terminals for the outboard were uncovered, as in this picture of the inside rear of the port cockpit locker. This was not visible until we removed the propane tank. Compounding the problem was the tachometer location prevents the propane tank from sitting properly in the factory wooden tank base. So it just kind of rattles around and has to lay on its side to get the hatch closed. My concern was what happens if the steel tank moved down and contacted both terminals at once? Dead short, much heat- kind of like an arc welder spark- while melting through the tank. (We found rust marks on our tank that match the terminal bolts and one of the bolts has rust) Please take a minute to inspect the terminals in your boat and cover them with good quality terminal covers if they are bare.

Perhaps the tachometer should be on the starboard side of cockpit, (plenty of wire and you can see it if you operate from port side) and then the propane tank can be properly secured to prevent a possibly fatal situation developing at sea.

(If this post is in the wrong place or shouldn't be duplicated please feel free to move or delete)
Ron
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Electric/Propane hazard?

Post by Ron »

359 has the terminals covered, and they have been moved away from the tank as well. Tank sits securely in it's intended location. I expect that 358 (the burnt boat? ) has a similar arragement. The 20 hp Honda does not come with a tachometer, so I bought the Honda tach myself and installed it on the starboard side in just about the same location. Was more concerned about seeing it than interfering with the tank.
Ron Marcuse
Telstar 28 #359 "Tri-Power"
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Cruissser
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Re: Electric/Propane hazard?

Post by Cruissser »

Thought I would share our experience with the Telstar on our first trip to Florida. Maybe this will keep someone else from losing their boat and shed some light on what may have happened to Pretty Gee.

On our first night we ended up in MO after enjoying a days driving with great road conditions and good weather. We found a place to park. It was around 20 degrees out so we decided to fire up the burners on the stove to warm up the cabin while we went to a burger place within walking distance.

In case you are not aware, it is not a good idea to run the burners when you are in the cabin for any length of time. The cabin is very small and the oxygen would burn off quickly. In other words if you plan on being alive in the morning you better have any type of heater with an open flame turned off when you turn in for the evening!!

When we returned we were puzzled by the glow coming from the cabin. Did we leave a light on? Once we got closer we realized the boat was on fire. The locker cover behind the stove was on top of the burners blazing away like a yule log on Christmas Eve. We quickly put it out and realized if it had been 5 or 10 minutes later we would not have had a boat left.

We were very puzzled as to how the locker cover got on the burners. At first we thought maybe someone had broke into the boat, but nothing was missing and there were no signs that anyone had been in the boat. It was really frustrating mystery.

The next day we stopped for a break and wiped down the inside of the cabin to get rid of the smoke smell. It was still cold out so I fired up the burners again. But this time I noticed there was a propane leak on the seal right below the shut off valve. I turned it off and on and it would leak each time i would turn it on.

Best I can figure is it was leaking the night of the fire and leaked propane up into the locker behind the stove. As propane is heavy it filled the locker then leaked out into the flame causing a small explosion blowing the cover off and onto the surface of the stove.

Once we got into weather above freezing the tank worked fine, I could not get it to leak. I don't know what the seal is made out of, but its obvious that temperature effected its ability to seal.

We ended up purchasing a full size tank and installed it in the area right in front of the motor. It was a tight fit but worked perfectly and now the tank is in open air and not able to leak into the locker or cabin.

I would recommend taking your tank and throwing it in the freezer for a couple hours and seeing if you have a similar problem or moving your tank ahead of the motor as we have done.

I hope this helps prevent someone from having the fate of Pretty Gee. Who knows, maybe this is what caused the fire. Its my understanding it was in cold weather when it burnt. Maybe it was the bare electrical shorting out.....I guess we will never know.

Randy
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