HOW TO PREVENT A
round 5:30 p.m. on February 4, a fire broke out on a boat in Sausalito's Schoonmaker Point Marina. Hans List and Bill Burdette were outside the List Marine shop less than a block away when they saw smoke. "We were the first ones on the dock," List recalls. "After calling 9-1-1, we started calling everyone we knew who had a boat on C Dock." One of those people was this writer. In fact, our boat was just 50 feet from the Ocean Alexander 48 Rubicon, which, by the time my husband and I arrived at nearly 6 p.m., was fully engulfed. The sight of a blazing fiIf your heater draws 14 amps, berglass boat and your battery charger is enough to and water heater each draw get any sailor's 10, you're already pulling 34 heart racing. amps out of a 30-amp serBut when the vice. This is often the result. winds are blowing smoke, flames and burning embers toward your home, your heart beats just a little faster . . . trust us on this. But whether by miracle, luck or the extreme professionalism of the responding fire crews, the conflagration caused surprisingly little damage — other than to Rubicon itself, which was a total loss. The co-owner and his two dogs, who had recently been spending quite a bit of time aboard, escaped the fire unharmed. The two boats directly downwind — and just a few feet away — suffered only melted roller furling jibs and minor rigging damage. A couple of dock boxes were destroyed, and the concrete dock in front of Rubicon has seen better days, but considering the intensity of the blaze, things could have turned out much worse. "We were very fortunate in a lot of different ways," says Mike Rainey, harbormaster at Schoonmaker. "Rubicon was on a side-tie so the fireboat Liberty could access it easily. Plus it was raining and the wind hadn't picked up yet, as it was forecasted to do. All of that worked in our favor." The owner believes the cause of the fire was electrical in nature but there's been no official word, and there might never be. She was slated to be disposed of late last month.
A
ccording to BoatUS, 55% of all onboard fires originate from a boat's electrical system. Surprisingly, only 8% of those are directly linked to shorepower connections or AC heaters — two sources Page 104 •
Latitude 38
• March, 2010
commonly charged with being leading firestarters. Shorts and faults in the DC system are the top causes of onboard electrical fires, claiming 30% of the total. Here are some tips to help lessen the risk of a fire breaking out on your boat: • Periodically inspect your entire electrical system. Look for chafing wires — often found near the engine, bulkheads or other sharp edges. Chafe leads to shorts which lead to fires. • Use wire ties to secure wiring away from potential sources of chafe. Another option is to use wire conduit, which will not only protect the wire but give a finished look. • If your wiring is old, consider updating it. Invisible corrosion in older wiring not only decreases the efficiency of the system, it can also lead to overheating. • Corroded or improperly installed terminals also lead to power loss and fire. Ideally, properly crimped terminals would be protected by watertight heatshrink tubing. • Maintain your batteries as recommended by the manufacturer. If they start to boil over or bulge, it's time to replace them. Also ensure that they're strapped down or otherwise secure, and that the battery box is well-vented. • Install circuit breakers or Class T fuse blocks as close to the batteries as possible. Many boaters think that the circuit breakers on the DC panel are protection enough, but those breakers are really only designed to protect the devices to which they're connected. There is still a long run of vulnerable — and live — wire from the panel to the batteries that needs to be isolated in case of a short. • Make sure your current DC system is correctly sized for your needs. If you've recently added a slew of power-sucking electronics, you need a beefier system than if you're just running a VHF, stereo and 12-volt blender every now and again. Many sailors are staunch do-it-yourselfers, but onboard electrical systems will not tolerate amateurs for very long. This is definitely one area that is best left to the professionals. Even so, it's essential to understand how your boat's electrical system works. While there are a number of excellent reference books on the subject, the granddaddy of them has to be Nigel Calder's Boatowner's Mechanical & Electrical Manual. Buy it, read it, then call a pro.
J
ust two days before Rubicon burst
into flames, a Pearson 36 berthed at Marina Bay Yacht Harbor in Richmond also caught fire. A marina tenant happened to be walking by the boat around 10 a.m. and spotted flames inside. He called out to nearby marina staffers, who immediately put out a call on the radio and set to work dousing the fire. "When I heard the call over the radio, I looked up and saw a big cloud of smoke rising over the marina," said Marina Bay Harbormaster Steve Orosz. "I leapt
Boaters can get so caught up in DIY mode that they take dangerous shortcuts. Here, someone cut the solenoid out of the propane system and used water hose and clamps, instead of highpressure hose, on a threaded fitting. Not smart.
into my truck [Ed: the fire was on the other side of the 850-slip marina] and drove like a madman, but my staff had it contained by the time I got there." The boat owner, who was out of town at the time, told Orosz that the only thing plugged in was a dehumidifier. Though the unit itself was not burned, only melted, the wiring was fricasseed. Orosz believes the AC plug was the culprit. Though BoatUS claims AC fires account for only a small percentage of all boat fires, harbormasters appear united in their fear of them. "Space heaters suck
