A Generator on a boat

[Tacet]

2 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Effectively they are banned. They can only be used if they are one of the 70 conversions done by wilderness boats, or, 'room sealed'

 

The BSS :

"Where the vessel has a petrol propulsion engine, is any LPG refrigerator of a proprietary room-sealed type, or a Wilderness Boats conversion of an Electrolux RM 212"

Applicability – if the suitability of the fridge cannot be verified from visual assessment and the owner has no declaration from an equipment manufacturer or supplier, mark your checklist ‘not verified’. In such cases, the fridge must be considered as non-compliant until such time as its suitability has been verified.

At Check 8.2.2 Examiners must also see documentary evidence from Wilderness Boats, or a Gas Safe registered engineer that the fridge has been serviced within the 12 months prior to the date the Examination. The documentary evidence from Wilderness Boats must be on its headed paper, and any documentary evidence from a Gas Safe registered engineer will need to show the name and/or, the name of the company, and a Gas Safe registration number

 

The only proprietary room sealed fridges I can find referenced (and the BSS list) are the Electrolux RB180, RB182, RM4213 LSC and RM6401 LSC models. which seem to date to the early 2000's.

I cannot find any for sale, although Electrolux seem to have some spares support for them.

 

 

But not banned on coastal water boats?  As you are fond of telling us, there are fewer regulations on such boats - and they outnumber canal boats.

[Alan de Enfield]

18 minutes ago, Tacet said:

But not banned on coastal water boats?  As you are fond of telling us, there are fewer regulations on such boats - and they outnumber canal boats.

 

Obviously not as the BSS has no authority over waters where the Naviagtion Authority has not handed over resposibilty for boat safety.

 

However, you either think you are being clever, or,  just being argumentative ?

The OP is asking about petrol on a boat which is subject to the BSS

[Arthur Marshall]

The logical way is to treat the BSS as the nonsense it is, bearing in mind that no two examiners can agree about a standard, and do what sensible people do. Just take the genny and any petrol off the boat BSS day and empty the stuff you usually keep in the gas locker. Try not to give them any excuse to fail, arguing will get you nowhere and cost you a bomb.

Then stick everything back for the next four years, bearing in mind your own safety.

[blackrose]

5 hours ago, Stroudwater1 said:

I suspect you will find a number of experienced boaters who have used petrol powered boat engines for many years. Quite a few whose owners smoked too. Some even had open gas fires, and gas fired fridges at the same time. There were petrol powered boats used for hire too right up to the early 80s at least.  
 

Usage was not that uncommon prior to BSS. Look at the numbers of GRP boats on any 1980s or earlier canal pictures. Most had petrol powered outboards. Storage inside boats was not prohibited though Petrol carriers/storage cans were more robust then. 

 

There’s still a few marinas on rivers selling petrol waterside.  You have of course to be careful, as with carbon monoxide or gas. 

 

You "suspect" experienced boaters use petrol generators? I think that's fairly certain. I use one myself. Hopefully the boaters who smoke aren't doing so while they refuel their generators. If not then that point is irrelevant.

 

The things you say above are true but I don't really understand what point you're trying to make? That the risks of using petrol on boats are theoretical? 

 

4 hours ago, MtB said:

 

The request was for statistics, not for one single data point. 

 

A single data point tell us nothing about trends. 

 

 

 

I think the person making the request is just as capable of searching for the data as anyone else. But since nobody can really be bothered to search for the data people are citing examples. They don't tell us anything about trends but they may tell us something about risks.

 

1 hour ago, Arthur Marshall said:

The logical way is to treat the BSS as the nonsense it is, bearing in mind that no two examiners can agree about a standard, and do what sensible people do. Just take the genny and any petrol off the boat BSS day and empty the stuff you usually keep in the gas locker. Try not to give them any excuse to fail, arguing will get you nowhere and cost you a bomb.

Then stick everything back for the next four years, bearing in mind your own safety.

 

I don't agree with your basic premise that the BSS is nonsense. I'm sure it's saved lives, but perhaps we just don't know it. How many more people may have died if there were no safety standards?

 

If no two examiners can agree about interpretation of the standards (which I think is an exaggeration), what that illustrates is that training for examiners needs to be improved, not that there should be no safety standards.

Edited January 10 by blackrose

[David Mack]

3 hours ago, blackrose said:

How many more people may have died if there were no safety standards?

That is unknowable. The best that can be done is to compare the safety statistics for the periods before and after the BSS was introduced. I'm not aware of any rigorous analysis, but the prevailing view seems to be that there is little difference, which would suggest the BSS has not saved many lives.

[bizzard]

A bit like the vehicle MOT, Before the MOT was introduced around 1960 even unpractical folk checked there tyres, lights ect, but when the Mot began many folk didn't bother anymore thinking everything will be ok until the next MOT. you see it today, the odd dodgy tyre, the odd headlight, brakelight, rear light not working, never mind it'll all be ok until the next MOT. These silly examinations just remove folks initituitive and makes em lazy.

[Tony1]

On 01/01/2024 at 17:19, nairb123 said:

I ha I dont know if it is ok to store the generator in the cratch during the test, but I take it off the boat during the test anyway.

 

 

Well, that's the strangest thing. There were a number of potentially contentious items which magically disappeared from my boat on the morning of the BSS inspection, and were later found under a tarp nearby.

If the chap had asked about the tarp, I was going to say it was some wood and other junk I'd moved to make it easier for him to access the gas locker and other places. I may have said I used it to store the bodies of boaters whom I'd killed for running generators late at night- anything to keep him from looking under there. 

 

Edited January 10 by Tony1