Hope this isn't a RBOC member

raybo3

Prayers go out to the family of this boat owner.
1 dead, several injured after boat explosion in Fort Lauderdale

rasbury

Saw that this am on the news- looks like exhaust fans were not run?

Rich_

Definitely not a good day for them. 

I am also wondering why it looks like someone put a pontoon boat at the same dock as a burning boat? The explosion video shows nothing in front of the boat when it explodes but in the cell phone video it looks like a pontoon is in front as it burns as well as the clip of the diver going in looks like giant striding off a burnt pontoon boat

rasbury

Maybe they were coming over looking for survivors...pretty scary stuff.

aero3113

Looks like the pontoon was behind. @raybo3 I think it might be a SR looking at the arch.

https://www.instagram.com/share/BBpXdYlGas

mbnarney

Good lord, this is like the 3rd boat to go up in the last couple of months. Had a brand new one blow up while it was on a trailer fueling for the boat show. I wish they would report on the cause after the investigations were over. We had one where they pumped fuel into the waste tank.

Ian

I was amazed at how the top just blew off like that. I get it that there are 2 halves and the bottom half has the weight of the water below but I didn’t expect it to blow up and basically come right back down.

LaRea

Agree -- never seen that before.  In past videos of refueling explosions, I've seen the engine room hatch blow open but the explosion didn't seem to breach the firewall.  Seems like you'd need fuel vapors inside the cabin for it to blow like that.  

Liberty44140

99.99999% sure that is a Rinker, 92% sure it is a 342. So sorry to see this, thinking avoid that family. Hope the folks that lived are able to pull through ok. Just a terrible situation. Been wondering if there was a fuel leak and someone accidentally hit the down below genny start button. Probably will never know. Just so sorry. 

Ian

There had to have been vapors in the cabin even if it started in the engine room. Looks like a 342.

YYZRC

YYZRC

aero3113 said:

Looks like the pontoon was behind. @raybo3 I think it might be a SR looking at the arch.

https://www.instagram.com/share/BBpXdYlGas

Pic of starboard side. Looks like the Rinker script. 

LaRea

In my mind, that photo confirms it's a 342.  I grabbed an internet photo of a 342 and overlaid it on that photo.  Definitely a 342, no doubt.  Kinda hard to tell from this screen grab, but I made the stock photo partly transparent ... take that image and move it around on top of the burning boat, and it's obviously a 342.  

Lake_Bum

Terrible tragedy, and easily preventable.  Hopefully the grieving family members will do something to spread public awareness to stop something like this happening to someone else in the future...

YYZRC

I have to assume that this wasn’t just a case of not using blowers but perhaps a leaky tank(s) that caused major vapor throughout the hull including the cabin. 

I can’t help but wonder if this was a rental - can you rent an express cruiser?

Formulaben

YYZRC said:

I have to assume that this wasn’t just a case of not using blowers but perhaps a leaky tank(s) that caused major vapor throughout the hull including the cabin. 

...or worse, the ridiculous filling her up with the fishing pole holder hole.  Not sure if that model has that or not, but there's been FAR TOO MANY of these reports in recent memory.  Either way, that had to be a pretty big leak which makes me wonder how nobody smelled it unless it was contained to the bilge and cabin area. 

LaRea

After accidents like this, boaters tend to get preachy about safety, so here's my sermon.  Every time I started my engines, I'd do a sniff test.  Blowers on, walk to the swim platform, stick my nose into the blower exhaust, and take a deep sniff.  Takes ten seconds, and I forced myself to do it every single time.  

Formulaben

Coming from the wakeboat world, I saw plenty of stupid stuff, and as such I would often post the latest USCG stats regarding accidents/injuries/fatalities on that forum because it seemed to be the only thing that would motivate some to actually use the blower.  The number of folks that said that they never/rarely use it was shocking.  Some simply didn't even know what it was for. 

Last year's numbers for "Ignition of fuel or vapor" has 34 accidents, with 35 injuries and 3 fatalities.  This is not an outlier; it's a typical year. 

It's actually interesting how many categories they break it down into, such as rental boats. 

If anyone's interested, here is last year's numbers:

https://www.uscgboating.org/library/accident-statistics/Recreational-Boating-Statistics-2023-Ch1.pdf

GMSLITHO

went to the gas dock one time and left to use the mens room came back and the attendant was filling my water tank with fuel luckily I caught it at a few gallons 

Cableguy Greg

GMSLITHO said:

went to the gas dock one time and left to use the mens room came back and the attendant was filling my water tank with fuel luckily I caught it at a few gallons 

A friend of mine put 15 gallons of fuel in his black tank on his 270. The black tank pump out and fuel tank fill were very close to each other and with black caps. Getting the fuel out was no fun. 

Ian

My 310 is the best then - fuel at rear, water port, waste starboard. Can’t go wrong.

YYZRC

I always assumed those videos of people fuelling up the rod holders were faked “for the gram”.