Boaters' alarming incident

Published: Friday, 01 October 2010

IT IS not only carbon monoxide that sets off that alarm but hydrogen too, as two boaters found out.

Geraldine & Michael Prescott of the Cheese Boat had settled down to a relaxing evening when their boat's  carbon monoxide alarm went off, with the result that Northampton Fire Brigade have asked them to pass on this information to as many boaters as possible,  writes Geraldine:

Leapt into action

It all started at about 10.00pm on Tuesday evening. We were watching TV when we noticed the red light on our  carbon monoxide alarm was flashing, so Michael leapt into action. We had our stove going so immediately thought this was causing the problem. He opened the back doors wider, and opened the canopy. I had partly opened them about 20 minutes before because (a) it was rather warm on the boat and (b) there was a smell of sulphur in the air.

Some 10 minutes later the alarm started to shriek so all the portholes were opened as were the two side hatches, but this made no difference. Michael took the alarm off the wall, gave it a good dusting and put in new batteries, but it was still shrieking. He walked the alarm down to the front of the boat, where the stove was, and would you believe, it stopped shrieking and the green light came on.

Completely baffled

Very strange. We were now completely baffled, we thought the problem was resolved, so walked the alarm to the back of the boat and would you believe it started shrieking again.

This is where it gets complicated, and as there were a lot of contributing factors we determined (and walking the monitor about) that as he had been in the engine room for a couple of hours testing and topping up the batteries the day before that vapour from the batteries was coming into the back of the boat. Why? Because the night before we had watched TV till quite late and had used 225 amps. We had only travelled for about an hour this morning before going into Blisworth Marina, and plugged into shore power where our battery charger took over. Because the batteries were low the charger worked at 23amps at 14.7 volts.

As we could still smell sulphur, Michael said it had to be the batteries.

On Wednesday morning Michael phoned Northampton Fire Brigade for advice. The person he spoke to said he was not happy with the situation and that he was sending down someone to investigate.

Flashing blue lights

The next thing we knew a fire engine, with blue flashing lights, and six fireman came into the marina, followed by a red car, also with blue flashing light, which was the Chief. Needless to say everyone in the marina was out and about and were all concerned that we were okay. Special thanks to the harbour masters and people in Blisworth Marina for their concerns.

We were immediately ordered off the boat whilst we were questioned. After a great deal of discussion it was determined that not only did we have carbon monoxide from the batteries we also had hydrogen.  Carbon monoxide is the silent killer but hydrogen is explosive and that the sulphur smell was the hydrogen and not fumes from the coal we were burning.

Headache all day

We were asked if we needed medical attention as I had had a headache all day, but said I would be OK with some fresh air.

The fire brigade then left, but within a couple of hours we had a phone call from them asking if we were okay, and were their services needed again. We thanked them again.

The following morning we got another call from the fire brigade telling us that they had contacted the manufacturers of our carbon monoxide alarm who informed them that the alarm would detect not only carbon monoxide but also hydrogen, which is good to know.

All covered

1. We are going to install a second carbon monoxide alarm in the front of the boat near the stove, so all possible problems will be covered.

2. Plus more ventilation in the engine room, block all wiring holes from engine room to inside of the boat.

3. More importantly to monitor the electrolyte levels in your batteries on a regular basis and be aware that most modern  three stage battery chargers charge at a higher rate on Stage 1 (14.7 volts) where gassing may occur.

A point to note, this warning is not to frighten people with three stage battery chargers, this occurred because we have 10 leisure batteries on board whereas most boaters only have about four leisure batteries. We have 10 because we sell cheese off the boat and have to support five fridges, freezer, washing machine, two computers plus all the other electrical items. Our demand is quite high.

Another point to note is that the fire brigade officer related they had not come across a situation like ours before and it is a rarity but we feel this information should be made available to other boaters.

Michael & Geraldine Prescott, The Cheese Boat