Okay, so I left Marchwood this morning at about 11am set for Hamble Point marina. The boat only went in the water last Saturday and this was the first opportunity I have had to get Elmarleen to a yard so I could step the mast. Unfortunately the crane we have at Marchwood is out of action.
The boat still has a lot of work to do and the boats electrical systems are in pieces, although mounted, I still have to wire in the wind gen, radar, satphone, seame etc. I wasn’t to worried that the electrical panel was hinged down and I didn’t have a VHF, GPS or Autopilot, I’m only nipping an hour down Southampton water to Hamble – I’ve done it a 100 times. As we are currently in springs I thought that I better just get the depth working, so I turned on my domestic batteries, and clicked the instrument switch and off we went – the first real run the engine has had this year.
Mast on the deck and tiller in hand I dodge round a container ship, past Town Quay and the IKEA ferry – we were off. As I was clear of the cruise ship terminal I saw what looked like THV Galatea, perfect lets do a practise start and go and have a nose around. As I got closer I soon realised it wasn’t, it was Kingdom of Fife, similar looking and still worth a look. It was a shame as I thought I might have had a story for blOgSTAR if it had been her. “Elmarleen practising starts with THV Galatea”. I turned away and got back on course only to find the Red Jet wake slam the boat and soak me. We rolled all over the place and my tool box fell off a bunk and emptied all over the floor. Bugger – I saw my rigging clevis pins fall into the bilge – quick, grab them. I jumped down, picked up the pins, had a sort out and turned around.
To my shock I saw flames all over the wiring leading to the instrument panel and black smoke filling the cabin. I jumped to the panel and turned off all the circuit breakers. The smoke was so quick to fill up the cabin I had to pop my head on deck as it was hurting my throat. Down again and I pulled the bundle of flaming wires away from the rest – lets minimise the damage. What to do now – I was just about to reach for the fire extinguisher when the flame subsided and went out. The smoke was still thick and the cabin was completely full – I had to go on deck for another breath of air. I went back down and grabbed a plastic lid to a box and tried fanning the smoke away. Few the firehad gone out.
The smoke took a good 20 minutes to clear the cabin. I went on deck checking every few minutes that it hadn’t started up again. I was very lucky it had stopped by turning off the power and separating out the wires and that I hadn’t had to use the fire extinguisher. I surveyed the damage when I finally got into Hamble Point marina and I had been really lucky. My VHF power cable terminal (not connected as the VHF is at home) had shorted out on a bus bar. This was cable tied to the GPS and all the other associated wiring for NMEA and antennas. It had all melted but at least it hadn’t taken out any other systems, cabin light, nav lights, bilge pumps etc. It could have been a lot worse.
As Marry wrote in her article the other day, I have ticked off one job, stepping the mast, but created another, re wiring. The fire wasn’t caused by dodgy wiring or the wrong fuses, I am really careful about this and I have completely rewired the boat. It was caused by being in a hurry to get to the mast dock and not checking that all the instruments I had disconnected were isolated. I disconnected them all months ago before she went in the water and never planned to power the system up until it was all back together. Who knows what would have happened if I had not had to go down to sort out my tool box. The flames were significant and could have easily set the headlining alight if left any longer. It could have easily become a major fire and put an end to the boat.
As we all work on our boats before the start and add all these electronics and gadgets, take care. I’ve never had a fire on a boat and although minor it could have become bigger very quickly. I shook me up and I would hate to have had to deal with anything like that further off shore.
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