[Pascal]

last night around 11 i started smelling something burning and noticed two Sea Tow boats pulling in with an unlit sportfish escorted by Miami Dade new high tech fireboat. They tied it up on the Tee head, next pier.

this morning, the smell is still strong as i'm downwind of the easterly breeze.

Turns out to be a Charter 1986 Buddy Davis 47 which had a bad electrical fire off Key Biscayne, operated by the same company as the Joe Cool (highjacked and whose crew was murdered last year)

Good opportunity to review your boat systems... how accessible are the battery switches? why do so many builder still put them in the ER... any electrical compartment that is not protected by an automatic fire suppression system? a small fireboy is too cheap not to install in compartment with electrical panels, inverters, etc...

http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/MI95498/

[Loren Schweizer]

Hi Pascal...are you over at Dinner Key?
As regards battery switches in the engine room, IIRC there was/is an ABYC requirement for battery cables (to the main engines) to not exceed six feet in length.

[Pascal]

yeah, i'm on pier 7.

i didn't know about that ABYC requirement... i wonder what the lesser of the two evils is... longer cables or batt switches outside the ER.

but picture this likely scenario... you get an electrical fire in the engine room and your Halon or CO triggers. If you do not shut off the batt switches, it seems to me that the fire will flare up unless you go in there (opening the door, letting oxygen in, and dealing with the smoke) and kill the batt.

This could be solved by fitting cables on the battery switches, or adding a blade style cut off which could be connected to a pull cable leading outside the ER.

[Marmot]

Remote operated continous duty solenoids that provide for disconnecting the battery from any (or even multiple) location(s) are readily available.