[Mgs] Propane smell

[Bob Howard]

  That is a problem with propane on boats. It's heavier than air so may
settle into the bilge. A spark from starter or generator can make an
exciting yachting event.   Most powerboats have a place where the tank
can be stored so that it vents overboard, and now that many sailboats
have cockpits open to the stern, the tanks can be placed in the cockpit. 
For those who want to use propane but lack a good place for the tank to
vent leaked gas overboard, there is a compartment that looks like a small
version of the in-ground trashcans or Doggie Doolies. It has a vent tube
to outside the hull, and a vented top for the tank to be
installed/removed.  
  An alternative that never caught on big, on the east coast at least,
was CNG, Compressed Natural Gas.  It is lighter than air.  
  Either is easier to use than the time-honored in USA alcohol stove that
burned a lot of fuel to make little heat and produced eye-stinging vapors
in a closed cabin, or the paraffin stove used in the UK and Europe.  The
paraffin stove made great heat, and smell, but spilled flaming paraffin
could not be extinguished with water.  
Bob



On Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:50:04 EDT Aeseeyou at aol.com writes:
> On 6/18/2008 1:27:43 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time  RampantNM at aol.com 
> wrote:
> .......Can't smell any worse than propane or natural  gas...which I 
> 
> understand is odorless when it comes from the ground and has the  
> odor added.
> Regards,
> Robert B. Houston
> Yeah they put that "garlicky"  smell in so that people don't 
> accidentally 
> blow themselves up or else suffocate  There was this boat launching 
> at Lake 
> Naciamento, CA. where people filled up  there propane tanks and 
> stuff I don't 
> remember the exact details except that  someone lit a match and it 
> blew the heck 
> out of everything Vaporized the boat  and the fuel tank...and the 
> landing....
> Albert Escalante   
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