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A Boat Burning Story

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On Friday May 30th, 2014 we departed Stuart, Florida at 0700 for a long awaited month long fishing trip to Cape Eleuthera on our 55′ Hatteras, Hope, with overnight stops in Bimini and Nassau.  Following my retirement last year and after Margaret’s successful battle over breast cancer we both felt it was time for an extended fishing trip.  We have been planning this trip for months and had 6 weeks of stores and supplies on board.  Below is the Incident Report I filed with our insurance company and also below some lessons learned that I thought you all might benefit from.  Because as you will read, this could happen to any of us. Incident Report 1.    Date and time of incident-May 30, 2014 at 0810 2. Location-3 miles offshore and just North of the Jupiter Inlet 3. Destination-Bimini, four souls (Myself, Margaret, her Sister Lou Smith and my mate Mike Powell) on board departed Stuart at 0700 4. Speed and conditions-Hope was on auto pilot for navigating a direct route to Bimini.  Cruising at 1300 rpm’s at 10 knots.  Seas were 1′ , wind was SE at 5 to 10 mph (we were towing our Action Craft flats boat on a towing bridle) and weather was clear and we were 88 miles from Bimini 5. At approximately 8:10 a.m. the port engine began to lose rpm’s and very dark black smoke was discharging from the port exhaust and I heard a loud bang from the engine room. I put the boat controls into neutral and immediately began attempting to shut down both engines and could not get the port engine to shut down even after I pulled the emergency shutdown valve 6. My mate opened the engine room hatch and saw that the port engine was engulfed in flames.  At that point the entire boat was under severe smoke coverage including the interior and the bridge and at that point my mate saw the Halon System deployed and he slammed shut the engine room hatch 7. I called the Coast Guard on channel 16 and declared a mayday, mayday, provided our location, described the vessel and souls on board and then repeated the same mayday.  The Coast Guard immediately responded and dispatched a plane and a RIB from Jupiter.  The plane reported being over the scene in about 10 minutes and the RIB arrived on site in about 20 minutes and put two Guardsman on board to check on us 8. My mate deployed Class I life preservers and had both ladies put them on and be prepared to abandon ship.  He then grabbed our ditch bag (flares, EPIRB, hand held VHF, signal mirror, water, etc.) and put it at the transom 9. I also called Boat US and requested assistance.   Boat US arrived at the same time as the Coast Guard and handed us a12 volt water pump in case we were taking on water 10. Four or five boats that were nearby also came to Hope within a few minutes and my mate transferred both Ladies onto one those boats.  I now knew they were safe and turned our attention to saving Hope 11. My mate ran into the now dark salon to the galley to retrieve a fire extinguisher (he could not go into the engine room where two extinguishers are mounted) in case the Halon System did not completely put out the fire, there was still significant smoke emitting from the engine room and we were not sure if the fire was out or not.  He again opened the engine room hatch and it appeared the fire was out 12. The bilge pump indicators on the bridge continued to show the engine room bilges were running and I suspected we were also taking on water 13. My mate then went back into the engine room to see if he could find the source of the water that was triggering the bilge pumps and what was thought to be water entering the vessel, was fuel from the severed fuel lines on the port engine, which brought fuel in the bilges up to the stringers in the engine room.  My mate immediately ran to the forward bulk head and closed all the fuel manifolds and that solved that problem 14. Boat US hooked Hope to its tow line and began towing Hope back to Stuart 15. I then called A&J Boat Works who has done bottom jobs and repairs on our other Sportfish, Unicity for over 12 years.  By the time Boat US towed us into A&J they had the travel lift deployed and hauled Hope and placed it on the hill with jacks and she is now there 16. I called Scott Stamper at Atlas Insurance and described the incident and he requested I draft this email and send it to Casey at his office.  He also approved us removing our clothing and other personal affects which we did to avoid any smoke damage.   Scott said he would dispatch insurance adjusters to see Hope following his receipt of this email 17. Safety equipment on board included 2  personal EPIRB’s, one Static /EPIRB and one hand held EPIRB, a satellite phone, a Spot Satellite System, an eight man new life raft, 12 new Class 1 life preservers, a hand held VHF and six fire extinguishers, our ditch bag and the Halon fire suppression system Lessons Learned 1.    Hailing from Broward County, I have been a lifelong boater and love to fish.  I have never encountered a catastrophic failure or fire before and it was more than frightening.  But, I never leave the dock, with guests on board, without doing a full safety lecture, including the location of all safety equipment and then assigning tasks to each member of the crew in the event of this type of event.  I am convinced that these drills and lectures provided the knowledge and confidence to calmly deal with each of the actions necessary to save the crew and eventually, Hope.  I hope each of you have your own safety program 2. Prior to every trip across the Gulf Stream I always have our mechanic do a thorough check of all engines, generators, etc. and my mate and I had completed a full oil change, filter changes, checked and filled all batteries, checked all belts, checked and ran all bilge pumps and had the Halon and fire extinguishers checked and serviced and had all the spare parts on board to deal with most routine issues.   The cause of the fire has now been determined to have been caused by a broken valve in R3 and then the piston drove the valve up and through the injector which in turn severed the fuel lines to the port engine allowing misting fuel to blow into the port turbo which then ignited the fire.  This type of catastrophic mechanical failure could not have been anticipated from any routine maintenance or service 3. It appeared to me that the port engine continued to run and then ran away as I could hear the turbo screaming even after I pulled the emergency shut off valve.  I first went to neutral on both engines and then attempted to pull both shut off valves.  The starboard engine valve was frozen and I could not pull it an inch.  The port engine valve engaged but, for some reason the engine continued to run, we believe the Halon finally choked it off.  I did not have either of the emergency shut off valves inspected or tested, big mistake number one 4. While I had the Halon System inspected and serviced prior to the trip, on the bridge I only have a Halon System monitor that only shows a green light indicating the system is charged and ready and a red light indicating the System had discharged.  But, I do not have a manual switch to discharge the System.  I understand that the temperature needs to reach 650 degrees before it automatically discharges.  If I had a manual switch I could have discharged the system manually and put the fire out much earlier and limited the damage greatly.  No manual switch, big mistake number two 5. I have always had Boat US’s unlimited towing policy and have never had to use it.  It fully covered this towing event and the crew on the Tow Boat US was dispatched from Jupiter and its crew, Captain Ryon Helmig and mate Doug Neuitt were very fast getting to us, immediately handed us a 12 volt pump and the Mate boarded us right away and began fixing tow lines for the tow.  Captain Ryon was very experienced and did an outstanding job of getting us to A&J and putting Hope right into the haul slip.  Keep your towing policy up to date and I strongly recommend having the unlimited towing policy 6. We never lost our 12 volt power to the bridge and the chart plotters, radar and VHF continued to function.  But, I always keep a hand held VHF on the bridge just in case and as it turned out the mounted VHF would not switch channels and had I not had the hand held on the bridge I would have lost the ability to maintain communications with the Coast Guard and Tow Boat US.  Always keep a hand held at the helm and one in the ditch bag 7. The Coast Guard was magnificent, the lady Captain called me on the VHF to report that their plane was on the scene and the RIB was running at 55 mph to get to Hope.  She had our position from the Coast Guard Plane and she keep in contact all the way from Jupiter to our position.  Two members of their crew boarded Hope and made sure the fire was out and all on board were safe.  They stayed by us until Tow Boat US started our tow 8. Hope is still on the blocks at A&J and we have removed all stores and personal items and equipment off the boat.  We have already cleaned the soot and smoke from the transom and cockpit and she had just been compounded and waxed so it was not too difficult to clean.  The interior has very minor traces of smoke smell and we found a marine fire restoration company that assures us no soft goods need to be replaced and any smoke odor will be removed.  We had also spent three weeks painting the engine room and engines gloss white and it was gleaming like a hospital room.  It now looks like a coal mine.  A&J has a crew started today to begin cleaning the engine room.  The insurance adjuster wanted to total the boat and since the entire interior was recently completed, all A/C units replaced, new paint and all new electronics, we are attempting to negotiate a settlement that would allow us to retain title and ha! ve enough proceeds to complete the redo and repower the boat with Cummins M-11’s.  We will lose 4 tons of weight,  gain more top end (25 knots, cruise at 23 knots), have much greater efficiency and reduce our fuel burn by 50%.  It is estimated to take 3 to 4 months to complete the full repairs and repower but, we will have a new Hope when we are all done I hope this email and the lessons learned will assist just one member to avoid this type of event and I would be happy to answer any questions any of you may have.  God was surely looking out for our crew and for Hope and I am very thankful that it did not end differently.  See you on the water before the end of the year.  Tom Thomas H. Dyer President Stuart Sailfish Club