Propane system

[jleonard]

Don't put it on the swim platform, you and the future owner will not like it there.
Surveyors are very strange. Last fall mine (and the insurance co) didn't care where the propane was, but I had to install a fire extinguisher on the fly bridge & a co detector in the aft berth

[jrose]

It wouldn't be my first choice. I would like to leave it where it is but I can't figure out how to drain the locker overboard from under the helm or from elsewhere on the flybridge.

[jleonard]

From under a helm seat it's easy to make an pverboard drain. I think from under the helm it can also be easily drained but sealing it off from the electrical chase could be challenging. However, sealing in a pvc "riser" would solve a potential leak into the boat

[jrose]

I'm rechecking with the insurance co to see if they will let me keep it under the helm with the remote solenoid and a propane detector.

[sunvale1]

[quote="jflr"]I'm facing the same problem on my 1987 Albin 40. My tanks are under the flybridge helm. The surveyor reported that was not safe and the insurance company wants it fixed. I was thinking of installing the propane locker on the swim platform. It could then feed my barbecue, which is attached on the port side and the propane stove and would be easy to vent overboard as required.[/quote

I got rid of all the questionable explosives and changed over to Compressed Natural Gas. My bottles are under the fly bridge seats and vent up.

[psneeld]

I put mine on the flying bridge next to the mast under a nice vinyl cover. It sits in one of those plastic pyramid bases you can buy at home depot.

The hose from the tank/regulator/solenoid goes down through a bronze thru hull that penetrates the flybridge deck overhang and then the propane tube is inside a piece of 3/4 PVC with drain holes that follows around to the cabin side just above the galley where I penetrated the cabin wall and ran it down to the stove inside interior molding (the same that was used for the under the flybridge cowing storage where it just came straight down.

The whole project took less than a day and as far as I am concerned meets ABYC...maybe not everyone's interpretation but I don't see where it doesn't.

[jleonard]

as far as I am concerned meets ABYC...maybe not everyone's interpretation but I don't see where it doesn't.

I would agree from your description that it meets the standard, which in reality is defined by the actual person who does the survey. They seem to be the ones who make the rules as far as the insurance companies are concerned.
At least that has been my experience.
I've told the story here of my survey a year ago.
He didn't care at all that my propane was under the helm as it is with tens of thousands of boats.
But he did care that I didn't have a fire extinguisher on the fly bridge and didn't have a CO detector in the aft berth.
Could I have argued? Probably, but what's the point.