Safety Protocol / Shut down Procedures

[JonRiley56]

Hi All,

What briefing / instruction do you give to folks on your boat as to what to do should you fall overboard or become incapacitated ? Do you have a deliberate set of layman's instrutions ? Clearly no one expects it to happen, but it is probably wise to think of it ahead of time.

jon

[DetroiTug]

Not a bad idea to post some emergency protocol on or near the boiler. There is always myself and one other and both of us know the operation.

-Ron

[Lopez Mike]

Always a good idea to be aware of the limitations or strengths of the passengers and crew.

My boat is wood fired so the worst that might happen with the boiler is for the safety to pop and worry the inexperienced. I manually trip the safety early in an excursion so that A: I know that it's working and B: the newbies won't freak out if I get careless and over fire.

I have the passengers steering most of the time. The throttle is probably the one control that it would be best for me to show to green crew.

What I've been planning is a bound set of sealed in plastic cards that give a full set of instructions for the power plant. The cover sheet would be what you are concerned about. Safe shut down and emergency operation.

I'm planning on a full instruction set including pre-launch checks (It's a trailer boat), building the fire and valve settings for start up. My partner is prodding me on this as, although she is a very experienced sailor and power boater, the steam plant is a new thing. Just such simple things as labeling the valves and describing which valves need to be open or closed before turning the engine over.

I've watched spectators when I'm first warming the engine and fooling with the cylinder cocks and such. I'm sure it all looks like pre launch stuff at Kennedy Space Center.

Any thoughts about an inexpensive way to label controls? The engraved ones are pricey and the premade ones don't cover my needs. I do have a letter stamp set. I could stamp them out on S.S. or aluminum tags. Hard to know just how to attach them to a valve that is not near the boiler or a convenient surface. Wrap them around the pipe and wire them on?

Mike

[DCSmith]

You could etch copper or aluminum. PCB etchant works good on copper, dilute for aluminum. Just etch it like a circuit board, paint with enamel, buff, and the paint remains in the etched portions.

[Lopez Mike]

I'll have to see if I can find a Victorian font. It would beat anything I could do with a metal stamp set!

Mike

[farmerden]

Everyone on board my boat is shown the oil shut off valve-the handle is a different color-Hmmm what color was that again?

[Bob Cleek]

Always a good idea to be aware of the limitations or strengths of the passengers and crew.

My boat is wood fired so the worst that might happen with the boiler is for the safety to pop and worry the inexperienced. I manually trip the safety early in an excursion so that A: I know that it's working and B: the newbies won't freak out if I get careless and over fire.

I have the passengers steering most of the time. The throttle is probably the one control that it would be best for me to show to green crew.

What I've been planning is a bound set of sealed in plastic cards that give a full set of instructions for the power plant. The cover sheet would be what you are concerned about. Safe shut down and emergency operation.

I'm planning on a full instruction set including pre-launch checks (It's a trailer boat), building the fire and valve settings for start up. My partner is prodding me on this as, although she is a very experienced sailor and power boater, the steam plant is a new thing. Just such simple things as labeling the valves and describing which valves need to be open or closed before turning the engine over.

I've watched spectators when I'm first warming the engine and fooling with the cylinder cocks and such. I'm sure it all looks like pre launch stuff at Kennedy Space Center.

Any thoughts about an inexpensive way to label controls? The engraved ones are pricey and the premade ones don't cover my needs. I do have a letter stamp set. I could stamp them out on S.S. or aluminum tags. Hard to know just how to attach them to a valve that is not near the boiler or a convenient surface. Wrap them around the pipe and wire them on?

Mike

Years ago I worked where there was a large a stationary steam plant. (I wasn't involved in its operation at all.) All the steam plant valves were labled with round aluminum disks about the size of a quarter or fifty cent piece. They used a standard letter stamp on the aluminum, with a heavy sledge, so the letters were deeply imprinted. They then filled the stamped letters with black paint and wiped the excess off level with the surface so the letter indentations were full of black paint and stood out against the auminum. A small hole was drilled in the disk and it was hung on a small chain looped around the valve stem, the pipe, or the handle. They tried brass disks, but nobody liked them because the lettering didn't set down as well as it did in the soft aluminum. In some instances, they'd take a larger piece of aluminum and punch instructions or a conversion chart or something on it and hang those on a chain the same way. I'd think it might be a pain to have all those little metal tags clinking around in a seaway, though.

At the same job, I did work on another piece of equipment that had a lot of piping and valves we had to be really careful about. On that, the various lines, all of which were lagged and painted, had red arrows on the side of the pipes here and there pointing in the flow direction. The arrows were those old fashioned Victorian style arrows that looked like real arrows with an arrowhead at one end and feathers at the other. There would be a break in the shaft of the arrow where they'd letter in what the line was for. The valves had aluminum disks with letters stamped into them, but the disks were the size of the inside diameter of the valve handle. If you think of the valve handle as a car wheel and tire, the aluminum disk was analogous the hub cap. The disks were held in place by the nut that held the valve handle onto the valve stem and set below and inside the raised outside edge of valve handles. (Or at least that's how I remember they did it.)

[Dhutch]

It is something I have thought of, given we often boat with only one crew member with a full working knowledge of the plant, I might get on to writing on in due course. A good reminder.

There will however not be labels, life is two short.... maybe photos, but its mainly obvious, right?


Daniel

[cyberbadger]

WHAT, steam equipment that has the controls and valves labelled!

What blasphemy!

All good ideas. I am not there yet with no launch. As I've learned steam on land with friend, we work back and forth together. He's enjoys helping me out with my hobby and I have helped him out and enjoyed his hobby - he's a private pilot.

I have adapted and use the private pilot walk around and touch before flight to my boiler. Walk around, check each valve and make sure it is at a safe and proper setting for startup.

Pilots often have a preflight checklist - there was a study done with medical surgeons - when they made them have a similar sort of check list the surgery outcomes were better.

-CB

[Lopez Mike]

Ah, you've been reading Atul Gawande. Check lists are good.

I raced motorcycles for years and years. One of the most confidence inspiring things was to have everything leading up to the start be a routine. Don't have to think about stuff like turning on the gas. All dealt with automatically by a check list if only a mental one.

I'm still not there with the launch. The worst things for me have been the shut off valves at the boiler for the feed water pumps. Both when starting up and when shutting down. I have a relief valve for the engine driven pump so I get reminded right away when I take off and water squirts out. But when I shut down and find the next day that the water is off the top of the glass and the hot well is empty, that's when the palm hits the forehead. Sigh.