Another CO tragedy

That’s so tragic and heartbreaking. We have long no wake zones in our area and often see people laying on their sun pads.
Thanks for sharing
 
Damn. Never would have thought of that. Tragic but good info for us all.
 
Makes me want to mount a CO detector or two in the cockpit. I wonder if using them in an open air environment shortens their lifespan, and how long it takes before they become ineffective? No sense installing them if they only last a couple of weeks.
 
I'm really surprised that there are fire and EMS personnel that say they don't receive training on these dangers. I know that MO State Troopers in the Water Patrol division have been talking about this for years with the advent of wake surf boats. The newer boats are better about this with design improvements and such, but boats just a few years old are not.
 
SAD! I may have had a close call a few years back using a gasoline powerwasher. I was doing some cleaning at our shop which took about 4-5 hours. I had the generator outside with exhaust pointing away. I later took the rented powerwasher to my parents house to clean their back porch and walkways. That night I went home and within a couple hours felt like crap. I woke the next day and managed to take the washer back but immediately went home after. I basically was in bed for a couple days just queasy and lethargic. I always wondered if being around the running engine all day OR stirring up grime and mold while power washing OR a combination of both is what did it.
Just be aware anytime your running a combustion engine. I woulda never suspected anything being outside with it but maybe a calm day and the areas I was working made the gasses "pool" or collect around me.
Prayers to the family.
 
Absolutely heartbreaking ,The station wagon affect is nothing new it’s been around for decades assuming any vehicle with exhaust exit out the back has the opportunity with forward momentum to pull it back in the rear end of a vehicle/vessel
 
How tragic.. like skibum said what other precautions can be taken?
I always leave my blower running. Will that prevent any CO from entering the cockpit?
 
Carbon-Monoxide-Poisoning-on-Your-Boat.jpg

MattB92 said:
How tragic.. like skibum said what other precautions can be taken?
I always leave my blower running. Will that prevent any CO from entering the cockpit?
Click to expand...
It might help a little as it's disrupting the atmosphere around the stern of the boat but it won't prevent it totally.

The best thing is not to run at very slow speeds for long periods of time and keep the bow down. Keeping the bow up will actually make it worse. When rafted up, a fan (or cockpit A/C, if you're lucky enough to have it) can help if you're moving air from the front of the boat toward the rear. If you're running down the water at cruising speed, there's little to worry about unless you're riding on the swim platform - which is illegal in most places.
 
Heartbreaking is right. Horrible tragedy. Wake surfing and wake boarding involves breathing exhaust. No way to avoid it. Someone should develop a simple CO blood level test or maybe those Oxygen finger sensors would be able to assess if someone is getting CO poisoning. Then people could test themselves during the day and see if they are overloading with CO.
 
Unfortunately, pulse oximeters (finger sensors) don't work in detecting CO in the blood. They use light to detect saturated hemoglobin in the blood, and whether that hemoglobin is bound with oxygen or with CO it will detect both. The only way to measure CO is with a CO-oximeter.
 
skibum said:
Makes me want to mount a CO detector or two in the cockpit. I wonder if using them in an open air environment shortens their lifespan, and how long it takes before they become ineffective? No sense installing them if they only last a couple of weeks.
Click to expand...

We typically run with canvas up and the screens open. I have a CO detector mounted on the inside of the arch and have had it go off a time or two when the boat wasn't as opened up as it should be.
 
Cap'n Scuba Steve said:
View attachment 92284

It might help a little as it's disrupting the atmosphere around the stern of the boat but it won't prevent it totally.

The best thing is not to run at very slow speeds for long periods of time and keep the bow down. Keeping the bow up will actually make it worse. When rafted up, a fan (or cockpit A/C, if you're lucky enough to have it) can help if you're moving air from the front of the boat toward the rear. If you're running down the water at cruising speed, there's little to worry about unless you're riding on the swim platform - which is illegal in most places.
Click to expand...

I run into the situation shown in the 1st picture quite often. Just this year, I had a 40'+ something tie up behind me on the seawall at Rock Hall with their stern about 6' away from mine. I woke up at about 4am to the sound of what sounded like someone pull starting an outboard motor. I fell back asleep. When I woke up at 8AM or so I came out of the cabin to see a fairly large generator (about 3x the size of my Honda) running on that boat's swim platform. It might as well have been running on my swim platform all night. Fortunately, the breeze was blowing in the right direction that night.
 
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