What floating oil does to a boat

[JV II]

There have been a few posts about the impact of the oil and the location, but none on what it actually does to a boat. I read in Soundings that marinas are setting up their own booms and cleaning boats as they re-enter. So perhaps some boaters who have actually boated in the stuff can share the impact on the boat. I would expect that ingesting a tar ball can't be good, but if the stuff is thin and slimy, it couldn't do much bad, could it? It should just pass through. As far as the bottom goes, I would imagine egg yolks or molasses would be more of a problem.

Has anyone ingest a tar ball in their cooling or A/C lines? What did you find in the strainer?
I can speculate that coating your engines cooling passages would negatively effect cooling efficiency.
I would hate to see what the inside of a heat exchanger looks like with crude oil in it.
I have no idea what consequences it would have on a painted or unpainted bottom.
I can't believe that oil contact with a rubber impeller would do the impeller any good.

Anyone with real world experience, please post here. Rather than speculate or assume what would happen, let's see the actual results.

 

[fwebster]

Thankfully, very few of us have experienced this first hand, but it is near enough that it was worth investigating since we may have to deal with oil sooner or later. I'd rather tell you how we are going to avoid problems than to tell you about the carnage that was created by "real world experience"

The 2 main worries for pleasure boaters are the bottom paint and impeller life.

Oil coating your bottom paint effectively kills the paint and, once covered with oil, it will no longer stop marine growth. Oil kills marine life, so bottom growth won't be a near term problem, but it will mean a new bottom job at some point.

Rubber impellers, hoses, etc. in the cooling systems are rubber, not a synthetic that is impervious to oil. They not designed to pump oil so the impeller will turn to mush and stop pumping and hoses may become soft. How long and how much oil they can process before failing is an unknown. Larger boats have intakes 3-4 ft below the surface, to hopefully, they will be intaking clear water and not oil. Locally, this is one of the reasons BP is activating larger vessels when they need assistance.

The more near term problem is environmental. But, the chosen method to protect the enviornment will also help boaters. From the Mobile Bay eastward, access to the Gulf is limited and controlled by a number of inlets or passes. The USCG/DEP is placing oil absorbing booms across passes, inlets and lagoon entrances to protect sensitive enviornmental areas. They plan to only open those areas to boat traffic when the tidal water flow is running out, then closing them when the tide changes direction and water flows back in. That means you will be able to use your boat in the protected area but you must be in the right place when the tidal flow changes or you will wait about 12 hours to go home.

 

[billnpat]

If that oil slick comes up the coast to the eastern seaboard and in our immediate area, im hauling.out.....:smt089

 

[Dasch Boat]

If that oil slick comes up the coast to the eastern seaboard and in our immediate area, im hauling.out.....:smt089

Don't worry Bill, "IF" it ever gets this far the gulf stream will keep it well off the south shore of L.I., Can't say the same for Cape Cod and north to the Canadian maritimes. (per CNN and the Weather Channel)

 

[Kreole Kid]

I'd let yall know, but I can't even go out right now:smt013.

Port alternator crapped out and won't charge the port batteries, and the generator keeps crapping out so I can't even use the friggin battery charger:smt013

Not that I'd purposely run through the muck, but honestly we haven't seen any oil in the lake (yet).

I'm heading out to the marina to pull the alternator and get it ready to bring it to the shop tomorrow, and I'm gonna dick around some more with the gennie.:smt089

 

[Jack F]

Don't worry Bill, "IF" it ever gets this far the gulf stream will keep it well off the south shore of L.I., Can't say the same for Cape Cod and north to the Canadian maritimes. (per CNN and the Weather Channel)

This shows how bad it could get..


Ocean currents likely to carry oil along Atlantic coast


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE-1G_476nA[/youtube]

 

[billnpat]

NEW ORLEANS – The cap over a blown-out oil well is capturing more and more of the crude pouring into the Gulf of Mexico, but that bit of hope was tempered Sunday by a sharp dose of pragmatism as the federal government's point man warned the crisis could stretch into the fall. :smt009:smt009