Fire Extinguisher

April 2014

Like may Drascombe owners we often cook on board using when cruising or even just day sailing. 

We have two Trangia stoves - small camping stoves which burn methylated spirits- on board and carry the fuel in sealed containers However as cooking involves a naked flame and even with correctly stored cooking and outboard fuel on board the potential for a fire is always something to be considered.

Cooking on board - naked flame and fuel!

Having fitted a number of electrical instruments to Tra Bhui over the last couple of years along with an electric start outboard, the number of possible ignition have continued to grow.

While a boat floats in one of the most effective fire suppressants that there is – water, water is not suitable for electrical or fuel fires so a suitable fire extinguisher is required on board.

Where to store an extinguisher is a consideration on an open boat. For other Drascombes, the cabin offers a perfect location to install an extinguisher, but on an open boat such as Tra Bhui, there is no obvious –easily accessible place that an extinguisher can be mounted, near to hand in which the extinguisher is dry and secure.

The solution I found was to install a Fire Extinguisher locker in the cockpit. The recessed locket that I bought on line from Force 4 Chandlery is made from polypropylene and has a transparent polycarbonate door through which the extinguisher is easily visible.

Dry Powder Extinguisher

Although the recommended storage for a fire extinguisher is in the vertical, we were forced to mount our horizontally A Velcro strap holds the extinguisher in place on its cradle.

The locker was installed simply by cutting a suitably sized hole in the port buoyancy tank towards the rear of the cockpit. After raking out the required volume of polystyrene buoyancy I placed a bead of silicon sealant around the opening before fitted the locker using grade 316 stainless steel screws. The silicon bead ensures that the integrity of the buoyancy chamber – which is full of polystyrene anyway - is maintained.

This is a really simple solution that could be used on any Drascombe.