Engine-room fire two miles off Cheung Chau
You are coxswain of a 13 m diesel-engined cruiser with five persons on board, including a seven-year-old child, on passage from Aberdeen to Cheung Chau. At 1610, about 2 nm south-east of Cheung Chau, the engine-room smoke detector sounds and black smoke begins seeping from the engine-box vents. The engine falters but keeps running. On board you have two dry-powder extinguishers, one BCF extinguisher, a fire blanket, a first-aid kit, six lifejackets, a six-person liferaft and a hand-held VHF. The wind is north-east force 4, sea moderate, and the nearest other vessel is a fishing boat about a mile away. A crew member has just burnt his hand trying to lift the engine hatch to see what is burning.
1. What are your actions in the first two minutes?
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Stop feeding the fire and stop feeding it air. Close the fuel shut-off and stop the engine; a diesel will run on its own oil once a fire is established, and a running engine keeps the fuel pump and the alternator going. Do not open the engine hatch again - the burnt hand is the lesson: opening it admits oxygen and can produce a flash fire straight into the cockpit.
Keep the electrical systems you need: use the hand-held VHF rather than the fixed set, and if you must use the battery isolator, do it knowing what you are cutting off.
Muster everyone aft and upwind of the smoke, lifejackets on, the child with a named adult and not left to follow instructions. Send the injured person to sit down and cool the burn under clean running water if you have it, covered afterwards with a clean dressing - not ice, not butter.
Then transmit. MAYDAY on VHF 16: vessel name and callsign, position, nature of the emergency (fire on board), number of persons on board including a child, and intentions. Repeat until acknowledged.
Finally, turn the boat so smoke blows clear of the cockpit and head for the nearest safe water, closing Cheung Chau where help and a shore are available.
2. How do you decide whether to fight the fire or abandon ship, and what would make you abandon?
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You fight it only if you can do so without losing the option to abandon.
Attack through the fire port or the vent with the extinguisher nozzle, not by opening the hatch. A fixed BCF or CO2 discharge, if fitted, is a single shot - use it properly and then have the dry powder ready. Dry powder makes a mess and the engine will not restart afterwards, but that is irrelevant next to a fire.
Set a limit before you start: if the fire is not knocked down within roughly half a minute, or if it re-flashes when the extinguisher runs out, stop fighting. Abandon when any of these is true: the fire is spreading beyond the engine space, the deck or the hull is becoming too hot to stand on, smoke is filling the accommodation so people cannot breathe, the liferaft or the fuel tanks are threatened, or the boat is losing buoyancy.
Abandoning into a moderate sea with a child is itself dangerous, so do it deliberately: MAYDAY updated, liferaft launched to windward and inflated on its painter, everyone in lifejackets, headcount before and after boarding, grab bag and water, then get clear of the boat and upwind of the burning fuel.
3. What does a proper abandon-ship drill look like with this crew, and what do you do after?
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A drill that has been rehearsed in daylight is worth more than one shouted in smoke.
Brief the plan before you need it: who does what - one person launches and holds the liferaft painter, one takes the grab bag and the hand-held VHF, one takes the child. Everyone puts a lifejacket on correctly, not just holds it; the child's jacket is checked by an adult. Count heads out loud, twice.
Launch the liferaft on the leeward side if the fire allows, or windward if you need to get away from flames, inflate it on its painter and board with the painter still secured so the raft does not drift off. Step down into the raft; do not jump. Take the grab bag, water, a torch and the VHF if it is waterproof.
After boarding: cut the painter only when you are ready, stay together and upwind of the burning vessel, keep the child warm and covered, activate the EPIRB if one is carried, and use hand flares only when you can see or hear a potential rescuer. Keep the VHF on 16 and keep transmitting - rescue units need a position, not just a story.