Posted this before but though it is fairly relevant to this unfortunate event, that may have been prevent for the cost of a simple CO detector.
CO - the silent killer. After reading stories about Carbon Monoxide poisoning a CO Monitor might be worth considering. I've got a couple of combined Smoke/CO monitors (from Bunnings). Even had one go off in the aft cabin when I had an exhaust leak. I then purchased some Colman units that are permanently wired in. Had one of these go off when one of my AGM batteries popped. CO is scary stuff when you have crew sleeping inside your boat when motoring. If you ever get a chance to, read this book, I would recommend it. Apparently the insurance company puts out a monthly newsletter to all its policy holders telling them about all the claims they've had so that the other policy holders can learn from the events. This book is a collection of the most noteable. One is the story of the guy on watch going down to wake the crew for shift change and they were all dead.
Here is the wrap about the book. - BoatU.S. provides marine insurance coverage to 250,000 American powerboaters and sailors, which makes its collection of claims reports one of the world’s largest archives of boating accidents. For more than 20 years, as writer and editor of BoatU.S.’s quarterly publication
Seaworthy, Bob Adriance has sifted and analyzed this rich trove to discover and highlight the profound lessons it contains. Here is the ultimate boater’s guide to preventing, responding to, and surviving accidents under power or sail, including hurricane damage, lightning strikes, collisions, fires, groundings, sinkings, crew overboard, dismastings, and more.
Experience may be the best teacher, but the lessons are a lot less painful when the experience is someone else’s. Here is a unique opportunity to use other skippers’ misfortunes to make your own boat and seamanship safer. “A boaters’ guide as important and practical as any I’ve read. And if you can ignore the occasional frisson of guilty pleasure, one that’s as engrossing to read as
The Perfect Storm.”–Tony Gibbs, yachting writer, editor, and novelist “Hair-raising disasters, hard facts, and helpful advice;
Seaworthy is a compendium of no-nonsense information on avoiding problems that only a marine insurer could provide. Invaluable for the boater, builder, designer, and surveyor.”–Dave Gerr, director, Westlawn Institute of Tecnology; author of
The Nature of Boats and
The Elements of Boat Strengt
