Diesel outboard?

[flyfisher]

Has anyone had experience with the diesel outboard motors? Yanmar makes one as well as a couple of less well known companies. After failing to find an affordable Prout we are looking at a couple of gas outboard powered catamarans. We worry about the explosion factor of a lot of gas aboard. Are we correct in thinking that diesel would provide less chance of explosion?

[Jeff_H]

You are not correct. You have far more of a chance of blowing yourself up with your propane stove than you do with a gas outboard. The outboard and often the fuel tanks are exposed to the atmosphere or located in ventilated lockers not connected to the interior of the boat. The propane lines and the stove are in the interior of the boat where even turning on a light can ignite the fumes. Nearly every sailboat explosion that I have heard of in my life has been a diesel engine equipped boat with a propane stove.

Jeff