News

Plastic Fuel Fill Grounding

Recent events have caused the boating industry to examine the policy regarding the bonding of plastic body fuel fills with metallic caps and retaining chains. Existing USCG & ABYC policy states that the bonding of these components is voluntary. A study by IMANNA Laboratories has shown that connecting the metallic retaining chain and cap of a plastic body fuel fill assembly to a boat's bonding system may result in electrostatic discharge from a land-based fuel pump nozzle to the metallic components of the assembly when the boat is not in the water. This condition does not exist when the boat is in the water due to the equalizations of the ground potentials between the fuel pump nozzle and the boats bonding system.

It is recommended by ABYC and the USCG that new and existing installations of this type of fuel fill assembly do not include any attachment to the boat's bonding system. Existing connections should be removed from the point of connection to the boat's bonding system to the fuel fill assembly. Removal of the metallic components of the assembly is not necessary; however, the U.S. Coast Guard and ABYC still require that metallic body fuel fills be bonded.

For further information contact: John Adey, ABYC (410) 956-1050 ex, 29 jadey@abycinc.org or Richard Blackman (202) 267-6810 rblackman@comdt.uscg.mil.
[Posted: 7 February 2005. Source: Barbara Rhoades, BC-ASP]