Fun’n the Sun House Boat Vacations

Fun in the Sun Houseboats — not worth the risk
We are a couple with extensive ocean and coastal experience — crossings, blue water trips and lake trips. Our experience included charters in interesting places far from home. Each of these charters, including this one, gave us the opportunity to experience a water location far from what we would see on our own boat.
The Mississippi is a beautiful area to charter. Lovely small towns, nice people, some upscale dining, some down home meals, and scenery that met our every expectation.
The boat, however, was a disappointment. We don’t mind small, but the add promised a 13 cubic foot fridge and the 3.5 cubic foot box just wouldn’t hold a week’s food.
The boat smelled from gasoline. USCG rules require: «VENTILATION: Boats with gasoline engines in closed compartments, built after 1 August 1980 must have a powered ventilation system.
Those built prior to that date must have natural or powered ventilation.
Boats with closed fuel tank compartments built after 1 August 1978 must meet requirements by displaying a „certificate of compliance.“ Boats built before that date must have either natural or powered ventilation in the fuel tank compartment.» Our boat had been converted from inboard to outboard power, but the fuel tanks and lines were still inboard. Since the boat originally had powered ventilation, the quoted paragraph says that the closed fuel tank still requires powered ventilation. The switch was on the dash, but the vent was missing. We opened the hatches, allowed the gasoline shene to evaporate and hoped for the best.
The same regulations require, «SOUND PRODUCING DEVICES: To comply with Navigation
Rules and for distress signaling purposes all boats must carry a sound
producing device (whistle, horn, siren, etc.) capable of a 4-​second blast audible for ½ mile.» Our kind of wimp horn didn’t meet the regulations.
Buried in out of the way places were the required 2B1 fire extinguishers. «FIRE EXTINGUISHERS:. NOTE: Fire extinguishers must be readily accessible and verified as serviceable.» Since the unvented bilges presented a fire risk, we pulled our extinguishers out of hiding and left them in sight.
«NAVIGATION LIGHTS: All boats must be able to display navigation lights between sunset and sunrise and in conditions of reduced visibility. Boats 16 feet or more in length must have properly installed, working navigation lights and an all– around anchor light capable of
being lit independently from the red/​green/​white „running“ lights.» We were not permitted to operate at night, but would have liked the lights during a short period of reduced visibility.
The defect that concerned us most was the propane routing, installation, lack of safety cutoff and lack of sniffer or leak detector. We found on our pre-​departure check that the fire and carbon monoxide (CO) detector was expired and had four year expired batteries which they changed immediately. The first time we lit the small propane heater, the CO detector alarmed — still don’t know if it was a real danger or if the alarm failed.
Propane rules are set by the American Boat and Yacht Council (ABYC). The rule is quite complex: There were to many violations to state, however there MUST be a propane locker (our boat had none), «Controls — In order from the tank — first the pressure gauge, then regulator, then the solenoid shut-​off. All such equipment must be inside the locker. Pressure gauges are often omitted by the DIY’r to save $ 12 but are a critical leak detection safety feature.» Our boat also did not have a pressure gauge, a solenoid shut-​off, or a flexible line between the clamped delivery line and the tank.
The lack of a sensor is a major concern. Since the propane line is not of an approved type, small leaks will develop in time. Propane is heavier than air and will accumulate in the un-​vented bilge.
To their credit, they offered to refund out money. We decided to accept the risk having traveled a day to get there and not having any place to go.
Hopefully, they will fix the problems, make the boats safer, or at least properly tell people, as they told me, «we do not really bother with lots of regulations, people have fun on these boats.

First off we were told we could board early, at 5 pm the night before. WRONG. It wad after 6 before we could even start boarding.
We told them we needed to run the generator all night to have electricity for much needed medical equipment. We had severe issues with carbon monoxide due to were the generator exhaust came out. Really poor design.
There were 2 water slides on our boat but you had to manually pour water on them. We found that both slides had been designed to pump their own water but the hoses had been cut and removed.
When they went over the boat operations they never even told us where the life jackets were located.
I think we will choose a different place for our next trip.