RedactedNarrative: On 5/12/18 at approximately 12:30 pm the operator launched his vessel in Bayou Chico. He was accompanied by his wife and three children. They departed Bayou Chico and entered the Gulf of Mexico through Pensacola Pass. They traveled east within approximately 400 hundred yards of the beach cruising at slow speed to look for cobia. At approximately 3:00 pm there was an explosion on the V1 the children to be expelled. The adults were still on the V1 after the explosion. None of the occupants of V1 were wearing a lifejacket at the time of the explosion. The children swam back to V1. The operator had a cut above his right knee and a child had burns on her legs below her knees. They all put on their life jackets. A good Samaritan vessel assisted tow V1 away from shore. On 5/29/18 I arranged to look at V1 in the Tow Boat U.S. boat yard. The deck of V1 was sealed without any large hatches for me to see below it. There was a small access approximately four to six inches in diameter above the fuel tank under the leaning post. I looked inside it, but I did not see any apparent issues. There was a hatch on the starboard bow of V1 that gave me access to the fuel line and vent hose. I unscrewed the fuel hose from the gunnel and attempted to pull it, but it was firmly secured. I pulled on the vent hose and found that it was loose. I pulled the vent hose out from under the deck of V1 until I reached the end which should have been secured to the fuel tank. 
  If the vent hose was not securely fastened to the fuel tank of V1, then it would be possible that the vapors from the fuel tank were not able to escape from inside the hull. The vapors trapped within V1 combusted due to an ignition source within the vessel causing the accident.