Thread: gas cookers for a wooden boat

The biggest problem with gas cookers on boats is that with any leaks the gas being heaver than air will fill the bilges and any compartments they are in a death trap for sure , Don't know about singapore but the regs here are pretty heavy with gas use and storage on boats here in Australia.
Advice.... get a portable gas cooker, canister type and cook on deck.
Or got to a metho cooker .

Doesn't Natural gas float? Regs are pretty tight, but lots of boats use gas.

Important to have lockers for the gas tanks or an external stowage position so that the gas won't drift into the hull. Shutoffs at the tank which should be used when the gas is not in use.

MIK

A couple of weeks ago I had a little (umm big) scare on my (wooden) boat with the gas cooker.
It was one of those numb-brain moments,
Just after I had turned on the gas bottle and the cooker and had just started cooking up some water for a hot miso in the cabin I had a suspicion that the conection between the hose (old) and the gas bottle was leaking,
so what do I do?
I light the lighter next to it
serious darwin award stuff I know,
and guess what, it was leaking, and pop goes a ballon size flame before reducing to a small flaming leak at the bottle with me quickly and frantically blowing it out- quite stealthy mind you so that my girl friend 2 meters away with her back to me up on deck didn't even notice.

Scared the cr@p out of me

So, last week I got one of the portable gas canister ones.
The only way I am going to use an actual gas bottle again on my boat is using one for a BBQ ON the deck hanging off the side of the boat.... and I will never store one actually in the boat again.

It was stupid what I did- and although it was sort of unconscious, I knew at the same time that if it did go pop like it did, it would only be small (as I had just brought the bottle down in the cabin, and only just turned it on)- and that it was better to pop small then than bigger in a few more minutes.

I can only imagine.... no actually I can't even come close to imagining- the horror of a real explosion.

IMO
Get one of the portable canister cookers, they are cheap, the gas canisters really aren't too expensive (and they are easy to carry back and forwards from your boat- and if kept stocked it ensures you know how much gas you have and are less likely to run out)... and if you are not satisfied with it, then think about investing in the next option up.

Sooooo Hans you experienced one of those moments eh?... when the ol scphincter muscle screams yells races around in circles and then disappears while your jocks change color RAPIDLY... all the while your trying not to let her highness notice anythings wrong

been there done that ...great feelin eh!

I actually enjoy going over those "moments" when I really REALLY and I mean SERIOUSLY REALLY should have got a post humorous Darwin award... it goes to prove Im not as smart as I think I might be

Glad it wasnt more serious... and youve sorted it out so whenever I manage to get away from this blasted manic managerie Im gonna be able to take a sail with you without worrying about being blown out of the water... or having to keep a keen eye on your backside to check that the color of yer duds doesnt change suddenly while your tryin to be casual while shyting yerself stupid eh!

All the best mate

thats it exactly Shane,
I even had the whole after-shock body tingles/pins/needles hot flushing sort of thing

phew... I have had a few close darwin-award moments in my reasonably short time...
most of them just too damn embarrasing to tell- especially here

it was a real good wake up for me, especially as our inboard is petrol as well.

but, really, my boat is good old girl, well proven (with her cabin literally covered with her medals from some of the many the decent races to Tassy and other places she has been in) and I can't wait to finish her off. This summer hopefully (fingers so seriously crossed they are hurting) is going to be our fist proper one sailing.
And yes, if you do manage to get down here, you aint escaping without coming for a sail on Altair.

All the best to you and yours too mate,
Hans.

EDIT- btw, love the new avatar, is this from a new digital camera by any chance?

add another 20 years to your darwinian ways and your gettin close to why everyone around here shakes their head in pure wonderment just to see Im still breathing!!

be my pleasure... hey you aware Im yet to see a single pic of Altair? thats actually the first time Ive seen her name!!! gawd either your bloody slack as all buggary or Im blinder than I think I am

yeah took it then had a play with photoshop I think Im gonna have to take me anothery with me hat on so I KNOW its me an not some other git

I've used all kinds of stoves on boats, and for safety, alcohol is the absolute safest, given that they are all fire. A butane one burner would be second, and probably my choice. Saw some of these at Bunnies the other day. Natural gas or LPG would be next. It does have to be vented out the boat, behaves like water, so make sure it doesn't end up in the bilge. I even read an account of a guy 'bailing' it out of his bilge with a bucket. Kerosene would be dead last, and I mean dead. I've put out two boat fires from kerosene stoves, the only thing they're good for is anchors. They are real fires too, thick black smoke and a lot of heat once they get going.

Originally Posted by Eli

I've used all kinds of stoves on boats, and for safety, alcohol is the absolute safest, given that they are all fire. A butane one burner would be second, and probably my choice. Saw some of these at Bunnies the other day. Natural gas or LPG would be next. It does have to be vented out the boat, behaves like water, so make sure it doesn't end up in the bilge. I even read an account of a guy 'bailing' it out of his bilge with a bucket. Kerosene would be dead last, and I mean dead. I've put out two boat fires from kerosene stoves, the only thing they're good for is anchors. They are real fires too, thick black smoke and a lot of heat once they get going.

A little late in this discussion, I know, but I installed a metho stove in my TS after researching the explosion statistics, thinking that I would have to put up with a slow cooker for safety's sake. No pun intended - it blew me away with its efficiency! I reckon it was as good as my portagas stove without the sound effects. It's hard to believe it's heating so fast when you don't hear that roar of a gas flame.
Cheers
Graeme

Originally Posted by Wild Dingo

hey you aware Im yet to see a single pic of Altair? thats actually the first time Ive seen her name!!! gawd either your bloody slack as all buggary or Im blinder than I think I am

well, i'd say, a little from collum (a, a little from collum (b

I certainly haven't posted many photos here, though have done a few at woodenboat, and a lot more over at boatdesign,
with apologies to gails for a touch of thread drift, I will put a couple up here and shoot you a pm where you can see more.

My boat is a Van De Stadt Seahorse (30 ft, mahogany marine ply, fastened with monel), built in Sandringham Melbourne in just about the exact same spot that we restored her,
she has spent the majority of her 45 years racing, around the bay probably every week, and also done a lot of journeys to out to Tassy and other regional places- a lot of these ocean races recored in her medals (you can see a few in the cabin photo, but a lot of them have come off, ready for cleaning.)
The last while of her life before I got her she got a little run down by the lovely old owner who was getting a bit too old to keep up maintainence. He was good at painting however, and that was his solution to most things in the end, paint and gaffer tape

So, there was a lot of rot in the cabin and deck.
LONNNGGG story short, after a lot of wasted time, stripping paint (3-5mm thick) and cutting out rot for patch replacement, we ended up just ripping out the rear 2/3rds deck and half the cabin roof, and replacing.... and well, a whole lot more.
After getting it out of Sandy to our swing mooring at St Kilda, I have been slowly picking away at finishing it off, basically putting down all the deck gear that had to come off, toerails, hatches, splashboards, built a new pushpit seat (you must have seen that one), etc, etc...

I'll shut up, heres a few photos (and btw, having some problems with this, why the hell can't I hotlink to images I have stored elsewhere anymore? I am just upploading them rather than linking to my online galleries)
in one of them (trying to get a little back on topic) you will see some pancakes being cooked at the scene of the crime a week before my Darwin moment