Back In 1982 when I set out for a World Cruise on my Alberg 35 for 3 years (I ended up Sailing from Ma. to all the Leeward, WindWard Islands and S. America and Bahamas), I used a Alcohol two burner that I bought Kerosene burners from Sweden, this was almost same btu's as Propane but still had to prime with alcohol.The alcohol primer was a bottler that filled the prime cup at a exact measure. This is by far safest and 1 Gal. of odorless kerosene would last for 4-5 mo.living aboard.
Dave
Sugar Bear wrote: How do slightly larger blue water sail boats heat their rooms and cook They have to be relitively safe. I am a newbe but before I got my I concidered other models and during my research, I do not recall galley fires or CO2 being a major proublem Yes I am sure there are some accidents. I am wanting to use my boat during late fall and early spring. I am looking at the coleman stove/grill, Big Buddy heater and CO2 detector.
Would not have to run all the time just long enough to take the chill off.
I really don't see a problem until the conditions are right (or wrong) and you are aware but imagine 2-6 yrs and no problem, get a bit slack with a combination of several things happening and zap as moondancer said it's hard to outrun a fire 1/4 mile off shore and more so for me as I don't swim.
We have 3 fire extinguishers and a blanket but sheez I hate fires and burns let alone jumping into our water here already half cooked.
I went by West Marine to pickup the Kenyon but they were out of them. For the short term, I may just use a Magma Kettle II grill as a stove and skip cooking in the cabin. Unless it is raining sideways, I would be good in the cockpit.
It would seem to be rather safe to keep the bottles in the cockpit. Attach and light the burner in the cockpit and then take it below. That would provide zero chance of leakage.
My prejudice against alcohol is that it doesn't burn clean so soot will get on my cookware and the cabin. I also ran into an article talking about it burning invisible and being difficult to detect when burning - that's sort of bad.
I think the bottom line is that fire on a boat is something that requires attention and monitoring any solution can lead to problems if not managed properly.
You don't have to worry about the little "phut" of gas when connecting and disconnecting any gas cylinder. The explosive concentration ranges for these gases is somethinng like 10% by volume...a scenario where each little phut somehow accumulates to reach this limit is much less likely than getting injured carrying a lit stove down the companionway, IMHO....
Rough calculation....ill SWAG the bilge volume as roughly 1000 liters...this mean you need about 100 liters of gas to " go explosive". At room temp and molar mass of propane of 44g, you have about 240 liters of gas total in a standard propane cylinder. You would have to vent about half of it to have an explosion hazard. Give or take a factor of 2....i don't know the lower explosive limit to be fair.
On edit- looked it up....Explosive limits 2-9% by volume...so venting 1/10 of the mass of a propane cylinder would be need to reach Exp limit in a 1000 liter bilge...
Last edited by Catigale on Wed Nov 10, 2010 7:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
Catigale wrote:You don't have to worry about the little "phut" of gas when connecting and disconnecting any gas cylinder. The explosive concentration ranges for these gases is somethinng like 10% by volume...a scenario where each little phut somehow accumulates to reach this limit is much less likely than getting injured carrying a lit stove down the companionway, IMHO....
Rough calculation....ill SWAG the bilge volume as roughly 1000 liters...this mean you need about 100 liters of gas to " go explosive". At room temp and molar mass of propane of 44g, you have about 240 liters of gas total in a standard propane cylinder. You would have to vent about half of it to have an explosion hazard. Give or take a factor of 2....i don't know the lower explosive limit to be fair.
On edit- looked it up....Explosive limits 2-9% by volume...so venting 1/10 of the mass of a propane cylinder would be need to reach Exp limit in a 1000 liter bilge...
Amen, finally some facts and that put the whole thing in perspective.
How do slightly larger blue water sail boats heat their rooms and cook
I concidered other models and during my research, I do not recall galley fires or CO2 being a major proublem
