MacGregorSailors.com

We are thinking of using something besides the 1 lb cans of propane to cook with, the question is where to put the cylinder. There is a 6 lb. cylinder that is 24 inches tall and 6 inches in diameter but it costs a bit. But most other propane bottles are 12 inches in diameter and really do not know where to put one that large. Any ideas would be helpful.

We hang a 5lb'r off the bow rail with oversized carribeaners. The regulator is in the anchor locker and feeds down through the v berth to the propane heater but we don't use propane for cooking but could easily be plumbed in. We can also attach 1lb'rs as well directly inside the locker. You can sail and motor with it hanging off the front but when it looks like it's gonna turn we just kneel on the v trough the pen hatch and grab it.

You can get the vertical 10/11 lb tanks from west marine for $140 or from hardware stores for $50. Home depot was weird on shipping so I ordered mine from menards.

http://www.menards.com/main/heating-coo ... 740209.htm

They are similar height to a 20 but skinnier and easier to handle. Store behind the captains seat if you make a bracket or "back porch".



Aluminum Brackets (no personal experience with this one, but looks decent)



http://store.adventuretrailers.com/prod ... acket.html

How long do you stay out? Even cooking for six on the Cape for a week the most I've used is two 1 lb cylinders. I keep them in the cockpit fuel lockers when not in use.

I'd stay with the 1 lb myself and is all I've ever used and like Cat said they last a long time. I store them in 4 inch ABS plastic pipes....



....I have two pipes under the 100 watt solar panel on the port side. You can see one above with the other behind it below the back panel on the right side of the picture.

If you pipe gas into the boat you are going to need a solenoid at the tank that is controlled from the cabin...





.... I did the above on the Endeavour and it requires some boat bucks. You don't want that tank inside. More here...

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... ge-11.html

Sumner

============================
1300 miles to the Bahamas and back -- 2015

The MacGregor 26-S

The Endeavour 37

Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

Same here. The 1 lb. propane bottles last a long time, we store ours in a pair of 4" pvc pipes mounted under our stern rail seats and carry 4 bottles which tends to last a full season for us!

Doug

I just keep two 1 lb bottles with the 6 gallon gas tanks. My last boat had 4.5 lb bottles in a proper vented stern locker with solenoid valve, like Sumner described, and I got a couple of seasons out of a single bottle. I didn't use the oven, which presumably would go through gas pretty fast, but that's not likely an issue with a Mac.

I could buy a awful lot of 1 lb bottles for what it would cost to retrofit my with proper valves, hoses, controls, vented storage, etc., even at $3.00/lb vs the $1.00/lb I pay to refill my 20lb grill bottles.

But if installing a real cooktop or oven/burner combo, then I don't see any other practical way other than a remote bottle somewhere. With proper solenoid valve, regulator, hoses, remote control, and vented (overboard) locker.

We have an same as you and put the little propane bottles, funnel and oil for the outboard in the steering pedestal. The pedestal is huge and in the way so may as well use the space inside of it. I only keep one screw in the black cover on the port side top. But more wouldn't hurt. Not something you will be going into a lot anyways.

if you consider a propane "plastic" tank, there is only one place you can fill them "if" they are recent , it is at Boye's gas service in Fort Lauderdale. We had that issue on a Leopard 44 cat. On my soon future mac x , i consider those, but also the ABS 4" pipes with 4 or 6 small ones. For going fishing with dinghy.
I plan to heat the water ballast for our cold canadian summers ... it will be heated away from the mac, i have seen and heard too many fires stories. Luckily, solar becomes handy for this too hybrided with a propare water heater.

mike0404 wrote: I plan to heat the water ballast for our cold canadian summers ...

What do you mean by this??

Check my DIY insurance company approved solution.


http://www.macgregorsailors.com/modt/in ... ?view=1195

K9Kampers wrote:

mike0404 wrote: I plan to heat the water ballast for our cold canadian summers ...

What do you mean by this??

If it's what I think, it will be really inefficient and the heat will dissipate quickly.

Heater is why I went to 10lb tanks. I DIY refilled 1lb tanks with an adapter up till this year. Doing it that way I was a scrooge on the heat though. The mac heats up super easy, but also cools quick.

Most cooktops, magma grills and "buddy" type heaters are around 10k BTU, which is about a half lb per hour. Some heat in the morning & a few hours in the evening and it goes quick.

I can't imagine any way feasible to bother messing with the ballast tank for heat.

Be careful refilling 1 lb tanks, there are both technical and legal issues with this, covered elsewhere.

I don't think the bigger, 10 lb cans are worth the hassle. At least not for me--if the regular size were jumbo, I would be looking for ways of storing it in smaller containers.

For the grills (we have two--one for meat, one for veggies... besides, they look better symmetrically installed aft...) we usually take 4 smaller containers that fit perfectly next to the gas tanks, in the cockpit, pretty much out of the way . We never managed to use all the gas, so there's always a couple of half-fulls too.