Either eat your food raw or pick from a sorry crowd:

1) Electric -- have to run a genset or a big inverter with heavy
batteries. Can run on shore power in large marinas, but not small
ones. Fintry will have an electric oven, as I really don't like LPG
ovens.

2) Kerosene -- limited selection, have to have alcohol to prime,
smelly, messy, two stage starting. Hot flame, very good once you get
it running. Cheap fuel.

3) Alcohol. Expensive fuel, particularly abroad. Although you can
put out an alcohol fire with water, you can't see the flame and
alcohol is explosive -- actually more so than gasoline as it's less
sensitive to mixture (remember flooding a car's engine -- a gasoline
explosion is actually hard to do) and less powerful. Cool flame.
Pressurized tank potentially spraying flame around the boat in most
common designs.

4) Compressed Natural Gas. Probably the best fuel if (big if) you're
in a place where it's available. We never saw it in our circumnav.
Lighter than air, easy to light. Don't know about price.

5) Diesel. Great in a cool climate. The Dickinson stove is a
wonderful device, but I wouldn't want one in the tropics. Cheap fuel,
hot flame. And. BTW, you probably have it in your fuel tanks, so you
don't have to schlep half way across the island to refill.

6) LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas, usually propane in the USA, often
butane in the tropics). Easy to light, hot flame, would be the
natural choice, but it's heavier than air, hence potentially
dangerous. A nuisance to refill. Mount the tanks outside, in a locker
that drains overboard under all conditions, install it carefully, use
an electronic sniffer and your nose, and you can make the risk
acceptable. Fintry's stovetop will be LPG as I don't like depending
on a genset or having to start one to get a cup of coffee early in the
quiet of the morning. Make no mistake, however, LPG is really
dangerous, as it explodes easily. I once saw a 40' glass sailboat on
which an LPG explosion lifted the whole trunk cabin off the boat,
killing all aboard. DO NOT use camping stoves in a boat. Use only
fully and properly installed permanent stoves with separate tanks in
draining lockers.

7) Gasoline. Dangerous. Against Coast Guard rules. Dumb. Probably
voids your insurance. Forget it.

Jim Woodward
www.mvfintry.com


(Wwj2110) wrote in message ...
So, a question: Does anyone use propane stoves in boats?If there are no
safety reasons NOT to, you have tons of options.
A
propane leak will flow to the bottom of your hull, as its heavier than air.
Compressed natural gas is much safer than propane because its lighter than air.