Camping Gaz on my 21ft westerly

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thesaintlyone

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When I got the westerly it had an old camping Gaz 2 burner stove on a gimbal above a large empty space about a foot deep with no outlet holes for any gas pipes etc.

It also had all the pipework etc removed.

I have purchased a new Kampa two burner stove and mounted the gimbal on top and placed it above the space (pictures to follow cant seem to do this on a mobile)
I was going to use a small camping gas canister the disposable type but apparently these are not designed for the stove in question.

So the question is if I use a camping gaz R904 1.8kg butane Gas refillable cylinder (the smallest) which I presume the previous owners did due to lack of holes exiting the aforementioned space can the cylinder sit below the stove or as I have seen on some boats do the pipes have to lead back to a cockpit locker or is there another option.

Please bear in mind the only cockpit Locker on board also holds the petrol tank for the outboard. ?

Many thanks

Duncan
 
There is nothing legally to stop you doing such a potentially dangerous thing. However best practice requires gas cylinders to be outside the cabin housed in a locker isolated from the rest of the boat and draining overboard. Pipes etc to comply with the British Standard. You can get advice on what is needed from either Calor Gas Southern or from the Boating Safety Scheme.

Appreciate that complying with this is difficult or impossible on many small boats, hence the popularity of spirit stoves in such boats.
 
My 1970 Tomahawk had a 2-burner stove with the Campingaz cylinder screwed directly underneath, with a space for it to swing. There were no pipes, the OP's Westerly may have been similar. I don't think that such stoves are available now.
I was never happy with this set-up, which relied totally on the stove gas-taps for isolation, and arranged a piped supply from a home-made gas-locker.
A bonus was that I could fit a stove with a grill.
A friend's spirit-stove convinced me that that wasn't the way to go!
 
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On a previous boat, we had a small camping gaz cylinder mounted close to the cooker in the cabin. The big advantages, safety-wise, were that we always turned the gas off at the cylinder after use, and that there were no long runs of pipe to corrode or fracture.

We have a similar setup on our present boat, except that, since it is a catamaran, the gas locker is located on the bridge deck where it drains overboard.

IMO, current best practice of locating the cylinder remotely is far from totally safe.

TonyMS
 
The original stove in Anderson 22's was a gaz job with the bottle underneath; we never thought that was safe so when completing my example we put the bottle in a cockpit locker.

However that locker cannot be made to drain any gas spillage, so years ago I made a simple extension to the bridgedeck, open sided with plentiful gaps at the bottom, as a gas bottle locker.

NB the Anderson 22 cockpit is if anything too big anyway so this just makes a handy extra seat, reduces casual pooping volume and is also very handy for stowing buckets, winch handles etc.

I can reach the regulator tap from the cabin seat beside the cooker, so no excuse for leaving the gas on - not that I would anyway, having seen a boat blow up via gas.

The only other way to stow a gas bottle I can think of is to glass in a bucket under a cockpit seat, with a small drain overboard and big inspection hatch on top.

Gas is of course perfectly safe if used sensibly.

View attachment 57330 View attachment 57331
 
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Thanks for the replies because of which I have had a brain wave!!! Tell me if you think it will work ?

Plan is to remove all of the gas fittings from the Kampa stove and put one of these (see below) in each hole where the gas burner would have been hence I create a spirit stove with gimbal without the Gas problem or paying out for a £200+ spirit stove on a boat which i am going to sell on anyway.

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Copper-Allo...ing-Furnace-B-9-Q0R5-/182009038330?nav=SEARCH

Thoughts ?
 
Seems like a reasonable plan if the eBay burners work ok, and at the price you've not got much to lose finding out.

Lots of older boats that size use alcohol stoves for similar reasons.

Pete
 
Hi Spirit stoves are dangerous on boats. I nearly had a fire using one on a Skipper 17. My present boat had the camping gaz double burner with the cylinder underneath, but I had to change this for insurance purposes to a gas box in a cockpit locker.
Calor gas will sell you one of these and you drill it and fit a drain pipe through your hull. I don't think having it with a fuel can is unsafe as long as there is ventilation.
 
Philweb what was the cause of the fire. Used trangeirs in the mountains with no problems how do they differ. Earlybird nah there is a costa nearby ?
 
philwebb said:
Hi Spirit stoves are dangerous on boats. I nearly had a fire using one on a Skipper 17.
Click to expand...

One incident proves nothing. Seajet had a fire with a gas stove on a previous boat, and I'm sure we can find someone who's had a paraffin fire. Keep following that route and you end up sitting on the floor in the dark eating cold beans out of the tin.

Pete
 
My gas bottle is in the cockpit locker, along with the outboard fuel tank! No dedicated gas locker (18ft boat)
When I read about this stuff it seems I have a choice of drilling a hole low down through the boat hull, thus having to choose between the relative risks of water coming in the boat versus being blown up.
The gas cylinder is always off except when actually cooking or brewing up, and I use a handheld sniffer in the locker and by the cooker when I first come back on board before cooking.

Seems to me a reasonable compromise, I am definitely anti drilling holes through my boats hull. Low enough to drain heavy gas is low enough to fill up with seawater from I reckon.
 
Steve,

my gas box drains any gas spilled out via the ( outboard well ) cockpit drains.

My boat has no seacocks at all - the sink pumps out into the well, and the loo is chemical, allowing use when the boat is dried out.

If you were keen and don't have room for a cockpit locker like I fitted I'm sure you could glass in a bucket under a cockpit seat with a drain via the cockpit drains, not perfection but better than a hole in the hull.

I agree though the main thing is to turn it off whenever not in use - and keep hoses and regulator up to date.
 
My last point struck me as maybe worth mentioning separately in case some here are not aware; a little while ago they brought out a Gaz regulator specifically for marine use - I forget the spec but it ends with ' M ' - around £25-30.

I have seen people say this is an insurance requirement, not sure if that's true but it seems worth having on all counts.
 
A Trangia is just a bit more hazardous than an Origo. The Trangia has a well of liquid meths which can spill if knocked over. The fuel in an Origo is soaked into rockwool, or something similar, and it won't spill if inverted.

A mate with a small boat without gas locker kept his bottle in a stainless collander strapped to the pushpit over the back of the boat. Any leaks got blown away astern.
 
thesaintlyone said:
Thanks for the replies because of which I have had a brain wave!!! Tell me if you think it will work ?

Plan is to remove all of the gas fittings from the Kampa stove and put one of these (see below) in each hole where the gas burner would have been hence I create a spirit stove with gimbal without the Gas problem or paying out for a £200+ spirit stove on a boat which i am going to sell on anyway.

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Copper-Allo...ing-Furnace-B-9-Q0R5-/182009038330?nav=SEARCH

Thoughts ?
Click to expand...

Reminds me of the small meths unit that my parents used in the 60's to boil a kettle on picnics theirs was a small silver coloured one with a sort of surround about 125mm diam & the burner bit that you have indicated placed in the middle. A tin lid placed on top for transport
 
aquaplane said:
A Trangia is just a bit more hazardous than an Origo. The Trangia has a well of liquid meths which can spill if knocked over. The fuel in an Origo is soaked into rockwool, or something similar, and it won't spill if inverted.

A mate with a small boat without gas locker kept his bottle in a stainless collander strapped to the pushpit over the back of the boat. Any leaks got blown away astern.
Click to expand...

May look into using a similar soaking method when they arrive.
 
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