Cooking on a small boat?

William_H said:
If OP were to follow and comply with any of the usual regulated environments for boating. Gas becomes a difficult cooking method requiring a proper bottle storage outside and a whole lopt of other requirements including certification by a qualified gas engineer. Certainly the portable gas cooker types are outlawed. The problem, being that gas if it leaks settles into bilges and low areas and can not easily escape so any ignition source means disaster.
That means that methylated spirits (alcohol) or diesel /kerosene is remaining option. (or solid fuel) Kerosene or diesel takes a lot of heat to get it to vaporise and pressurized kerosene can be dangerous in the start up phase.
So really the best option is methylated spirits. Though is does tend to have less heat than gas or kerosene. It can be vaporised fairly easily and a spill can be extinguished with water. Now boat type cookers can be expensive and hard to find. Hiking type spirit stoves can be perhaps an option to be modified for a boat fitment. Don't be too fussed about gimbals unless with experience you find a need.
I have a neat single burner spirit cooker for my 21fter though it has not been fitted for many years. Bought 40+ years ago. Don't see the type here in Oz any more. Has a tank at the back. You run spirit into a cup then turn off the flow. Light the spirit in the cup let it burn till almost gone when pipes are hot enough to vaporise spirit running in to give a nice flame that looks like gas. Origo are very different I believe. So it is a matter of what you can find. ol'will
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IIRC In the UK gas installations on boats don’t need a certified gas engineer to install/check/certify them, unless the boat is used on inland waterways or is to be used commercially.
 
Both my boats have gas ... and I have no intention to change.

Only modification I will make on the 38ftr- is to replace the large cylinder for a smaller ... as it no longer has to supply cabin heating system ... and will make it easier to get cylinder in / out of transom locker.
 
Geoff Wode said:
The days of using smelly meths on spirit stoves is long gone. Bioethanol is completely odourless, easy to store and a fire or spills can be dealt with using water. I use Bioethanol Fuel for Fires, Spirit Marine Stove Fuel, Alcohol Camping Fuel and BBQ Lighting Fluid | EkoFuel on our Origo 3k. There’s no dedicated gas locker on our Horizon 23 and I not a fan of cartridges. The Origo has been great.
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£36 for 12 litres delivered sounds like a fair price and low hassle compared to Camping Gaz.
I'm not aware of what stoves are available these days, but have cooked on meths in the dim and distant past.
In those days it was something of an expensive option mostly needed when you couldn't trust young oiks with anything else like gas or petrol.
Happy Days!
 
LittleSister said:
Lack of an oven is rarely a problem, but you can buy a great proprietary gadget to go on the hob to do baking or heat up stuff that would normally go in an oven - I've forgotten the name of it, but it's in in the form of a ring: a circular trough with a lid, and Swedish IIRC.
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Omnia

They are the mutt's nuts. You can get an additional rack to fit inside them making them better at heating up stuff. I've made bread in mine and it worked perfectly. Roast chicken also good.

Get from here in the UK...

Omnia Oven - Stove Top Cooking
 
In my first Stella I bought a fairly lightweight gas 2 burner camping stove. To each end I pop riveted a triangle of brass sheet. Between this I ran a rod end to end front & back as a retainer. At the apex I put a longer rod. I then made 2 larger trianges with the bases bent at right angles to form feet for fixing to the worktop. The bar at the apex formed the pivot for gimballing. Above this I made a brass drop down shelf with a 2 inch turned up front that just held 2 enamelled plates. This got hot from the heat below & food could be held there whilst cooking food below.
Worked very well. Cheap to make at the time.
 
Geoff Wode said:
The days of using smelly meths on spirit stoves is long gone. Bioethanol is completely odourless, easy to store and a fire or spills can be dealt with using water. I use Bioethanol Fuel for Fires, Spirit Marine Stove Fuel, Alcohol Camping Fuel and BBQ Lighting Fluid | EkoFuel on our Origo 3k. There’s no dedicated gas locker on our Horizon 23 and I not a fan of cartridges. The Origo has been great.
View attachment 163204
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Interesting. Same boat as me. But I swear your Dometic stove looks identical to my Spinflow stove, apart from the name on it.
 
ProDave said:
Interesting. Same boat as me. But I swear your Dometic stove looks identical to my Spinflow stove, apart from the name on it.
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Practically, it will be the same. I think there are various good clones knocking about these days and I’m sure yours will be just as good as one that says Origo on it. So simple, just a big Trangia. Wouldn’t be without on a boat this size.
 
B27 said:
Meths cookers are an option, but fuel can be dear and hard to find?
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Meths isn’t hard to find - sold in many hardware shops (including B&Q last time I needed some) as well as many pharmacies (if they don’t have meths they will have surgical spirit which is a more refined (expensive) product). Even bigger supermarkets sometimes have it.

When I was a student we used to use isopropanol from the lab - it wasn’t quite as good but was “free”. It is also sold in pharmacies, car parts stores etc.

I’m not sure how expensive meths is these days, but it is almost certainly not a significant part of the expenditure of owning and using even a 20ft boat.
 
Geoff Wode said:
Practically, it will be the same. I think there are various good clones knocking about these days and I’m sure yours will be just as good as one that says Origo on it. So simple, just a big Trangia. Wouldn’t be without on a boat this size.
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At the risk of thread drift. When you open ours, there are the two large round burners that you lift out to refill them.

Sitting in the bottom, doing nothing at the moment, are a number of round foam discs abour perhaps 3 inch or more diameter. I am sure they are supposed to do something but they are not at the moment. Any idea where they are supposed to be or what they do?
 
Another plus for the Origo, have used no other cooker on board for over 40 years on boats between 17' (Leisure) , 22' (Foxterrier), 26' (Invicta) 25' (Sadler). It has always worked well and avoids the problems of gas bottles.
The Compass 'Orogo' copy looks so similar to the original I would guess it's as good.
 
ylop said:
Meths isn’t hard to find - sold in many hardware shops (including B&Q last time I needed some) as well as many pharmacies (if they don’t have meths they will have surgical spirit which is a more refined (expensive) product). Even bigger supermarkets sometimes have it.

When I was a student we used to use isopropanol from the lab - it wasn’t quite as good but was “free”. It is also sold in pharmacies, car parts stores etc.

I’m not sure how expensive meths is these days, but it is almost certainly not a significant part of the expenditure of owning and using even a 20ft boat.
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Surgical Spirit will either have ethanol or isopropanol as the base with methyl salicylate and some denaturing additive to make undrinkable.
 
ProDave said:
At the risk of thread drift. When you open ours, there are the two large round burners that you lift out to refill them.

Sitting in the bottom, doing nothing at the moment, are a number of round foam discs abour perhaps 3 inch or more diameter. I am sure they are supposed to do something but they are not at the moment. Any idea where they are supposed to be or what they do?
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They are to cover the burner when you have finished cooking to reduce loss of fuel due to evaporation.
 
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