How much Gas is required for Atlantic crossing

[Scotty_Tradewind]

If you need to 'cook' a decent amount for your 4 hefty blokes then I would seriously consider a pressure cooker.

One with various baskets or compartments is best and learn how to use it well before taking it on the boat.

This will save a huge amount on gas over a long trip imho.

S.

 

[Delfini]

Having arrived in the Canaries a few weeks ago I went looking for somewhere to buy a new or refill my first empty 4,5kg bottle with no luck at all

Any specific suppliers or pointers in Gran Canaria much appreciated

We got two 4,5 kg on the boat we have lived on for 18 years. Never had a problem filling them in mainland Spain, Canaries or lots of Carib islands.

Cooking on board a lot where we are now, Gibraltar, one lasts about 5 months. Cruising, about 3 months.

Haven't ever run out of gas on transatlantics on various yachts (10), but remember that regulator! Was delivering a yacht from Gib to Antigua. Couple of days out of the Canaries, had one develop a leak that was only noticed when the bottle ran out. Fortunately had an extra 907 and a new regulator. Lesson learned.........

 

[Chalker]

Take more than one spare regulator. Carib islands you can almost always get almost any type of bottle filled. But getting a spare Reg of the type that you want is another matter....
If you take several then you will not need them. If you only take one spare, guess how many you will need.! Answer is you will need at least three!

 

[BobnLesley]

"...Also from personal experience, take a spare regulator!"

Take several: We left the Med with seven spare CG regulators on board (I'd found six of them in a close-out sale and paid £10 for the lot) and having used just one ourselves, we've only one remaining, but we have gained five new and grateful friends through being able to give the others away in Dominica, Tobago, Bahamas, USA & Cuba; it does seem to be a spare that people don't consider/forget.

 

[viago]

If you need to 'cook' a decent amount for your 4 hefty blokes then I would seriously consider a pressure cooker.

One with various baskets or compartments is best and learn how to use it well before taking it on the boat.

This will save a huge amount on gas over a long trip imho.

S.

+1

depending on what you are cooking, a pressure cooker can reduce gas usage by about 2/3 if you get it right. curries, stews and the like are perfect for four hungry mouths.
or use tins, you are just warming through then. very little gas required.

you can use a pressure cooker to bake bread in about 15 minutes.

 

[jamieo]

Not helping with the answer, but a funny story...

I was talking to someone who had done a Pacific crossing to Australia. I seem to remember they were doing a delivery of a yacht so it was a long stretch at sea, something like 6 weeks. Around midpoint of the trip their gas bottle ran out, so they changed it but the spare was empty. Apparently the crew argued for ages about it - who checked the gas? Did you? no? I thought you did it? No, they were supposed to do it, etc... As the days passed they settled into life of cold food for the remaining 2 weeks of the passage. While the weather was warm, much of their food stuff was the kind that needed cooking, so the whole crew was really fed up.

A day before landfall, someone was in the gas locker and found out the bottle hadn't been turned on and it was full...

 

[Jonesey]

A quick word of warning....

A helpful lady with local contacts in Las Palmas organised to get our UK bottles filled for us... but naively we didn't weight them before and after.... we ran out of gas 4 days out of St Lucia.

Moral of the story - weigh before and after!

 

[RobbieW]

A quick word of warning....

A helpful lady with local contacts in Las Palmas organised to get our UK bottles filled for us... but naively we didn't weight them before and after.... we ran out of gas 4 days out of St Lucia.

Moral of the story - weigh before and after!

Good point, had the same experience in Sicily - the 'filled' bottles' weighed about 1/2 - 2/3 of what they should have done

 

[savageseadog]

Not helping with the answer, but a funny story...

I was talking to someone who had done a Pacific crossing to Australia. I seem to remember they were doing a delivery of a yacht so it was a long stretch at sea, something like 6 weeks. Around midpoint of the trip their gas bottle ran out, so they changed it but the spare was empty. Apparently the crew argued for ages about it - who checked the gas? Did you? no? I thought you did it? No, they were supposed to do it, etc... As the days passed they settled into life of cold food for the remaining 2 weeks of the passage. While the weather was warm, much of their food stuff was the kind that needed cooking, so the whole crew was really fed up.

A day before landfall, someone was in the gas locker and found out the bottle hadn't been turned on and it was full...

I've done nearly the same. Our cylinder ran out. I told the crew the spare was empty and not to bother swapping except when we got into port it was found to be full. I forgot that I'd replaced the empty one. Only 24hrs "hardship" though.

 

[Saguday]

Another vote for a pressure cooker - dramatically reduced our gas consumption when we went liveaboard and yes you can bake bread in it!

 

[temptress]

I am very aware that "lengths of string" are a distinct possibility in any reply, but I wonder if there is a general rule of thumb regarding how much gas should be carried to support feeding of 4 hefty blokes on an Atlantic (20 day) crossing using a 2 burner Plastimo cooker, grill and oven

I have purchased a thermal cooker which I hope will help minimise consumption but unsure if my standard 2 x 4.5kg bottles will be enough or whether to carry a spare

I have read that each kg of butane produces 14kw of heat energy so each bottle could provide 63kw - total available with 2 x bottles = 126kw

Cooker specification is:
Hob burner heat input: 2 x 2kW - say 1 hour per day = 4kw
Oven heat input: 1.30kW - say 30 mins per day = 0.65kw
Grill heat input: 1.72kW - say 30 mins per day = 0.86kw

Total = 5.46 per day x 20 days = 109.2kw - and 2 bottles is enough

Does the above make sense ?

Thanks for any empirical result/s or general guidance

We find a Camping gas bottle lasts us between 2 to 3 weeks depending on how much cooking we do. We regularly make bread aboard. Our 7.1kg bottles last between 6 and 8 weeks. You can quite easily get your bottles filled in the Caribbean just ask in one of the radio nets is the popular anchorages.

We find 4 people on board do not use that much more gas than 2.maim trick is to boil just enough water for your needs.... Don't over fill the kettle.