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Fire at Pine Harbor


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I'm going to adjust it to run diesel.  I have 75 litres of that on board at any one time, the engine and heater run on it so, why go with something else?

I'm thinking I can use a diesel glowplug to pre-heat the fuel so I don't have that complicated and delayed cold start issue.

A little winter project.  I don't like LPG or petrol on a boat at all - it scares me.

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4 hours ago, Frank said:

I use these guys for Methylated spirits  for the stove, as they supply un-dyed product which means the jets don't clog.

Price is good for a 20 lt container , they do kero as well.

https://www.tmkpackers.co.nz/

An old alcoholic reckoned its the dye that makes you go blind,so before drinking it,pour through an old stale loaf of bread😀 That a direct quote from the old hermit,"Snow Harris" many yrs ago when Mansion house bay had the pub. Knew my grandfather well but never elaborated on what they got up too.

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It is good and healthy to be scared, as the sea takes no prisoners, The number of people who are blown up by gas on boats is probably equivalent to the number of swimmers who are taken by sharks, or probably a lot less. Percentage wise a fraction of a fraction of a fraction 1/4 of a percent maybe. Because most sailors accept there can be danger, they minimize it by being extremely careful both in operation and shutting the gas down when not required. Careless sailors are usually eliminated early on, whether using gas, Kerosene, Meths or any other inflammable heat source.

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5 minutes ago, harrytom said:

An old alcoholic reckoned its the dye that makes you go blind,so before drinking it,pour through an old stale loaf of bread😀 That a direct quote from the old hermit,"Snow Harris" many yrs ago when Mansion house bay had the pub. Knew my grandfather well but never elaborated on what they got up too.

The dye was put in it for that very purpose, the fear of going blind, of course any quality alcoholic knew the solution, (Not a pun) very much as as Harrytom says.

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11 hours ago, Steve Pope said:

The dye was put in it for that very purpose, the fear of going blind, of course any quality alcoholic knew the solution, (Not a pun) very much as as Harrytom says.

From the interweb 

Is methylated spirit the same as alcohol?
 
 
Commonly used methylated spirits is a general-purpose alcohol which is not fit for drinking. This is because approximately 10% methanol has been added to it, along with additives such as pyridine, isopropyl alcohol, acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, and methyl isobutyl ketone.21/02/2022
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16 hours ago, aardvarkash10 said:

I've decided that I can probably build one using an existing stainless steel gimballed deck and a couple of these. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/265223846993?hash=item3dc092bc51:g:DJsAAOSw93xdtaCM 

https://classiccampstoves.com/threads/old-primus-parts.25594/ Good for tech support.

https://www.caravancamping.co.nz/shop/specialist-stoves/ All the bits you need and they are in CHC , the burner assemblies are the best but dear !

There are a bunch of other sites if you trawl the web , parts are still made at a cottage industry  level in various parts of the world such as India South korea, the US and UK ,europe etc. To the best that I can figure the burner assy is the same for Meths or Kero, it is only the jetting that varies, I have a bunch of spares and the meths orifice is a few thou smaller .

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18 hours ago, Steve Pope said:

It is good and healthy to be scared, as the sea takes no prisoners, The number of people who are blown up by gas on boats is probably equivalent to the number of swimmers who are taken by sharks, or probably a lot less. Percentage wise a fraction of a fraction of a fraction 1/4 of a percent maybe. Because most sailors accept there can be danger, they minimize it by being extremely careful both in operation and shutting the gas down when not required. Careless sailors are usually eliminated early on, whether using gas, Kerosene, Meths or any other inflammable heat source.

Let's not let facts and history get in the way though Steve. Millions  of gas lpg installations around the world on boats with a tiny percentage of failures.  40 years of using it myself , my observation is that is usually something totally ridiculous and without normal safeguards that causes the problems.

The guy with a 9 kg lpg heater running inside his boat.

The kids turning on the gas for a cuppa on the hardstand at Henderson not realising Dad had disconnected the oven.

The famous Victory incident where the skipper was in the habit of rubbing soap into the copper gas line to 'stop the leaks'.

Get a BEP gas monitor and integrated solenoid shut off switch,  cheap security and highly arguable that it is safer than sloshing an igniteable fluid around inside a boat to run a cooker, particularly at sea. 

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And dont forget that Marauder at Pine Harbour that  went kaboom, the apprentice drilled a hole through the gas line!

 

My previous boat had the gas bottle hanging or a bungee in the seat locker, connected to the oven with a mixture of garden hose and flaky pink copper line, apparently had been like that for 20 years!

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10 years ago we bought a boat with such a dodgy gas arrangement that the very first thing we did was take the bottle off the boat. Proper modern installations don't bother me though. 

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25 minutes ago, Black Panther said:

How can you possibly have enough electricity to cook on a sailboat?

I have been surprised by how much you might actually need.

On my lithium journey, I purchased a little 10A kwh counter that plugs into the wall socket and so you can plug appliances into that to get the power usage. I also picked up a $69 induction cook top from kmart. 

My wife and I cooked our meals on that for a week including boiling the jug for hot drinks. 

After a week we'd used only 1.6kWh.  So at 12v that's 135Ah +/- ignoring inverter losses which won't be 0.

We didn't extend it to boiling water for the dishes or running a little oven... so not an exhaustive test, but comparable to what we currently have on the boat, as we have no oven...

We're going to do another test with the small oven as well and see where we end up as having an oven on board would be a luxury.

I am currently half way between the decision of do I install a gas locker, bottles and a gas oven, or the electric equivalent... 

 

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Lots of new boats are electric only. Vessels that draw 20-50a all the time are not uncommon any more. Gensets and huge solar arrays are how it’s done mostly. 1 or 2 thousand watts of solar is becoming common on some of the large offshore cruisers. All the comforts of home…. At a cost!

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On 18/03/2022 at 6:39 PM, aardvarkash10 said:

I'm going to adjust it to run diesel.  I have 75 litres of that on board at any one time, the engine and heater run on it so, why go with something else?

I'm thinking I can use a diesel glowplug to pre-heat the fuel so I don't have that complicated and delayed cold start issue.

A little winter project.  I don't like LPG or petrol on a boat at all - it scares me.

Diesel and kero seem to boil the kettle more quickly, I assume they have a higher calorific value ? My wife says the odour is disgusting if you are seasick which is why I have stuck to alcohol, gotta keep GM  Domestic Operations happy.

 

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8 hours ago, CarpeDiem said:

I have been surprised by how much you might actually need.

On my lithium journey, I purchased a little 10A kwh counter that plugs into the wall socket and so you can plug appliances into that to get the power usage. I also picked up a $69 induction cook top from kmart. 

My wife and I cooked our meals on that for a week including boiling the jug for hot drinks. 

After a week we'd used only 1.6kWh.  So at 12v that's 135Ah +/- ignoring inverter losses which won't be 0.

We didn't extend it to boiling water for the dishes or running a little oven... so not an exhaustive test, but comparable to what we currently have on the boat, as we have no oven...

We're going to do another test with the small oven as well and see where we end up as having an oven on board would be a luxury.

I am currently half way between the decision of do I install a gas locker, bottles and a gas oven, or the electric equivalent... 

 

We are on the lithium journey on a land yacht, our plug n play $90 Harvey Norman induction top draws 2000W at full noise. We are using a 3KW inverter and 320 AH LIFEPO. On lower cook settings which we will generally be using it draws a lot less. In Tests at home it boiled a litre of water in a pot in 1 min 45 seconds. we will also have an 800w Jug and 800w small microwave. Cant be bothered with an oven on the yacht or the van, I'm a lazy cook and I want  to leave all that sort of thing behind when on holiday.

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Our sparky told me not long ago that new (home) induction cooktops can draw 40a (@230V). Pretty hard to manage on a boat!

 

Newer boats do seem to have electric cooking arrangements, to my surprise. But even with 1-2kw of solar I think really you'd be relying a lot on the genset to get those batteries charged. Really you're starting to look at boat systems which rival off-grid home systems, and you'd really struggle with 2kw solar for the sort of mod cons these boats are expecting.

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