[malamar]

Cooking and Heating onboard...

Cooking and heating appliances may be separate units or combined into one.

In the Pacific Northwest the diesel stove with oven has been the standard for the last 50 years at least. Good for commercial fish boats and tugs and live aboards. The diesel galley stove can safely keep going even when you are gone for a while and the boat is always kept warm. But, they don't throw enough heat when it gets really cold, and the problem with them is if you want to cook something they take too long to heat up. You may not want all that heat inside the boat on a hot summer day. In that case, a small camp stove can be taken along for cooking. A diesel galley stove can burn 1/2 to 1-1/2 gallons a day or more. The soot has to be cleaned out periodically, which is a horrible job no matter how you tackle it; they won't burn clean once they start to soot up. Plus eventually the boat ends up reeking like diesel oil, along with you and your clothes. Also, little black oily soot particles come out of the chimney and blow over everyone elses boat, hard to clean off without soap.

The woodstove is a slightly better alternative; free driftwood on the beach; cleaning ashes out is fairly easy. You will need a separate countertop stove for cooking in the summer. One problem with the wood smoke is trying to steer a sailboat sitting out in the cockpit with a woodstove going inside - a next to impossible task - the smoke gets into your eyes - you can't use a tall chimney because it will get hit by the boom - it could burn holes in your sails.
In an anchorage the woodstove puts out heat that is hard to beat plus its fun to go beachcombing for firewood. The stove must be chained down with turnbuckles, one neighbor at the Fish docks in Vancouver knocked a woodstove over burning the boat to the waterline along with herself in it. Just a couple of days earlier they had invited me to come over and raft up. My own policy of keeping a little space between live aboards saved my boat from exposure to the fire. Also, a wood stove smoking in a marina can raise a few eyebrows, everything from complaints like "what are ya burning, old socks?" to "turn that thing off! - my asthma! - I'll complain to the office!", once a fire marshal showed up, I invited him in - he said he saw no problem with my wood stove - it was well secured with chains, likewise when I had a wood stove in my step van and drove around Vancouver downtown at night with the smoke coming out, after inspection, the cops thought the van was cool.

A wood stove works like a bilge blower - sucking air out of the bilge and blowing it out the chimney, this keeps the boat smelling fresh and clean. A wood stove will throw enough heat to spare so that you don't have to worry about opening up the hatch a little, just let the fresh night air come in - definitely the best way to keep the boat warm and dry. Of course here in the Pacific Northwest there is lots of driftwood eveywhere, but some places I imagine wood is scarce.

Non air-tight woodstoves I once used a small Columbia wood/coal stove with oven, the firebox was too small and it burned hot and fast, too many reloads. The larger versions are better like the ones they made in Lunenburg. The old Cod & Sardine are being made again if you want to pay the price. I had other non air-tight stoves and they all tended to burn too hot to use in a boat what with the limited clearances available.
Air-tight woodstoves The air-tight stove is most suitable for boats, good temperature control and long burning between re-loads. Just what you need to keep the stew pot going. Almost any good woodstove like a Jøtul will cost around $1000. I had an dark green enameled Irish Waterford air-tight stove in one boat and it was wonderful - no rust!. Actually, a homemade 10 gauge welded steel box stove, with a 1/4" plate top, a 4" chimney and an air-tight door is fine, make it long enough for an 18" log, with a screw type air control on the door.

Catalytic or Paraffin heaters If these do not come with a chimney to take the fumes outside forget it! Anybody who gives someone one of these to use in a confined space should be charged with attempted murder. Every year some poor kids die using one of these in a van or boat. If you see someone setting up one of these - warn them enough so they won't use it. The carbon monoxide fumes are odorless and they usually die in their sleep.

Diesel Heaters: Boat diesel oil furnaces or heaters are great, but expensive; they have neat little chimneys and burn clean. Lots of brands to choose from, There are built in furnace forced air types that requires electricity to operate like Wallas, Espar etc., or free standing show pieces like Refleks, Sigmar, Dickinson etc. Just reach for your wallet.

Many years ago when most fishing vessels were made of wood, a common trick was to set up a lightbulb on a stand down on the focsle floor. It provided enough heat and air circulation to keep the cabin dry in a 40 ft boat through out the winter. A 60 watt bulb should be enough, or you can use a heat lamp but be careful - they get pretty hot. Of course engine rooms had a couple of vents to keep that compartment from getting mouldy. A 1500 watt electric heater will heat most boats up pretty good if you are tied up to the dock.

Pressure Cookstoves.
Kerosene or diesel pressure stoves are now a thing of the past, almost impossible to find. There are a couple of modern versions with ceramic tops that require some electricity to operate, but their price will astound you. Wallas is one and they make a nice separate diesel oven too, ( I wouldn't mind one of those myself ).
The old standard - the pressure alcohol stove, is still one of the best things going; safe, low smell, clean burning, quiet running and operates on a fairly cheap renewable fuel source. An alcohol fire can be easily put out with water. Combine that countertop cookstove with one of the new Noorie pressure alcohol lanterns being developed in India and you have a good system with one fuel. It has been determined that homes in India can use these lanterns cheaper than using electricity. Alcohol fuel (ethanol) can be made from Sorghum stalks, sugarcane leaves, grain or waste wood. In 1974 it cost $2.50 to produce a litre of ethanol from wood - today the cost is $0.30 -$0.35/litre with forcasts of $0.22/litre in 10 years. Henry Ford's original Model "T" ran on ethanol.

The white gas/naptha campstoves (Coleman fuel) you find in a camping store are fine for cooking too, but not really intended for use inside. Some people have trouble lighting them, so they require a little supervision. The lightweight multi-fuel backpackers stoves are not suitable for everyday use aboard - poor rubber seals, fuel lines, plastic pump parts, etc. I met one mariner who put his campstove on top of the diesel stove and fell asleep drunk burning himself severely when it finally blew up.

Propane: In my opinion forget it! One - just one screw-up and you are inside a bomb. Many times I have shut off a propane stove and smelled gas leaking later. It's a disaster waiting to happen, like Homer Simpson & Chernoble - I know we have all these new systems, electronics, sensors etc., but why bother? Propane belongs outside on deck. I am putting a Paloma propane on-demand type water heater into my boat in a locker that only drains overboard. The propane tank can sit outside in a vented locker near the barbecue. Outside is fine with propane, inside appliances are not in my opinion. Unfortunately many marine stove manufacturers are setting a trend of producing only propane stoves/ovens today, discontinuing their diesel/kerosene product lines.

Lighting. Non-pressurized lamps & pressure lanterns.
Aside from battery draining 12 volt lights and electronics (ever wake up with a dead battery and you can't start your engine?) The kerosene lamp is pretty reliable and quiet, but one drop of seawater spray on a hot chimney and it'll crack. Carry a few spares and you will be ok. So the plain old inside only wick type kerosene lamps, with secure holders for the chimney - and tanks that don't leak are a good bet. I have a double wick one that throws plenty of light. There are circular wick non-pressure types too, but usually they have oddball glass chimney sizes.

The exotic fancy expensive type brass ships lamps you see in the chandellers make good pieces as dust collectors at home; unless you have skills as a glassblower, where are you going to get another chimney for that thing?

Hurricane Lamps I recently bought a couple of Dietz hurricane lamps; usable as an anchor light outside; I can see the tanks drip fuel from the seams - they rust out fast too - too bad because they are kind of nice.

The expensive pressure kerosene lanterns like the Petromax kerosene look good, but keep some spare parts. The Pressure naptha lamps, like Coleman makes are not the best thing for inside, too noisy, but good anchor lights.

Example systems:

Efficiency expert: can afford diesel fuel and one fuel for everything is great, example: a Wallas cookstove and separate Wallas diesel convection oven with a Refleks oil heater, use your generator for battery charging with modern electric lighting.

Traditionalist beachcomber: Wood stove, kerosene lamps, naphtha cook stove.

Environmentalist: Renewable fuel sources; sails & oars only, or biodiesel, homemade wood stove, alcohol lamps/lantern and pressure alcohol cook stove.

Novice: Hopefully well insured, uses propane, a gas outboard, matches, where's the flashlight?.....BOOM!

My own installation for my boat:
If you go to your local used marine equipment store you can find a couple of old brass pressure alcohol burners from a Homestrand stove and a brass pressure tank. You can buy 5 - 12"x12" granite or marble tiles and have 3 of them cut in half. This granite box can be recessed into any counter with the burners installed. The tanks have copper pipes or compression fittings to the burners so the tank can be remotely mounted. Total maybe $200 for a custom granite flush countertop stove. The tile people sell brass sections for protecting the top of the tiles too. A frying pan handle may be too low for the box so you can make it any depth you want - enough to keep the pots off the floor. The same granite tiles can be used around the woodstove. The spirit burners with caps full of small holes are called silent burners are usually for alcohol. The type with a little dish on top to spread the flame out are called roarer burners, usually found on white gas or kerosene burners.