Fumes! ...and other necessary improvements

By Sailor Keddy -

I know I have painted a very rosy picture of the Winchelsea, but, after all, she is a 38 year old boat, and needs some work. First and foremost are the faint gas fumes that permeate the area below deck. I'm not too thrilled that she came with a gas engine in the first place, and I am very tempted to replace it with a 1 or 2 cylinder diesel engine. I am concerened about the safety of a gas engine on board, those fumes can be not only hazardous to breathe but potentially lethal if they accumulate too much and are ignited. I have someone looking into it as I type and I'll update the blog here with what they find as soon as I hear back.

Secondly, and this is safety related as well, is the propane issue. The boat currently has a propane stove and heater, both of which do not work. I cook on a small camping stove with the small 16.4 ounce propane bottles and that works alright for now. For heat, which is a big issue when it drops into the 20s and teens, I am going to remove the inoperable old Cozy Cabin heater (see right). Propane scares me in general, I don't feel comfortable carrying a very, very flammable gas (that is heavier than air) kept in liquid form by extreme pressure on board.
I will replace these with kerosene. In addition to being much less volatile, safe and easy to work with, it is available in almost every corner of the globe. There is a good review of the different types of kerosene heaters here, and I'm pretty sure I'll be going with this model.


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