[C320-list] Fwd: Replacing Oven/Stove with Storage

[cinichols at btinternet.com]

Just a few brief thoughts before you rip it out....

1. The oven makes pretty good storage anyway
2. Is can be handy to have a gimballed worksurface (I gather many C320 stoves have a "topper" in the form of a chopping board)
3. A gimballed stove top I'd have thought is much safer if you need to heat something while under way at sea - while you may always prepare flasks etc ahead of passages we have sometimes even found anchorages can become rolly e.g. as skiboats and ferries pass 
3. A built in stove is very unlikely to fall over/skid around or be knocked over, potentially setting fire to soft furnishings etc. Also you are not restricted to using pans under 10" as you are with the pancake style Colemans. 
4. While the risks of plumbed-in gas aboard are not negligible there are well documented procedures to mitigate them rendering any resulting risk down to operator error. Are there such procedures for coleman stoves? I think one of them might be they are always used outside? Could human error not also be damaging / lethal with a coleman stove...? 
5. Consider the safety of one (maintained) propane tank versus a stock of multiple coleman canisters: The former can be checked and pressure tested far beyond the extremes of the working range as often as you wish whereas with the latter even slight dents can be the source of failure should the can heat up. Given you likely have to keep a stock of cans aboard (hopefully in the otherwise vacant gas locker) can you rule out the chance of a rough passage & salt air causing them to degrade? I know the two coleman cans we keep for our magma kettle BBQ always look pretty beat up and corroded after our 3 week summer cruise and always get thrown away (responsibly) irrespective of usage.
6. Consider the safety of the pipes and cooker itself: One manufactured and installed to marine safety standards by Catalina, who've done a few... the other, made for camping usage... even if well made can it withstand a marine environment? 

I wonder if anyone has insurance data for the number of tents catching fire each year versus boat gas explosions?
A fire in a campsite can easily be run away from...and ambulances can drive there...

Personally, as I think you might have gathered, I would never use a coleman stove below decks, or in the cockpit under a bimini.

 Happy voyaging, whatever you decide to do! 

Chris Nichols
Amanda Rose #476

-----Original Message-----
From: C320-list <c320-list-bounces at lists.catalina320.com> On Behalf Of Roger Nitkin
Sent: 21 February 2022 15:19
To: c320-list at lists.catalina320.com
Subject: [C320-list] Fwd: Replacing Oven/Stove with Storage

Ron,
Thanks for the information !
Is there any chance you still have (and don't need) the cabinetry ?
Thanks again,
Roger


-----Original Message-----
From: Roger Nitkin <rnitkin at aol.com>
To: c320-list at lists.catalina320.com <c320-list at lists.catalina320.com>
Sent: Sat, Feb 19, 2022 9:30 pm
Subject: Replacing Oven/Stove with Storage

During the 5+ years we've owned Summer Time,  we've never used theoriginal equipment oven/stove.I'm not really comfortable piping propane down belowdecks and dealing withtank, lines, and connections. For our simple cooking and coffee making needswe use a simple Coleman-type camp stove. It's easy to set up and use, and can be easily removed from the boat when not needed. It occurs to me that we could remove the whole built-in stove/oven unit, and replaceit with cabinetry for storage, which we could certainly use. We would also be removingthe unneeded weight.
Has anyone else thought of this, and if so, what kind of storageinstallation did you create ?Thanks !
Roger NitkinSummer Time1997  #429Westport, CT