Anonymous wrote:

David, I have friends who have used a Trangia cooking stove on their boat (and in their house truck) with great success.  It works on the same principle as the Origo, but if you go into one of the larger camping stores, they usually have a kit for sale.  They do teensy weensy ones for backpackers, but my friends have one that has a proper stand and heatshield and came with its own pans.  For your cat, I should have thought they'd have been ideal.

BTW, if you buy ethanol (rather than meths) from Wynn Fraser in Whangarei, on the label it tells you to water it down by 20% for cooking.  So it's cheaper than you might think to cook on.  (Does it take 20% longer to heat the kettle, one wonders.)

And talking of kettles, I have found a Simplex kettle on E-Bay for a tenner!!  This should speed up heating my water - they are designed to be used over a medium heat - and it also looks beautiful; apparently it has a whistle built in to the lid.  Unfortunately, it isn't chromed and because of my OCD I shall have to polish it!

Thanks Annie. Yes, I am finally being persuaded away from an LPG installed setup, at least for this little boat. Especially because space is limited and I really want to keep the weight down, but I am still going to have a fridge to keep the tonic water cold!  There seems to be quite an array of fairly technical small stoves available now so it makes for interesting research.

I haven,t tried alcohol yet but i'm told that it wont work in a MSR. It should also be noted that unleaded petrol makes a bit of soot so I try to stay with white spirits. I will give kerosene a try and report back in a week or 2. The other option of Jet fuel is a little hard to come by here.

This company would appear to have several types of Origo stoves in stock:

https://www.jacksonsleisure.com/spirit-stoves/

Just an update

I bought an Enders 'Cooky 1', the same as the HPV Salsa, to try out. It looks as if it will be a good solution, if not entirely simple to light. It does burn much cleaner than the Origo.

So, now one (or more?) have become available on Ebay, I have bought the 2 burner version (HPV Mambo). I'm intending to convert it to having a remote fuel tank if possible. It'll be the same tank as yours, David! Plus gimbals etc.

Incidentally - if anyone wants the single burner version - new, only test lit twice - I have a spare one.

Christmas wishes to all

Matthew

 

Matthew,

just for the science; could you measure up exactly 0.5l water and then check how long it takes to bring it to boil?

My Origos spend from 4min 40s to 4min 50s on it. I found that adding water in the alcohol until it is 80% did not slow down cooking, but when the canister is low on alcohol, the power of the flame drops noticeably.

Arne

PS: I am sure the Hpv will work better with 96% alcohol.