Anonymous wrote:
It is impossible to find a meths stove in Australia now, or parts for an old one, since Maxie units also seem to be unavailable. Gas stoves seem to be all that is available. Meths fuel is also becoming difficult to find at the moment. The hoarders have snatched it all up to use for sanitising their hands. I was very lucky, after fruitless searching of hardware stores today, to find some in a nearby discount house. I now have 22L. With rationing, I can make it last 6-10 months (depending on how frugal I am with warm drinks in winter). I also bought a 240V electric frying pan and kettle to use for the time being, to save my meths for when I choose to leave here or am forced to. Miami (Fl) has recently shut down all marinas. Management here has sent us an email to advise that we may not be allowed to continue living aboard at some point.
It seems to me there is a market for a producer of a good quality marine meths stove, but am I fooling myself? Maybe the majority of sailors are going to buy a gas stove today, and there are insufficient profit margins for a metho stove manufacturer.
A friend has just told me he has an old Maxie stove he no longer uses and I can have the burners, which is brilliant. I feel like a wealthy man tonight.
Well, having been a long time advocate of installed LPG stoves with gas bottles, I had decided with my new little catamaran that a meths stove would be the way to go. So I was disappointed when I found there was no longer such a thing as a proper marine meths stove available. Even a simple 2 x burner marine LPG hob costs over $500 new here in NZ, so I am not going that way. For me it likes like a couple of the high-tech camping stoves. probably LPG, but maybe meths if I can find a suitable stove. I was actively researching several months ago, but have lately been more involved plain old boat construction. The thing I don't like about the small LPG camping stoves is that the gas canisters are throw away once empty, so meths still appeals.