Properly installed propane is safe to use. A portable stove sitting on the galley is not properly installed. No portable stove would be considered properly installed. I do wonder if the lip on the galley and the drain in the sink would catch and route spilled gas overboard as needed however. Not a proper setup, but perhaps servicable.
You need a basin with a drain below the appliance and the usual safety shutoff and sniffers. I can't say I've ever seen a properly installed propane stove in a mac.
Obviously using propane in the cockpit or a BBQ out back allow it to drain overboard like water so no explosion hazzard can develop.
Propane is prefered for it ease of use and high heat, not it's safety. Just because people make misakes and boats blow up is no reason to outlaw it's use.
In Boat US's most recent email update they state:
According to the BoatU.S. Marine Insurance claim files, for every boat that sinks underway, four boats sink in their slips. The top four reasons why boat sinks are:
#1 - In 50% of the dockside sinking claims, water found its way into the bilge through leaks at underwater fittings,
#2 - Water falling from the sky, either rain, snow, or sleet, accounted for 32% of the sinking claims,
#3 - Fittings above the waterline in 9% of the sinking claims, and
#4 - Boats that sank after getting caught under a dock or banging against a piling accounted for 8% of the claims.
The best defense against a dockside sinking? Visit your boat. And, at least twice a season, inspect any fittings above or below the waterline that could be letting water into the boat
Just because most boats that sink do so at the dock is no reason to outlaw slips.
It is however yet another good reason to own a mac which can be stored on it's trailer at home.
