Propane systems certainly cause angst and worry for some boaters. They needn't. First, to speak to Rudy's issue of shutting the fuel off. All systems are required to have a means to shut the fuel off at the fuel source. This means must be located in the vicinity of each appliance and in the case of a stove, it must be located so that you do not have to reach over the stove to shut it off. On virtually every boat with a propane stove you will see an electric solenoid valve. These valves have a superb safety record. The valves fail closed if for any reason the power is interrupted. In my experience, cruisers DO shut the gas off when the appliance is not is use. Fire and explosion statistics in the US give clear evidence that propane systems in use today are remarkably safe. Now, electrical fires at hull inlets are unfortunately not uncommon. As to rotted, damaged and rodent chewed lines, Well sure thing it could happen but in boating accident statistics we do not see this happening. There was a case in Marathon about 15 years ago. The owner claimed a rodent chewed the line. BUT he also said that when he woke that morning he smelled gas, and yet he lit a cigarette.....The boat blew up. We will never know why he thought a rodent chewed the line or what was the actual cause of the fuel leak. But it was not an approved installation and the fuel was not turned off at the appliance. Regarding the Bowman accident. The boat in question was built before the CE/ISO standards were in effect. The picture of the LPG locker in the side deck is an Island Packet. The OEM installation is a trident solenoid. It looks like that is the original solenoid installation. The Solenoid in the picture is on the low pressure side of the regulator as now REQUIRED by ISO LPG standard 10239. Nigel Calder's reply in the article is excellent. It clearly explains how, in many different places, that boat's system did not comply with ABYC. Had it complied with ABYC that accident would not have occurred. Now I will add a bit more to the story. The ABYC Tech VP I mentioned in regards to the butane stoves was me. I was the TechVP of ABYC and during the development of the international standards (ISO) on boat building. There were NO European boat building standards, there were no UK boat building standards on gaseous fuel systems at the time that Bowman was built. I represented the US on the ISO gaseous fuel standards too. ABYC A-1 requires a continuous distribution line from inside the propane locker to each individual appliance. There can be no fittings or joints in the line (except the connection for flexible hose to a gimballed stove. Europeans prefer copper lines and so a boat built to the ISO standard may have fittings and connections inside the boat (Most do not). ABYC requires a pressure gauge on the high pressure side of the propane system.. The gauge is at the inlet to the regulator. Every time I change over my LPG bottle I do a pressure drop test. If others do not do the test, I wonder why not? It is simple to do. And every now and then you may find that you did not fully tighten the hose at the bottle. ( Which was the source of the propane in the article) . Cheers, Tom 410.212.7898