Clem,
I use my alcohol stove (a Seward model) on my '85 probably once a week or so and find it to work well, but there are a few things peculiar to alcohol stoves that you've got to understand so you don't scare yourself to death!
First, you have to prime the burners. Open the valve and let a little alcohold soak the wick that is in the center of the burner and then close the valve. When you light it, you'll get a flame and inch or two high that will start heating the burner and allowing the alcohol to vaporize when you next open the valve. After about 3 minutes or so you'll start to see the burner light on and off kind of like a propane stove. You can now open the valve slightly and the alcohol should vaporize and your burner should light similar to a propane stove.
Alcohol doesn't burn as hot as propane though so it take a little longer to boil water for coffee (which is what I'm usually doing) and it does have a bit of a smell to it that some folks are sensitive to. I'm in a warm climate though and usually have all the hatches open and fans running so I don't really notice it.
I pressurize my tank to about 10psi, my tank is located in the aft cockpit locker and the stove will run for hours at 10psi and about a gallon of alcohol.
I did rebuild my stove last year since the fuel hose was looking pretty old. I used 1/4" fuel line from my local chandlery. The valves on the tank were easy to rebuild from parts at Home Depot, and you can pressurize the tank easily with a bicycle tire pump.
You can put out an alcohol fire with water if it flames up on you, but if you are cautious to not overfill the burner when you are priming that shouldn't be a problem. In the seven years that I've used mine I've never had it flame up.
These stoves get a lot of bad press, but given that it was already installed in my boat, it was easy to rebuild and it's a flame that can be put out with water, it's not a bad option really if you just need something for the occasional overnight or short trip in my opionion.
