Who has cruised blue water with a non gimballed stove?

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by Captn_Scott

I have just completed a multi thousand hour restoration of a Morgan 35 for an extended global cruise and am looking for feedback from anyone who has sailed at sea using a non gimballed cook stove. I am looking a diesel cook stove because it only uses diesel from the tank and can be used as a heater for the boat due to space constraints(it will burn 1.3 gallons per 24hrs on low).
So, have you been able to cook on one of these at sea?

Many/most alaska fishing boats have a diesel, non gimbaled cook stove going 24/7. Of course they aren't sailboats, but can get thrown around a bit!

But gimbal or not gimbal is not the biggest problem.
The problem with the plan is that they are not a "quick start and cook dinner" stove. In the tropics you wont want the stove going at all for months and a "quick start and cook" is not really an option IMHO. Even in the north in summer it's an issue. They take a while to get burning and can put out soot and smoke until they heat up and get cranking. Good boat heater and cooker if you stay in the far north.

[RonaldL]

We have been cooking on our non-gimbal stove for 17 years now, including world circumnav.
No dangers at all.
Using narrow high pots.
Ofcourse with pot holders.
Also used the oven.

But: our 50' ketch is stable, 20 degree heel max.
Still no waves on the oceans have been bothering us whilst cooking.

Position our stove is athwardships, cook is looking aft. Very safe, no chance to fall into the fire, no pots will fall into your lap. Our galley is built such that the cook is standing very stable between wall and furniture, so no waveaction will tumble him around,

Sorry for my english, not my native language.

[SailingHarmonie]

Even aside from actively cooking having a gimbaled surface when you are underway is REALLY helpful in a galley. For anything that involves pouring or any open container.

Another point to think about with diesel stoves, they make really good cabin heaters--even when the cabin is already hot!!! They will drive you out of the cabin in most climates. There are VERY good reasons they are popular with fisherman in Alaska, and NOT with cruising sailors. If you are going to the tropics, you will do no cooking inside the boat with that thing. This is a FAR bigger deal than they gimbal or not.

You can make do (and that is what it is) without a gimbaled cooking surface. But you can not use a diesel stove inside the cabin in hot weather. If you need a diesel fired heater, get a diesel heater. Do not ask your stove to do double duty.

[Iron E]

Originally Posted by SailingHarmonie

Even aside from actively cooking having a gimbaled surface when you are underway is REALLY helpful in a galley. For anything that involves pouring or any open container.

This is a great point.
We prepare breakfast and lunch without cooking and use a fiddled board mounted on top of our gimballed stove for prep. Our boat is a 35 and we utilize all of the space we can.

[Montanan]

Alternative to gimballed stove is a gimballed hull.

[A.k.a. canting rig, ideal for those that don't like being a half or more of a bubble off; kind of like making one's half-boat [a monohull] be like a full-boat, [a multihull].

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkr0_CV1gA8

[SomeGuyInaShirt]

I usually cook on a backpacker stove including offshore. It's usually a massive pain in the ass to use in a seaway though. I usually fry stuff so it's even more difficult using a pan. Definitely don't recommend it.

[Bowdrie]

Originally Posted by RonaldL

Position our stove is athwardships, cook is looking aft. Very safe, no chance to fall into the fire, no pots will fall into your lap. Our galley is built such that the cook is standing very stable between wall and furniture, so no waveaction will tumble him around,

Back in roughly the '70s>'90s, Paul Luke made what was perhaps the epitome of a propane stove that was especially "gimballed" for athwartships mounting.
Imagine a cooktop that was separate from the oven with perhaps 2>3 inches separating them.
Each unit having an "axle" mounted at the back which fit into a "bearing" fastened to the bulkhead so that it could "tilt-in-place".
The two units were coupled together on the sides by a linkage.
The linkage made the units tilt together, mimicking the motion of a parallelogram so to speak.
Now we had a stove/oven that didn't need any "swinging room", they just tilted in place.
Though Donald Street, in his book, showed a simple sketch of one, I've only seen one in my life, (it was on a Swan 65 with a custom interior).
A couple/three years ago I got in contact with the Luke company to inquire about them, (what happened/where did they go?).
Mr. Luke opined that with the vast majority of the boats built being set-up for fore-and-aft mounting the demand was not there to continue to offer the stove.
They were quite expensive 30>40 years ago and were only made to order, one can only imagine what one would cost today.
Still and all, the highest quality from an "old line" company.

[Kettlewell]

For rough conditions you want a gimballed stove, at least one burner. Practical Sailor did an article on these some time ago: https://www.practical-sailor.com/bel...ley-stove-test

I've used a non-gimballed stove on our cat offshore, and in rough conditions it required my wife to hold the kettle down on the burners or else it would fly up and hit the overhead as we dropped off big seas. OTOH, with a gimballed propane stove with oven we cook normal meals offshore under most conditions, and when it is really rough we still make hot soup and coffee to keep us going. I can vividly remember my wife passing up a hot cuppa on a bleek and rough night offshore and it was a real lifesaver. Sometimes we've needed the gimbals in rough harbors, like once anchored in the Berry Islands with a beam sea rolling our guts out off of Chub Cay.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by RonaldL

We have been cooking on our non-gimbal stove for 17 years now, including world circumnav.
No dangers at all.
Using narrow high pots.
Ofcourse with pot holders.
Also used the oven.

But: our 50' ketch is stable, 20 degree heel max.
Still no waves on the oceans have been bothering us whilst cooking.

Position our stove is athwardships, cook is looking aft. Very safe, no chance to fall into the fire, no pots will fall into your lap. Our galley is built such that the cook is standing very stable between wall and furniture, so no waveaction will tumble him around,

Sorry for my english, not my native language.

Hoi Ronald

Yes, the Amel Super Mura u has that too, with a diesel fuel stove and it works well (but too hot for the tropics).

[MicHughV]

I must say, I've never seen a sailboat with a gimballed rig before....that is certainly a first for my eyes....interesting concept....

[El Pinguino]

I'm one of those who locks their gimbals with an appropriate amount of pre tilt.
Big deep pots help.

I'm just sitting here wondering how a pot knows that it is on a thwartships mounted stove.

[Don C L]

Not exactly "bluewater" and not diesel but I do cook at times while sailing around the local islands. My two burner alcohol stove is not gimbaled but with pot holders and not overloading a pot, and in fairly calm conditions, it can be done. I can cook things like scrambled eggs pretty easily because they don't slide around much and cook fairly easy. I supplement the stove with a single burner "Sea Swing" stove for boiling water or soup and that gets a lot of use. But my boat is considerably smaller. In a larger boat you will find it easier. But I think, realistically, you will eventually regret not fitting the stove with gimbals if you have room for the stove/oven to swing. Even on the Downeast 38 I sailed, I never would have considered, or desired, cooking with the stove locked in place. Are you asking here because you don't have the room for the diesel stove to swing? I know in my boat I have gimbals but I haven't installed them because I don't really have enough room to make it work without major surgery.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

I'm one of those who locks their gimbals with an appropriate amount of pre tilt.
Big deep pots help.

I'm just sitting here wondering how a pot knows that it is on a thwartships mounted stove.

The issue is safety: spills will be to the side of the pot, not onto the cook.

That said, I’ll repeat why a galley should be on port side. When on a starboard tack, you are the stand-on vessel so never forced to tack by another vessel. You heel to port so that it is safe for the cook.

So the galley must at port side and the boat must sail a starboard tack during cooking

Edit: I have seen pictures of athwart ships stoves mounted on a gimbal that includes countertop and even the floor.

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

The issue is safety: spills will be to the side of the pot, not onto the cook.

That said, I’ll repeat why a galley should be on port side. When on a starboard tack, you are the stand-on vessel so never forced to tack by another vessel. You heel to port so that it is safe for the cook.

So the galley must at port side and the boat must sail a starboard tack during cooking

Edit: I have seen pictures of athwart ships stoves mounted on a gimbal that includes countertop and even the floor.

Indeed if one does not gimball the hull, then perhaps just gimbal the entire galley, and while one is at it, perhaps the dining area so as to not spill one's drinks and food when sitting. I recall my Sea Scout ship had a gimballed table / benches for sitting and dining. It was a great place for persons that were prone to being sea sick to rest inside. Getting into / onto the gimballed table and settee required a bit of skill when the 63 foot powered boat was tossing about as on didn't wish to upset the stability.

[Shrew]

Originally Posted by Captn_Scott

I get the concept, but am looking for advice from a sailor who has actually used a non gimballed stove at sea. I used one once on a custom Kanter 52 but we didn't have any kind of seaway to speak of.

I have a non-gimballed stove. We only cook underway under calm conditions. We eat cold food like sandwich's, fruit, granola, etc while underway.

We are not out over multiple nights, so this is not an issue for us. If I were planning to start doing multiple day hops, I would replace with a gimballed stove.