Who has cruised blue water with a non gimballed stove?

[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?

[Snore]

Cats use non-gimbaled stoves. When seas get over 10' they can be a PITA to cook on them. Seas over 15' on the beam, and you need a dedicated pot holder (crewman not cooking).

Refitting a Morgan 35, would get the gimbaled stove. If I was delivering the boat, I would not plan on cooking while underway. Also at anchor, cooking would be a hassle.

Finally, ponder this. It is cheaper for manufacturers to install a fixed stove, yet they install stoves with gimbals.

[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.

[boatman61]

Not a diesel cooker but a 4 burner electric hotplate fitted into the worktop.. no pan holders.
It can be done at sea however two things are vital.. a reliable efficient AP and prep everything for your one pot meal before hand as you'll be standing at the stove holding the pot till its cooked.
Did 17,000+nm like this so it can be done but you'll hate it.
54ft mono..

[s/v Jedi]

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.

You simply can’t use it for any proper cooking. Boiling a kettle of water would be an achievement.

That said, I also don’t like the commercial gimbal stoves. I would much more prefer a surface that can be tilted and secured in any position with fiddle rails around it, then put a portable induction unit in the safest corner and a pot on that with a silicon mat in between.
Such a surface also allows other appliances like a coffee maker, rice cooker etc.

For fossil fuels you can use a portable propane/butane stove in the same way.

[Hudson Force]

Our Princess propane stove was "gimballed" for roll, but not pitch. We used it regularly offshore during most weather; however, when things picked up we engaged the stove lock pins and did not use it. We were not interested in cooking during disrupted seas and ate simple quick ready-made meals. I should add that our longer offshore passages were never more than two or three days and this allows for more predictable weather.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Hudson Force

Our Princess propane stove was "gimballed" for roll, but not pitch. We used it regularly offshore during most weather; however, when things picked up we engaged the stove lock pins and did not use it. We were not interested in cooking during disrupted seas and ate simple quick ready-made meals. I should add that our longer offshore passages were never more than two or three days and this allows for more predictable weather.

Indeed.
We had the same stove, and I don't recall ever using the gimbals [always locked]. However, I was not the primary cook, so ...

[AnsleyS]

As a past crew member and cook on trips from Maine to the Caribbean and back, I can tell you that a non-gimballed stove would be very dangerous at sea. The cold meals get very old on a two or three week trip and having hot pots of water and stew sliding around is potentially disastrous. All stoves at sea should have gimbal, fiddles and pot holders.

[MicHughV]

My first boat had a very basic two burner kerosene stove...no oven. It was gimbaled...sorta...kinda......once on a heel, the stove could be manually adjusted to be horizontal and tightened with clamps and would remain in place for that particular angle of heel.
I don't recall ever having a problem with this setup. I didn't have pot holders either, just rails around the burners. The burners had to be preheated with alcohol in a small pan under the burner.
All very archaic but it worked.
I also had a charcoal grill which I would move to a stanchion next to the cockpit and cook there. Despite wind and waves, this is also did the trick.

[Pete7]

Did look at diesel ovens and hobs until I realised you couldn't gimbal them because of the exhaust. One of the reasons we went electric cooking.

Given the price of diesel cooking and presumably a desire not to fit gas, i think you could install a good electric hob and oven solution for less money. Electric hobs and say convection ovens can be gimballed and we have pan holders as well, so cooking at sea quite achievable.

There are a number of threads in the Cooking forum of late about electric cooking were people have explained what they have done and their experiences.

https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f91/

Pete

[JBP]

I have a non-gimballed stove. I don't use it heavy seas.

There are other options. How often do you cook in heavy seas vs calm seas or at anchor? If you only need gimballs a small percentage of the time, you could have a small camp stove such as a jet-boil or one of the many similar stoves for heavy seas. Sure you can't cook gourmet meals on them, but you can do simple hot meals. They use simple canisters so no need for a propane system.

If you have a generator another option would be electric. Induction stoves are popular and more efficient than old resistance electric stoves.

[Bowdrie]

Lin and Larry Pardey sailed countless miles in a 24' boat with a non-gimballed propane stove, (athwartships mounted).
A couple of generations of cruisers before them did the same thing, (usually with a Shipmate coal stove),
The key?
The stove should be mounted athwartships, such that you stand at it facing forward, (or aft in your typical 50>80' Alden schooner with forward galley).
You use a big pot for small amounts of contents, and it was popular to use long springs, (screen door spring,) looped over the pots thru the handle on a well fitting lid.
Pressure cookers work well, (pressurized or not).
Be aware that Dickinson stoves, using the factory location for the metering valve MUST be mounted athwartships, and so mounted will function well at reasonable heel angles, lengthwise mounting requires the metering valve to be mounted on the left side of the stove.

[MicHughV]

The key is to learn " one pot" cooking.

I learned to make a variety of dishes using only a single pot.

As mentioned before, I didn't have pot holders, but did have rails.

I tied a piece of stiff wire between the rails that fit perfectly around the pot and never had a problem. That piece of wire just stayed between the rails for as long as I owned the boat.

[wholybee]

I have a gimbled stove, but also a separate induction plate. I can cook on the plate on the counter to about 1.5 meter seas. (which is still pretty small). I can cook on the gimbaled stove to 5 meter seas.

I would think you should be able to add gimbles to just able any stove. I have seem people gimble coleman camp stoves. Sometimes it is done by building a shelf with gimbals, other times gimbles are added to the stove itself. You will need to make sure the center of gravity is correct, so it doesn't want to flip upside down when you place a pot on top of it.

[s/v Jedi]

For passages we eat meals that we prepared beforehand and heat up in the microwave. It makes sense to mount the microwave under the gimbal surface like the old propane stoves had a propane oven under them.