A Really Good Galley Design

[Curmudgeon]

Nice galley on the Caliber, except that the nav station tucked in behind the galley takes away storage space.

To me the perfect galley is U shaped to port (easier to use when you are on the starboard tack), two sinks on the centerline, gimballed stove in the middle, proper handholds that allow you to work when the boat is heeled, storage on all 3 sides, "flip out" counter for extra work space. I would also prefer a "drawer style" refrigerator and freezer as opposed to top loading, but those are hard to find on older boats or boats under 45 feet.

I like two sinks because I fish. The second sink is a good place to throw a fish if I don't want to clean it right away. If I had an ice chest/fish cleaning station out in the cockpit, a single larger sink would be fine.

If I owned a catamaran I would prefer the galley to be U-shaped and up rather than "in-line" and down in one of the hulls.

[JoanK]

Hi..You are talking of gallies on a sailboat, now we are looking into a cruiser 38' and our galley is towards the bow with a dinnette table. My husband and I had this discussion on the galley of a cruiser we are thinking of getting. He didn't think an oven is a big deal. We like to grill, but I feel that finding an oven in a cruiser is a plus and it has a three burner/ electric. Even for resale. Most cruisers had a 2 burner and microwave. This galley was custom and added a range. Only a single ss sink...but can use a dishpan inside. Any other ideas to store stuff would be great to give. Where can you get a wire dish rack to store plates in a cabinet. Thanks...Midwest boater

[The Boat Galley]

My web site has tons of ideas on storing food and galley supplies (the articles are all free):

Storage

Without actually seeing the cabinet, I can't say for certain, but I'll take a guess and say that wire racks won't hold dishes securely enough to keep them from shifting and breaking. Most boaters build a cubby, use pegs to hold plates securely -- or even store them in a drawer with towels stuffed around them.

Instead of a dishpan, just put a little water in one of your dirty pans -- it'll soak while you wash everything else and you'll use a lot less water. I actually prefer a single bowl sink as it's hard to fit pans in most double sinks on boats (we changed ours for this very reason).

Good luck with the decision -- you'll love whatever you decide on!

[Wavewacker]

and Carolyn, a great site it is!

Well, another year as a drunken landlubber, had two think about boats, both needed a galley fix, but didn't bite, just wasn't right.

Now, the plan is to head to the Gulf area, not many boats to choose from in the Ozark hills unless you need a bass boat or pontoon. So, need to go to where the boats are!

But I'm adapting many of the tips here to my land cruising trailer.

I've spent hours lurking on "The Boat Galley"!!!!

[Tx J]

Lots of good ideas here, I'm reworking my (rudimentary) galley too, and am reading along.

I thought I'd mention a microwave oven I ran across recently, the smallest I've found yet. Some might think it too small, but as mentioned prior, even our larger boats are pretty cramped for space, so I'm mentioning this little one if y'all hadn't seen anything like it before.

Been looking for a small one for a while, and all until this one have been 0.7cu ft, 700watt units, which seemed to be the lower limit. The 0.7cuft units are still pretty big for the galley (mine anyway), so I'm thinking of biting for this 'tiny' one (below).
It looks like it can do the basics like heating water for tea, nuking a plate of food or whatever, YMMV.

This very small 0.5cuft, 700watt Whirlpool mini-nuker (found at Home Depot Whirlpool 0.5 cu. ft. Countertop Microwave in Black-WMC20005YB at The Home Depot and probably elsewhere) is the smallest I've found yet (particulars and dimensions are at the HD link).

It's designed with a rounded back that knocks off a bunch of the counterspace wasting footprint of a standard microwave. Looks to fit right nicely in a countertop corner, or raised up in a corner.




Has anyone else seen any comparable very small microwaves out there?

I think I'll give it a try, it sure seems to be the smallest so far. I have room for a larger one, but hate to waste the space that can be used for other things.

I use a good sized 2.4cuft/1500watt or so one at home, but I noticed that they are now marketing microwaves up to about 2500 watts now at the high end, yikes! You could probably nuke a side of beef, or a whole cabrito, in one of those.

And y'all purists out there who swear by burners and ovens only, a microwave can do almost anything they can. It's all I ever use, even turned off the power to my home electric stove/oven since I very rarely use it (off at the breaker for a 'remote' safety reason).

[Wavewacker]

Nice micro. One will probably be a requirement to keep the GF happy. Last kitchen renovation the stove was out of the kitchen, survived nicely with a hot plate stove and a micro, mostly the micro. Doubt we'd need an oven, but that could be a stove top oven box too.