Frequency of Dinner Guests on Board?

[Sailor647]

We have dinner guests onboard anywhere from every two weeks to once a month. But, I enjoy cooking and entertaining just like I did on land.

We can seat six comfortably, but I've had 10 onboard for holiday dinners. lol That's a little too cozy, but I wasn't about to tell the "volunteers" we didn't have room - because we had plenty of food! We did have to borrow plates from a neighboring boat. I only have service for 6 onboard.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by BillKny

You'll quickly learn that almost all questions about sailing and cruising have the same answer: It Depends.

Now, having said that, you'll still find lots of people on the intertubes who feel the need to have an absolute, definitive answer for you.

The right answer has already been posted above: How often do you entertain at home? If dinner parties are a common occurrence in your land home, they will be on your boat. If you are not a social person on land, you are not about to undergo a dramatic remolding when you are at sea.

On our 52 foot boat we could easily sit 6, and squeeze in 8. We have people over for dinner every few weeks, no more. Rarely more than another couple. There just are not a lot of people who's company we seek out. But that is us...

Agreed. It also depends on where and how you cruise.

If you coastal cruise returning to a home base for a few months, you likely have close friends who you will want to interact with and having dinner can be a nice option that helps them see the wacky lifestyle you have.

If you are out on the move, expecting friends to travel to you, sounds great but we've found it just doesn't happen very often, so then it becomes a question of are you going to invite people you met a day or two ago in for dinner?

Will you be anchoring out or staying in marinas, what is the proximity to restaurants? If it's easy to go to a restaurant and there are good options, that's what we will often do. If you are cruising on a shoestring budget or in remote areas, some form of get together on a boat is more conducive.

The answers will be all over the board and they will change depending on where you are and what you are doing.

[Shrew]

We occasionally have sit down dinner guests. Commonly it's 'pot luck' and more of an informal buffet style. More commonly, it's just antipasto/charcuterie and drinks. Mostly, it's just drinks.

Everyone mostly eats on their own boats. Food storage space is precious and provisioning takes effort. A Dinner for 6 would make a dent in resources. (Taking 6+ chicken breasts out of the freezer would be a lot (4+ meals) when we provision for two. The freezer is only so big). Hosting like that really requires reciprocation. It might be different in a marina setting, but on anchor, we mostly all just fend for ourselves. When we anchor out, it's for weeks at time.

[rmlarson1098]

Originally Posted by Sailing Shelly

Hello everyone, my husband and I are new to sailing and this is my first post so hope I am in the right area... 😊

We are just about to close on a Pearson 365 sloop and there is no actual table set up for dining... just 2 individual small flip up tables kiddie corner from each other. This provides a nice open feel...but we are used to eating, playing cards etc at the same table.

There are just the 2 of us, my question is “how often do you end up having dinner guests on board” a rather small sailboat...and is there a need for a larger dining table.

I probably have the lingo wrong...and I have searched online and in forums and cannot seem to find references as to the frequency of extra diners in the salon.

Any ideas from you experienced ones out there?

6 for drinks, 4 for dining, 2 to sleep. Maximum! Except in emergencies of course. Stick to it.

[guyrj33]

There is a current thread on the pearson-boats google group discussing various tables.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Sailing Shelly

Hello everyone, my husband and I are new to sailing and this is my first post so hope I am in the right area... ��

We are just about to close on a Pearson 365 sloop and there is no actual table set up for dining... just 2 individual small flip up tables kiddie corner from each other. This provides a nice open feel...but we are used to eating, playing cards etc at the same table.

There are just the 2 of us, my question is “how often do you end up having dinner guests on board” a rather small sailboat...and is there a need for a larger dining table.

I probably have the lingo wrong...and I have searched online and in forums and cannot seem to find references as to the frequency of extra diners in the salon.

Any ideas from you experienced ones out there?

First of all, as others have said, many cruisers find cruising to be very social, and frequently have dinner guests. I am one of those, and for me it's a great pleasure. I certainly have dinner guests more often in the boat than I do on land.

Second -- I actually owned a P365, about a million years ago. You are missing the standard salon table which folds down against the mast base. You should try to find one of those, or have one made. Look at photos of other P365s and you'll see what it looks like. Get rid of the TV dinner type tables (burn them), and get a proper salon table -- you will want that for all kinds of purposes.

With the normal fold-down table you can easily and comfortable seat 4 people and have a nice multicourse dinner. The P365 is not such a small boat, and has quite a good galley for a boat that size so entirely feasible to have a dinner party for 4.

But most often, depending on the climate, you will be entertaining your guests in the cockpit, not below. The P365 cockpit table is actually a little small for that but you can manage 4 people.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

. . . If you are out on the move, expecting friends to travel to you, sounds great but we've found it just doesn't happen very often, so then it becomes a question of are you going to invite people you met a day or two ago in for dinner?. . .

A day or two ago? How about 10 minutes ago?



A fairly large proportion of cruisers find themselves being much more social, and much more outgoing, when "out there", than they were on land.

It's very common to invite or be invited by total strangers you've only exchanged 10 words, for sundowners. And if you still like them after sundowners, you ask them to stay for dinner. This happens constantly on my boat and I think it's a pretty common experience. There are a couple of possible reasons why it is common -- first of all, you feel freerer when you're out cruising and exploring new places, than when you are stuck in your land routine. Second, you automatically have a lot in common with any given other cruiser, so it's almost certain you will have something to talk about. Just like how we chew the fat here on CF.

One of the most delightful evenings like that I spent recently was on the island of Gotland, in the small harbor town of Faro, resulting from an encounter -- in a supermarket! I heard some people speaking Russian, which I thought was quite odd in such an out of the way place, so I listened to their conversation for a while, then casually started speaking to them in Russian as if it were nothing unusual, which made them first jump, then laugh (the first seconds were horror -- wondering what I had overheard -- they of course assumed no one could understand anything they were saying to each other -- always a dangerous assumption). So we asked each other what we were doing there (they were car tourists, from St. Petersburg), and after 3 minutes of conversation I invited them over. And we had an absolutely fantastic evening -- the husband turned out to be an extremely erudite history buff, with interest in similar periods as my interests, and we talked about history until the wee hours and over several empty vodka bottles.

This is the kind of stuff which makes life worthwhile. If you set your boat up, and provision, such that you can have people over spontaneously, it greatly enrichens the cruising experience.

[desodave]

Originally Posted by rmlarson1098

6 for drinks, 4 for dining, 2 to sleep. Maximum! Except in emergencies of course. Stick to it.

Nice looking boat ... but I would agree with those who say find/have made the standard drop down table. You won't be happy with the current set-up imo even if you never have guests. My admiral wouldn't even consider it for the two of us.

What sort of use do you plan? It makes a difference. We are just north of where the boat is located ( you too?) and cruise the Desolation Sound/Discovery Islands area - and hardly ever tie up at a marina outside of our own home location. You don't have a lot of guests if you're anchored out regularly, maybe another couple. You may tie up at marinas a bit more in the Southern Gulf Islands and, if that suits you, you may have more social interactions and group dinners. As others have said, it's more likely sitting around in the cockpit on a nice evening.

[Sailing Shelly]

Originally Posted by guyrj33

There is a current thread on the pearson-boats google group discussing various tables.

How do I find that thread? Apologies...not quite sure ...

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

A day or two ago? How about 10 minutes ago?

A fairly large proportion of cruisers find themselves being much more social, and much more outgoing, when "out there", than they were on land.

It's very common to invite or be invited by total strangers you've only exchanged 10 words, for sundowners. And if you still like them after sundowners, you ask them to stay for dinner. This happens constantly on my boat and I think it's a pretty common experience. There are a couple of possible reasons why it is common -- first of all, you feel freerer when you're out cruising and exploring new places, than when you are stuck in your land routine. Second, you automatically have a lot in common with any given other cruiser, so it's almost certain you will have something to talk about. Just like how we chew the fat here on CF.

One of the most delightful evenings like that I spent recently was on the island of Gotland, in the small harbor town of Faro, resulting from an encounter -- in a supermarket! I heard some people speaking Russian, which I thought was quite odd in such an out of the way place, so I listened to their conversation for a while, then casually started speaking to them in Russian as if it were nothing unusual, which made them first jump, then laugh (the first seconds were horror -- wondering what I had overheard -- they of course assumed no one could understand anything they were saying to each other -- always a dangerous assumption). So we asked each other what we were doing there (they were car tourists, from St. Petersburg), and after 3 minutes of conversation I invited them over. And we had an absolutely fantastic evening -- the husband turned out to be an extremely erudite history buff, with interest in similar periods as my interests, and we talked about history until the wee hours and over several empty vodka bottles.

This is the kind of stuff which makes life worthwhile. If you set your boat up, and provision, such that you can have people over spontaneously, it greatly enrichens the cruising experience.

As said...it all depends.

Sundowners cockpit, BBQ on the beach or meet up at the marina pub...sure. That's not uncommon after just meeting someone for a short period of time and it can often be a great social event.

And yes, there are those stray situations where things just click but again, it DEPENDS.

As a general rule, we don't invite people to a full dinner on the boat when we've just met. Though some close cruising friends, we met when they showered in our cockpit on the wall in Joilet Il. We went around stringing hoses together to get to the park water tap (the guy from the city said it was fine) but we couldn't reach their boat with the hoses, so we hung up some towels to block the view and ran the hose thru the cockpit cover and all took turns taking showers....afterwards we put together dinner an ate inside as it was 95F and we were able to run the air/con...but that's the exception not the rule.

[Sailing Shelly]

Originally Posted by desodave

Nice looking boat ... but I would agree with those who say find/have made the standard drop down table. You won't be happy with the current set-up imo even if you never have guests. My admiral wouldn't even consider it for the two of us.

What sort of use do you plan? It makes a difference. We are just north of where the boat is located ( you too?) and cruise the Desolation Sound/Discovery Islands area - and hardly ever tie up at a marina outside of our own home location. You don't have a lot of guests if you're anchored out regularly, maybe another couple. You may tie up at marinas a bit more in the Southern Gulf Islands and, if that suits you, you may have more social interactions and group dinners. As others have said, it's more likely sitting around in the cockpit on a nice evening.

Hi DesoDave, we are located in Sooke so will be cruising the area, gulf islands and up to Desolation Sound with hopes to one day go down to the Sea of Cortez....

[guyrj33]

Originally Posted by Sailing Shelly

How do I find that thread? Apologies...not quite sure ...

https://groups.google.com/g/pearson-boats/c/HT97I_PcHmE
https://groups.google.com/g/pearson-boats/c/vbOc2Fyi15M

[Seaworthy Lass]

Things are different when you are cruising full time a long way from home. By necessity, you either strike up friendships quickly, or you end up not socialising at all.

If we wanted company in the Med I simply swam over to the closest cruising boat and invited them over for drinks. As I always served food with drinks, this usually just naturally progressed to an impromptu dinner. Meals were always in the cockpit, we rarely ate inside.

One sailing holiday in Australia we were treated to a wonderful evening on board a Buizen. The owners followed the principle that it was the onus of the largest yacht in an anchorage to invite the smallest over for dinner. We happened to be the lucky littlest boat there at the time . So this is not just a European thing.

Sailing creates instant bonds. Good friendships can be been struck in a surprisingly short time. Although paths don’t tend to often cross, it is an absolute joy then seeing friends sailing into an anchorage. We have found lunches with French sailors can sometimes evolve into 18 hour parties after long absences .

[SaltyMetals]

A lot has been very validly said already but i would go one step further. Yes, i often invite people onboard for a drink which sometimes ends up as being dinner together but you cannot always use the cockpit. Sometimes there is a howling wind, other times too cold, so you need the option to be able to entertain in the protected confines of the saloon. I said, one step futher. Well what happens when you strike up friendships in an anchorage or marina is that you might get invited to join them on their boat for a meal. You need to be able to reciprocate.
Andrew

[rondelais]

We have a Pearson 365 (ketch in our case) and there is a mahogany table that is hinged on the bulkhead that separates the Salon from the shower. It folds longitudinally down the middle, so when it is down a leaf folds up to form the port side of the table. There are folding legs under each half. When folded, the legs are inside the sandwich made by the two sides, and the finished tops face both the bulkhead and the salon. It is thus out of the way when the salon is being used for dining. The table does not quite reach across to the port side settee, so we slide the settee out (like you do to use it as a bunk) to get your legs under the table. We can sit six comfortably. As others have mentioned, we do most entertaining in the cockpit, which is large on the P365. We have a cockpit table that fits between the mizzen and the binnacle, and also folds against the binnacle. It will only seat four for dinner, but will hold lots of horses d’ouvres at cocktail hour. BTW, the big cockpit is great for entertaining, at 8 feet long. We have had 17 on board for cocktails (yes, I do have 18 PFDs).
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