To what extent is a gimballed stove necessary?

[wingssail]

My boat is my home. It has a kitchen. I wouldn't think of having a home where the kitchen is not usable some of the time.

Even if we were not doing long passages it is handy to be able to heat a pot of water or cook a whole meal while underway. We are not camping out. Gimbals are necessary for safety.

Here is a observation: My coffee pot sits on the gimballed stove 24/7. Often it is half full. When we go racing or sailing we don't do anything with it, it just sits there half full of coffee.

The next morning if I want to I can heat up the coffee from the previous morning which just sailed around the bay un-attended.

AND, in really rough weather the gimballed stove is the only place you can put something down and have it stay there without spilling or flying off.

Put ANYTHING on the counter, fiddles or not, the second you take your hand off of it, GONE!. So you put it on the stove top.

[Spot]

Originally Posted by Pete7

That's ridiculous, you try these, but an hour in the shed with some plate and a drill will probably produce the same thing:

https://www.norfolkmarine.co.uk/lp-s...500-oven-units

I like the idea of pillow blocks, but would have used flat diving weights instead of his round bar.

Pete

Pete, those look pretty good:


Here are the 'stock' ones:







Seems like the big trick is the two sheets that go from stove to gimbal.
Rather than bend the sheet I was thinking of using a bar stock spacer and a flat sheet. Seems like a(nother) visit to the machine shop at work is in order...

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by hafa

A gimballed stove will stay level in relation to the beam regardless of variation of heel. I can put a cup of coffee on the stove surface on a close reach in 25 knot winds on 14' seas and nary a drop will be spilled.

My experience as well. When I was doing deliveries I was often at sea for a week or three non stop and under every point of sail and sea condition possible, well not in hurricanes and and major storms but everything up to that. Even when not cooking but just doing food prep I would use the stove top as a work surface since that was the only place I could set a bowl that wouldn't end up flying across the cabin.

Most of the time I never even had to use the pot rails and clamps, just set the pots on the stove.

Day sailing or weekending I can see going without hot food but a couple of weeks at sea a hot meal is heavenly.

[hafa]

Another feature that I've found very helpful while working at the stove while underway is the adjustable belt with "D" rings that is set at a diagonal in relation to the stove. It provides a sturdy, yet flexible surface to lean back into, so that you can easily work with both hands while at the stove, even in rough seas while healed over.

[Spot]

I forgot the other obligatory picture of Origo / Dometic gimbals:

[inchcailloch]

Little........if you have a Cat. Otherwise essential for safety and comfort in my experience

[Clivevon]

Another feature that I've found very helpful while working at the stove while underway is the adjustable belt with "D" rings that is set at a diagonal in relation to the stove. It provides a sturdy, yet flexible surface to lean back into, so that you can easily work with both hands while at the stove, even in rough seas while healed over.
If you do that, PLEASE ensure you are wearing high cut oilskin trousers, tucked outside high boots, to minimise the scalding risk.

Also am a bit surprised by the OPs question - how else can you make tea on passage ??
No, a thermos will not do it - the water has to be boiling...

[stormalong]

Originally Posted by hafa

Another feature that I've found very helpful while working at the stove while underway is the adjustable belt with "D" rings that is set at a diagonal in relation to the stove. It provides a sturdy, yet flexible surface to lean back into, so that you can easily work with both hands while at the stove, even in rough seas while healed over.

Not a good idea unless you wear a rubber apron. A spilled pot of boiling water will scald you. With the strap in place you won't be able to get away from it fast enough.

[sinnerman]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Sailing Uma did a YT video of them ripping out there old fixed has hob and replacing it with a gimballed Origo. They then fitted it to a sliding unit so it slides out of the way when not in use. Okay a bit OTT, but you might copy there gimballed mechanism.

Even coastal sailing we need a gimballed stove, not just to make tea which is so important but to cook too.



Sounds like the

, mad as a box of frogs that lot.

Pete

It will be difficult to find a non-pressurized alcohol stove like the Origo since they no longer manufacture them. Maybe a used one on Ebay (?). I would go with a mini bottle propane stove. Gas is cheap at $5.00 per gas cylinder...

[newhaul]

My defender circumnavigation with a fixed pressure alcohol that is now propane never was an issue thats what fiddles are for.

[OS2Dude]

It is not even a matter of cooking underway. A boat can rock for various reasons and in various locations. A boat at a slip in a high wind and/or waves will rock. Same for a boat on a mooring let alone a boat under sail. Then you have those boats with a 'built in' list, like like Catalina 30's infamous Port List.

Is it necessary to have a gimble cooktop/stove? No, lots of folks don't. (A PO removed the gimbled stove from our 1985 Catalina 30.) If possible to have one they do come in handy.

[mvmojo]

If you're not long distance passage-making, you can pre-prepare enough food for a couple days and avoid the need for a gimbal stove. We used to make food ahead for a 3 day passage between Vz and the USVI and just re-heat in the microwave. But, if you're going to be underway 24/7 for more than a few days a gimbal stove is a necessity in my opinion.

[Rigdaddy]

Originally Posted by hafa

A gimballed stove will stay level in relation to the beam regardless of variation of heel. I can put a cup of coffee on the stove surface on a close reach in 25 knot winds on 14' seas and nary a drop will be spilled.

I depend on the gimbal feature of my Luke Heritage stove to keep the heated contents of various pots and pans, in those pots/pans and off of me. It is appreciated at anchor almost as much as when on passage.

[CassidyNZ]

Originally Posted by stormalong

Not a good idea unless you wear a rubber apron. A spilled pot of boiling water will scald you. With the strap in place you won't be able to get away from it fast enough.

In all the years of sailing/voyaging, we have always had a gimballed stove with decent pot clamps and a “bum harness” that makes it possible to safely stand not only at the stove but generally in the galley and allows both hands free to do stuff.

Not once, not ever, did we have anything fly off the stove, spill, splash onto the cook. But more than once, after neglecting to use the harness, a person has been flung across the cabin, sometimes with the pot, while tending a pot of hot something using both hands.

If one wants to tend boiling pots with one hand while holding on with the other, good luck to you. But not on my boat. As far as I’m concerned, the use of the galley harness while working at the stove in any sailing conditions other than a gentle downwind meander, is mandatory. As is the rule to never fill any device used on the stove (or the galley sinks ) to more than 50%.

YMMV

To the OP, if you’re not sailing on trips long enough to need a cooked meal, gimbals are not necessary. Thermos flasks do the trick for hot drinks on shorter trips and to install gimbals just because the water for tea “has to be boiled” - well, what can I say?

[CassidyNZ]

Originally Posted by Spot

I forgot the other obligatory picture of Origo / Dometic gimbals:

I was given a set of these, never figured out what they were . Seems they’re locking gimbals?

I have simple top- mounted swivels with a sideways-sliding bolt at the bottom/front of the stove which engages with the cabinetry alongside when gimballing is not required.