Is a gimballed stove really necessary?

[Frank Holden]

Re the metacentre -- you would have to set it up for a SBP ( standard british pot ) half full of a nice vindaloo .
Frypan with bacon and eggs she will be a little stiff, big pot full of burgoo it will be a little tender, but all within acceptable limits.

 

[geem]

Having just arrived in St Martin from Curacao, a distance of over 500 nm to windward and against the current I can't speak highly enough of our three burner gimballed cooker with pan clamps. We didn't stop and heave to to cook. We didn't reduce sail to improve the angle of dangle. We just kept sailing at 10 to 20 degrees. Food was prepared and tea was made without fuss or concern. You cannot do the same without a good gimballed stove

 

[Kukri]

Re the metacentre -- you would have to set it up for a SBP ( standard british pot ) half full of a nice vindaloo .
Frypan with bacon and eggs she will be a little stiff, big pot full of burgoo it will be a little tender, but all within acceptable limits.

That’s pretty much how it came from the makers. Base plate was c. 5/8” cast iron, and the friction in the pivots damped any excessive swing.

I had two at one time - sold one with the boat it was in and gave the other away. Haven’t seen one in years, now.

 

[Wansworth]

Once upon a time there was a thing called “Mol-Con” gimbals. A pair of cast iron rings one inside the other pivoted at 90 degrees on a pair of substantial cast iron “A” brackets. Picture a bucket sized gimballed cabin oil lamp. These took a single old style Primus stove.

They solved Frank’s problem of the location of the métacentre perfectly, and could be used in all weather conditions in which one might think of eating.

They weighed half a hundredweight and took only a single burner Primus but you could put a kettle or a pan on them.

Having been taken on as cook by HW Tilman I found he had a foot in both camps as the single burner Primus in Mol-Con gimbals was accompanied in the galley by a two burner Taylor’s bolted down rigidly. The kettle and the pressure cooker went here, held down with wire springs, and anything needing an open pan went on the Mol-Con gimbals.

Brilliant set up, born of HWT’s fairly vast experience.

I used to have one of those in my 15oceangirdler brilliant bit of kit

 

[Praxinoscope]

IIRC there was a French boat reviewed a few years ago where the hull stayed level, but the whole rig rotated around the hull to ‘heel’ in windy conditions. That might yet rank as the most technically complex and expensive solution to the whole gimbal/not to gimbal debate!

Errrm, I think I’ll stick to the gimballed stove, it’s simple, cheap ( unless for an Origo) relatively trouble free and works under most conditions.
Have only ever had one stove not gimballed and tgat was in our first boat ((Leisure17) where we fitted the stove on the cabin sole just under the companionway, the low level helped to keep things in place but was murder on the knees.