Barbeques on boats. Worth having?

Thank you for your concern...I'm pleased you are happy with your choice, but I am also happy with mine - & OP can make up his own mind.

I am horrifed that I seem to have caused offence by making the case for a particular solution that happens to suit me. If you took this as any criticism, Searush, I apologise: your choice is clearly just as much the right one for you as mine is for me. I simply meant to add a contribution about the merits of a different solution for a different situation.
 
Yes most certainly, Catch a fish throw it on the BBQ we have a clamp on one that sits on the stern - works a treat!! 40ft yacht.

We made a custom bbq an adaption from a B&Q bbq.

From a cleaning view point, dont have one anywhere near teak decking!!!
 
Thank you for all your comments. We do not have gas on board so the choice of some of you is not an option for us. As we have an excellent Origo cooker, and will not be visiting particularly hot places, cooking outside won't be an imperative.

The idea of simplicity appeals. I think that a demountable rail bracket, to hold cheap disposable charcoal containers, may be best for us. I wonder if the disposable BBQs are all the same size?

Major C - your link to Mailspeed is appreciated.
 
This year I am buying a £20 barbie bracket I can use with one of the many 99p disposable BBQs I got from Lidl - no not the same ones sold by the leading supermarkets for £3 to £5, but the identical ones Lidl sells at a fraction of the price.

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Very handy. Quick dunk into the water when done and pop it into the waste bag for later disposal.

Don't buy any from the pound shop!, They are useless, very difficult to light and last about 15 mins when you eventually get them lit (with lots of lighting gel!)

I'll try the Lidl ones though!
 
Don't buy any from the pound shop!, They are useless, very difficult to light and last about 15 mins when you eventually get them lit (with lots of lighting gel!)

I'll try the Lidl ones though!

I bought 20 Lidl ones four years ago. They live in the boat's cellar.

Last year, when we had that brief summer in May, on two consecutive weekends we had a beach BBQ using the Lidl disposables.

Even after four years in a damp boat, they lit as advertised.

Just found this picture from a BBQ we had last April in Cornwall.

Two Lidl BBQ's with the addition of aluminium BBQ pans. Cooked to perfection and downed with a nice columbard.

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We then dunked them in the sea and disposed of them in the car park bin.
 
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The bar b ques you fit to the stern rail are pretty nearly usless, there always seems to be a wind when at anchor and it turns the thing into a furnace, you could smelt steel with it, the Cobb one seems very good as you can put it anywhere, I watched a dutch boat use one next to me last year and it appeared to do a really good job.
 
The bar b ques you fit to the stern rail are pretty nearly usless, there always seems to be a wind when at anchor and it turns the thing into a furnace, you could smelt steel with......

P'raps a bit of an exaggeration, as these things are made of steel (mostly stainless) :)

The only (and annoying) problem I ever had with my pushpit mounted gas bbq was the flame blowing out regularly in a breeze.

With the Magma charcoal bbq, all you have to do to control the draft/temperature is operate the vents in the lid correctly. The lids on these things stay put in near gale force conditions.
 
Another vote for the Magma, I used a t-piece off my gas bottles to connect up to the barbie and it worked a treat. Guess it depends on where you are. In the Caribbean as liveaboards we used it nearly every day mind you cleaning it at the end of the season was fun.
We saw many a charter boat with the charcoal variety and had endless amusement watching them attempt to set fire to their hair/biminis/children. Cleaning them can be a pain as well, the ash seems to have an affinity to fibreglass.
 
We bought one of these http://www.boatbq.co.uk/ last year.

It's not cheap but it appears to be well made and just needs a dunk in the sea for cleaning. Unlike the fixed BBQs in the Caribbean it packs up into a small box which means you don't keep banging into it!

We used Tesco disposable BBQ's and only had problems one one occasion when we could not get the charcoal to burn evenly so we had to keep moving the chicken and sausage around (I almost fed the fish on a couple of occasions!)

Richard
 
We have had various barbecues on board for many years. Began with a Magma charcoal one. It's a good bit of kit that produces excellent meals. Its disadvantages are that it takes some time to develop sufficient heat, then takes hours to cool down, during which the weather may change, leading to various difficulties. Disposal of the remains is also not easy, unless done the following morning, not always convenient for reasons of weather, tide, passage plan, etc. All of this is fine if it's for the purposes of occasional social occasions, but not so in hot climates where it is a very necessary and frequent extension to the galley.

So now we use one of these
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Gas fired with lava lumps. Taste is indistinguishable from the charcoal version, it takes 5 minutes to warm up and can be packed away when we have finished eating. Runs on Camping Gaz, sits on a couple of old pieces of laminate floor to keep fat off the seating. Works in all sorts of wind, we have barbecued in 40 knots. It cost £19 from a camping shop but is available for less. Much cleaner and easier than a charcoal one.

looks like the maggots have got at your peppers!
 
We used Tesco disposable BBQ's and only had problems one one occasion when we could not get the charcoal to burn evenly so we had to keep moving the chicken and sausage around (I almost fed the fish on a couple of occasions!)

Richard

Our BBQ also uses disposables. We tried Tesco's ones and had similar problems. At the recommendation of a friend we switched to Morrisons make. Much better as they have a lot more charcoal in the same size container.
 
Our BBQ also uses disposables. We tried Tesco's ones and had similar problems. At the recommendation of a friend we switched to Morrisons make. Much better as they have a lot more charcoal in the same size container.

H'mm that's interesting - I thought it was just my incompetence! We've got a Morrisons and a Lidl and an Aldi so I feel a comparative disposable BBQ-test coming on (the warm (ish) weather arrives in the middle of next week apparently!)

Richard
 
Was in St. John in the US Virgin Islands a few years ago (2001). Yacht, cooking with Barbecue, caught fire, burnt out and sank.

Luckily, it was a charter yacht.

Hope this helps.
 
Like Searush, I use a s/s barrel bbq. Last year however the legs were badly corroded so I took them off and u-bolted the thing to the pushpit. Worked a treat. never use it unless the wind is on or near enough on the bow. Tried to use it once anchored off Sark. The wind kept on clocking through 360 degrees. Gave that one up !!:)

Chris
 
P'raps a bit of an exaggeration, as these things are made of steel (mostly stainless) :)

The only (and annoying) problem I ever had with my pushpit mounted gas bbq was the flame blowing out regularly in a breeze.

With the Magma charcoal bbq, all you have to do to control the draft/temperature is operate the vents in the lid correctly. The lids on these things stay put in near gale force conditions.

Surely not an exageration!
The barbeque I was refering to was a charcoal Magma, its sitting in my garage after only being used 3 times - it just was not suitable, you can operate the vents to your hearts content, it still got far too hot to use in any breeze and sadly invariably when we wanted to barbeque there was a breeze, the pushpit was just too exposed a position
 
Another vote for Magma. Gas - bought the whole lot on Ebay including the adapter kit to us Calor bottle - lasts forever. Have been using it every other day and now I have the bendy type of gas lighter - I will use it every day. Even have hand picked lava rocks (go for a walk in Lanzarote) now! Effortless BBQ and its solid SS so a bit of metal polish from time to time keeps the outside gleaming - as for the inside that's where the flavour gets added innit?
 
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