dinning onboard

[adelaidem]

Is it possible to use porcelain dinning plates onboard or should melamine plates only be used?

 

[squidge]

It depends on your storage. We have been able to use porcelain for years, the full set . They are in a built in plate holder with a T slot and suffer more from washing up dammage than a rough sea.
Why dose food always tast better when eaten from a proper plate?

 

[adelaidem]

Thats what im thinking,and also finding it hard to find quality melamine dinner sets, have cut T slots and am thinking about using upolstery HD foam cut out to the shape of the plates to stop them from sliding.

 

[Nauti Fox]

[ QUOTE ]
Is it possible to use porcelain dinning plates onboard or should melamine plates only be used?

[/ QUOTE ]

I believe plastic plates are compulsory on yachts with finer crockery used on mobo's /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[AngusMcDoon]

You could go for a compromise and get some of the French Arc stuff. This is made from toughened opaque coloured glass. It's virtually indestructible, won't scratch or stain like Melamine, and has the feel of porcelain when eating/drinking from it. Arc is a group of companies making crockery and glasses, and have various brand names, like Luminarc, Arcopal and Arcoroc.

You can get sets of Arc crockery from some bigger chandlers, but as usual, it's cheaper to go to a big caravan supply shop, and buy it there instead.

Here's an example, as sold by Compass Watersports, amongst other places...

 

[jerryat]

Hi southace,

We're just getting rid of our melamine plates and replacing 'em with china ones. As Squidge says, food does seem to taste better eaten from china. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Our problem so far, has been finding small 'full'size' plates to fit our 'T' slots. Most are just too big. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Still, we'll go on searching. Got half a dozen nice secondhand pinky coloured melamine ones, with only a few scratches on 'em if you're interested!!! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Cheers Jerry

 

[adelaidem]

Yes well I cut slots at 270mm ,200mm ,150mm today so looks like I will be shopping around now too!

 

[robind]

Christ! go to a car boot sale and buy a dinner service for a tenner and chuck it over the side at the end of the season. By chuck it over the side I, of course mean, pack it up in a nice box and put it in the marina bin /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif))
Rob

 

[poter]

Melamine....yuk.

Go into woolworths & get a dinner set & proper wine glasses.

poter.

 

[TigaWave]

We had a full china set and nice glass wine glasses on our last Atlantic circuit, with no breakages. When sailing they're packed in lockers with thin foam between each plate to stop any noise. Wine glasses were stored in the original packing.

For sailing we use wooden plates, the best thing about them is the food doesn't slip so easily on wood as it does on shiny plastic. For really rough weather bowls with sealable lids that can be passed up to the cockpit without any risk of spilling.

 

[Talbot]

We have a full set of arcopal crockery (from Caravan shop) just as good as porcelain for dining in splendour, but much less prone to breakage. Thoroughly recommend it.

 

[Rigger]

Cant beat dog-bowls IMHO !!

 

[jerryat]

Hi robind!

Good idea and it's been done! Trouble is the 'main' plate diameters are always too big. Our 'T' slot aperature is 257mm and our existing plastic plates are 247mm, so no problem, but it seems most 'standard' plate sizes are around the 270mm mark. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Yes, we can get the next size down, but that's really too small to feed a hungry crew! I think we'll look into the arcopal stuff mentioned by a couple of the posters and see if there's a suitable size in the range. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I know I could cut out a wider slot, but I'm loath to do that 'cos the joinery is in such perfect condition and it's in a very awkward place to achieve a perfect matching finish. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Cheers Jerry

 

[Guest]

I know a guy / boat that uses ...........................

Doggie bowls !!!

Yep -seriously ...... Doggie bowls .... the type that has the rubber bit around the bottom to stop it sliding when Fido's trying to get that last bit out !!!

His are in ceramic ... but you can get in stainless and other varieties ........... certainly brighten up the conversation when inviting people back for Fray Bentos !!!

/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[squidge]

Re: I know a guy / boat that uses ...........................

If you are after "disposable" China then Tesco sell some very cheep white plates at around a £1 each. Also being cheep they are a little smaller than the more expensive ones so they may fit in your plate holder.
Buy one and test it?

 

[capt_courageous]

What is Melamine ?

 

[reginaldon]

I wonder which the people of Niger would prefer.

 

[john_morris_uk]

Galleyslave.com do some nice plates in a better than average Melamine - at least better than the ones you can get from the average chandler!

I can't do a proper URL link as the MOD computer won't allow me to search for 'Galleyslave' for some reason!!!

We still use proper wine glasses though!

 

[Lakesailor]

[ QUOTE ]

I believe plastic plates are compulsory on yachts with finer crockery used on mobo's

[/ QUOTE ] But cutlery not required. Too difficult to use. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[tcm]

Quite right. Whereas yachties have full set of knives and forks. Yachties also have a handy leatherman, special knives for cutting anchors loose, full set of tools with a variety of screwdrivers, sail repair kit.... the important similarity is that with all these items you can stab people in the back!