Is a gimballed stove really necessary?

[capnsensible]

Trouble is that even a stable boat will roll in a sea & liquids inside a pan will slop from side to side. I agree fully about heaving too. Unfortunately my boat will not heave too, which is its biggest fault, Especially being SH 95% of the time

And on the 8th day, God invented Fray Bentos pies.

 

[lustyd]

And on the 8th day, God invented Fray Bentos pies.

Arguably Fray Bentos pies are proof that god doesn't exist

 

[Frank Holden]

I have a SMEV 'caravan quality' stove with 'caravan quality' gimbals to match.
I also try and sail flat as 'flat is fast' or so I have been told.
In my view gimbals will only work if the stove is well ballasted with the correct GM - not too stiff not too tender - which in my case would involve 3 or 4 house bricks in the oven so goodbye oven.
But otherwise it will be top heavy and hopeless.
So I use my gimbals to 'level up' the stove. If she is rolling from upright to 10 degrees I will lock the gimbals at 5 degrees.

 

[geem]

I have a SMEV 'caravan quality' stove with 'caravan quality' gimbals to match.
I also try and sail flat as 'flat is fast' or so I have been told.
In my view gimbals will only work if the stove is well ballasted with the correct GM - not too stiff not too tender - which in my case would involve 3 or 4 house bricks in the oven so goodbye oven.
But otherwise it will be top heavy and hopeless.
So I use my gimbals to 'level up' the stove. If she is rolling from upright to 10 degrees I will lock the gimbals at 5 degrees.

Our stove is a 3 ring Dometic with oven and grill. It's heavy and works brilliantly with gimbals

 

[lustyd]

Our stove is a 3 ring Dometic with oven and grill. It's heavy and works brilliantly with gimbals

Ours is a 4 ring and it's utterly stupid because pans are at the front or the back and tip the whole cooker if gimballed. Great for a proper roast dinner though...

 

[geem]

Ours has one big ring in the middle on the left and two smaller rings front and back on the right. The space around the large ring on the left is great for putting cups of tea on whilst gimballed. Never spilt a cuppa.
I have never thought about a balance problem with the cooker so may be a heavy cooker with a low c of g is a good thing whish I am guessing ours must have

 

[Arcady]

I have never thought about a balance problem with the cooker so may be a heavy cooker with a low c of g is a good thing whish I am guessing ours must have

I acquired a boat once in which the hob only was gimballed. Even with the most modest of saucepans on top, the whole thing had a propensity to turn turtle at the slightest provocation. It really needed a heavy counterweight on a lower arm - for which you might as well read ‘oven’.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

I acquired a boat once in which the hob only was gimballed. Even with the most modest of saucepans on top, the whole thing had a propensity to turn turtle at the slightest provocation. It really needed a heavy counterweight on a lower arm - for which you might as well read ‘oven’.

Gimbals in the wrong place too low down.

 

[johnalison]

We haven't often used our gimbals over the years and one of our boats had a fixed Origo cooker. Generally we only do proper cooking in harbour or in quiet conditions, often motoring, but I am very proud of the galley strap fixing points that I put in, three in all with one almost impossible to access from behind. It strikes me that, if it hasn't already been said, a pressure cooker would provide a secure way of cooking on top under way.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

Necessity becomes the mother of invention, if you do enough offshore passage making and like to eat reasonably then a gimballed cooker is a necessity as are pan clamps.
The only problem I never resolved other than using the securing bolt to clamp the stove was when opening the drop down oven doors of various manufacturers ovens the weight of the door would tip the oven forwards and jettison whatever was in there either on the cabin sole or the galley slave. You didn't do it more than once but it was a trick if used carefully could slide whatever was cooking forwards to help in its removal from the oven.

 

[oldmanofthehills]

Our previous boat had a gimballed cooker and it was a revelation. Dinner could be slowly cooked underway - as it was an Origo meths stove quick cooking was out. However skirt of beef stewed for an hour gave us one of our best meals ever as we tidied up the boat on arriving at the anchorage late. The necessary tea could be brewed even in choppy water etc. We did have one near disaster when a 2.5m wave smashed the bow down at greater acceleration than gravity leaving our curry pan in freefall heading sideways towards a thankfully clean bucket, but nothing is fool proof and perhaps the pan grips were not tight enough.

Our current boat, an LM27, came with fixed stove. Well all i can think is that Baltic sailers dont go out in chop or only make short hops between harbours. She rolls under power or sail and my new expensive pan grips failed to contain the matter - those that came with the boat failed even worse. I must say I dread the idea of a pressure cooker flying loose and showering our wheel house in hot steam, so not enamoured of johnalisons suggestion.

As it happened the LM built in stove was defective and pans got sooty so old stove cut out and space now filled with Dometic 2 burner + grill unit. Bought a £70 gimball set (probably could have constructed similar but time is money) Mounted them high on stove by drilling holes, and all now well. We had to adjust the balance point as optimum position for empty stove was not quite right with Le Creuset or kettle on top, but its only a few more holes.

Only copes well with 15 degrees of heel but beyond that navigator thinks I am a/ racing, b/reckless so no cooking permited

 

[RunAgroundHard]

... a pressure cooker would provide a secure way of cooking on top under way.

Not when the instructions for a lentil Curry stated soak over night / 5 minutes in pressure cooker. The actual instruction was either soak over night or 5 minutes in a pressure cooker. Soaked overnight lentils placed in a pressure cooker erupted out the steam vent, vegan napalm. The ceiling splatter was spectacular. Glad there were no gimbals in use.

 

[rotrax]

Our stove is a 3 ring Dometic with oven and grill. It's heavy and works brilliantly with gimbals

As does our Force 10. We cook and re-heat quite substantial food and drink when on passage. The pan clamps work well too.

 

[Stemar]

Arguably Fray Bentos pies are proof that god doesn't exist

Or His punishment for those lacking in discernment

 

[Loopy]

Let me caveat that question: Is a gimballed stove really necessary on a modern, wide-beamed yacht where the angle of heel is seldom more that 10 to 15 degrees when sailing

Thoughts please?!

You can always gimbal the hull by adding a bridgedeck and a second one...

 

[Arcady]

You can always gimbal the hull by adding a bridgedeck and a second one...

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!

 

[mjcoon]

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!

Yes, that was the rig and keel that rotated. An extension of the canting keel idea, if you like...

 

[Kukri]

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.

 

[Kelpie]

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.

Didn't Tillman throw the Taylors over the side in the south Atlantic?

 

[mjcoon]

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.

Don't understand how they could "[solve the] problem of the location of the metacentre perfectly" regardless of the weight or height of what was placed on the burner! The comment about the "two burner Taylor’s bolted down rigidly" suggests it was really just the case for a shallow open pan.