Practical "Tableware" (ie Not All Over the Deck Ware) when Underway

[Slowboat35]

Like most of us, I expect, I have a tableware set of unbreakable melamine crockery onboard.
However underway and especially in more boisterous weather even conventional mugs, let alone plates and bowls become hard to manage, if not useless simply due to their stability. When solo I'm quite happpy to eat meals out of the saucepan but there are times when a little more decorum is needed, or I simply don't have enough saucepans to go around.

I've been looking for a while for more practical eating and drinking vessels for use in the cockpit or cabin in heavier weather. Trouble is almost all landlubbers seem to design these things with cutesey shapes tapered to a narrowed bottom. Now I like a narrow bottom as much as the next sailor but what's really needed at sea is mugs and bowls that are no less than parallel all the way down, unbreakable and of suffcient size to take a whole can of soup (or decent portion of stew or chilli) with room to spare for sloppage. My ideal yottie bowl would be a tall wide-bottomed dogbowl but with vertical sides inside, impossible to tip over. Mugs are easier to manage as a "muggie" mug holder is the perfect accessory.

I've just discovered a remarkably suitable range of plasticware made in Unzud by a company called "Systema" - and it's available easily and cheaply in UK!

I have no connection with these people whatsoever, just thought to pass on a (as yet untested) reccommendation for their stuff, the 'Microwave' range looks the mutts nuts to me, big, lidded square-bottomed mugs able to hold a meal, and the 'breakfast' containers that are more like bowls, but broad-based and stable, again with lids. Someof their other stuff looks similar to Lock 'n lock which I swear by, though I haven't examined it yet.

There we are, just a suggestion...

And btw, has anyone found that high-sided dog-bowl? I really do want one!

What are your favourite feeding-troughs when underway? Anyone found a range with a non-slip base? That's what's really needed.

 

[V1701]

I find that a stainless steel thermos vacuum food flask with a capacity of 1/2 litre serves me well as a food or beverage receptacle whilst under way...

 

[Hallberg-Rassy]

Dog bowls with rubber gaskets.You can buy silicone non-slip pet feeding mats too, just simple flat ones, that will stop plates slipping.

I'm not sure they are "decorous" but I've taken to the likes of a folding silicone bowl for something like a bigger salad bowl that you wouldn't want to carry if it didn't fold. Some come with sealable lids for storing cooked food.

If you then look into the infants or handicapped departments, you'll find other more human looking uses of the same non-slip or even suction-pad material.

 

[burgundyben]

Try the Sports Direct giant sized mug.

 

[Slowboat35]

Hey! This is encouraging!

Keep the ideas coming please!

 

[Clancy Moped]

Tiffin box, cutlery inc.

​

 

[Gwylan]

On our smaller boat we had some small melamine salad bowls. They we big enough to hold a decent portion and deep enough to stop the contents escaping.

Another hint is to buy cheap 'thermal' mugs and keep a set marked for soup. Being anal I numbered the mugs - that way you knew which was your soup, noodle or tea mug.
Also meant that washing up didn't need to happen until the weather got better or we arrived somewhere.
Mixing up your soup and you tea mug can have a pretty unpleasant on the taste of the tea - when drunk from the wrong mug.

Another 'fowl weather' dodge we hade was the cup holder.

I took a piece of ply and cut it to fit over one of the sinks and not slide about.
Then I traced around the base of the thermal mug and repeated this for 8 mugs.
Then routered 8 holes that would accept the mug to about 50% of its height.

Put the board over the sink, install the mugs in the holder then make your hot drink of choice. They stay upright do not spill at the last moment and are the safest way we found of making hot drinks under way. Can in fact be used as a tray to pass the drinks to the cockpit crew without undue risk.
Obviously if things were dire then we used the water out of the thermos. Usually we did not sail if the weather was that bad so rarely had the Thermos ready.

 

[rjandhl]

How about a dog bowl for long eared dogs, eg spaniels. The bowls are taller than usual. Plenty available on line.
Trixie Stainless Steel Long-Ear Dog Bowl - Huggle Pets

 

[Slowboat35]

Ach! Thanks - not! - for bringing up the concept of noodle-flavoured tea! Yerrcch!
I always pass hot drinks up in the washing-up bowl which fits the muggie perfectly. Pre muggie I just put them the bowl anyway, sometimes stabilised with a tea-towel, it's safe and saves mess.

Some of the suggested pet feeders are a bit of a revelation. Some look as if they have potential, the proces of some simply beggar belied - for a bloody dog-bowl, and as for those aimed at "our adventure companions" my stomach just churns at the soppy cheesiness...

15'angled bowl holders is a brilliant idea, but for sailing the bowls need to be parallel sided not hemispherical which will slop.
Getting closer though!

 

[Hallberg-Rassy]

15'angled bowl holders is a brilliant idea, but for sailing the bowls need to be parallel sided not hemispherical which will slop.

Do you mean Sistema? The microwave collection? Took me a minute to work out Unzud wasn't some kind of material I didn't know about.

Yes, the 15° angled bowl is cool, depending on how much your boat heels. Of course, the only downside to them is you have to buy two sets, one for a tack to port, the other for a tack to starboard. Otherwise, it's about as awkard as trying to use a left handed coffee mug.

I think you're touching on an interesting area that's not, excuse the pun, being catered for at present but which using present day materials could be done cheaply and easily. They need that inward curving lip to toss the slop back in, as on the green and white one.

Or you could stick to porage instead of soup.

The silicone spill stoppers are worth an honorable mention for pots as they double up as both foldable lids and somewhere to put hot pots on.

 

[pandos]

I have a fist of these, they stay rock solid in almost any weather once on a piece of non slip mat, keeps soup, coffee or noodles hot for ages... I use them to hold the pot noodle tub until time to eat and then tip the contents into the mug

Every Irish household has these soup recipe bowls in their cupboard

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

I have a fist of these, they stay rock solid in almost any weather once on a piece of non slip mat, keeps soup, coffee or noodles hot for ages... I use them to hold the pot noodle tub until time to eat and then tip the contents into the mug

Every Irish household has these soup recipe bowls in their cupboard

We have four of those; Onion, Mushroom, Tomato and Chicken . They came from my late mother-in-laws house. Must bring them to the boat.
Note for the edification of our non-Irish readers; Pandos refers to a "press" which is in fact an archaic Middle English word for a cupboard, which is still in vernacular use in Ireland . Shakespeare makes a pun on it in "Julius Caesar", when Brutus says that Cassius is " hidden in the press" , which could mean he is either in the crowd or in the cupboard?.

 

[Slowboat35]

Yes, the 15° angled bowl is cool, depending in how much your boat heels. Of course, the only downside to them is you have to buy two sets, one for a tack to port, the other for a tack to starboard. Otherwise, it's about as awkard as trying to use a left handed coffee mug.

I think you're touching on an interesting area that's not, excuse the pun, being catered for at present but which using present day materials could be done cheaply and easily. They need that inward curving lip to toss the slop back in, as on the green and white one.

Re 15' angled bowls - you are joking... of course...? The bowls can be tacked too...

Re inward turned bowls, best idea of the lot. An unbreakable (ie not porcelain) one of those in a 15' mount is exactly what we need!

 

[Hallberg-Rassy]

Re 15' angled bowls - you are joking... of course...? The bowls can be tacked too...

Self-tacking soup bowls are extra but you can find them in the same department along with fully gimbled fondue sets.

For anyone who doesn't believe such a thing exists, here's a nice vintage one that was taken from a Swiss trawler.

 

[LittleSister]

I am reminded of the Victorian yacht design that obviated the need for the sort of gadgetry described above: the whole of the saloon and accommodation was gimballed!

 

[NotBirdseye]

I am reminded of the Victorian yacht design that obviated the need for the sort of gadgetry described above: the whole of the saloon and accommodation was gimballed!

Yes well... victorian designs... see Titanic.

 

[LittleSister]

Yes well... victorian designs...

 

[Hallberg-Rassy]

Pah, the Titanic and Regina were Edwardian. The latter American to boot.

 

[geem]

We use Corelle dinner set. Plates, bowls etc for normal use at anchor. On passage we use large plastic bowls for one pot meals. Mugs are conventional. Cant stand drinking out of plastic mugs. Tea doesnt taste right.

 

[Sharky34]

Like most of us, I expect, I have a tableware set of unbreakable melamine crockery onboard.
However underway and especially in more boisterous weather even conventional mugs, let alone plates and bowls become hard to manage, if not useless simply due to their stability. When solo I'm quite happpy to eat meals out of the saucepan but there are times when a little more decorum is needed, or I simply don't have enough saucepans to go around.

I've been looking for a while for more practical eating and drinking vessels for use in the cockpit or cabin in heavier weather. Trouble is almost all landlubbers seem to design these things with cutesey shapes tapered to a narrowed bottom. Now I like a narrow bottom as much as the next sailor but what's really needed at sea is mugs and bowls that are no less than parallel all the way down, unbreakable and of suffcient size to take a whole can of soup (or decent portion of stew or chilli) with room to spare for sloppage. My ideal yottie bowl would be a tall wide-bottomed dogbowl but with vertical sides inside, impossible to tip over. Mugs are easier to manage as a "muggie" mug holder is the perfect accessory.

I've just discovered a remarkably suitable range of plasticware made in Unzud by a company called "Systema" - and it's available easily and cheaply in UK!

I have no connection with these people whatsoever, just thought to pass on a (as yet untested) reccommendation for their stuff, the 'Microwave' range looks the mutts nuts to me, big, lidded square-bottomed mugs able to hold a meal, and the 'breakfast' containers that are more like bowls, but broad-based and stable, again with lids. Someof their other stuff looks similar to Lock 'n lock which I swear by, though I haven't examined it yet.

There we are, just a suggestion...

And btw, has anyone found that high-sided dog-bowl? I really do want one!

What are your favourite feeding-troughs when underway? Anyone found a range with a non-slip base? That's what's really needed.

Waitrose used to sell them.