In the past two articles, we have discussed outfitting the galley and now we are going to take a look at an actual galley redo! SmarterSail is a 1996 Hunter 295 owned and operated by the St Petersburg based sailing school by the same name. The boat had just recently been relocated from their Annapolis, MD location to Florida. It is used for ASA certification instruction as well as charter, so the galley serves for quick food preparation during instruction and as a full galley while under charter. The school operates a maximum class size of 4 people, plus the instructor, and the boat sleeps 6 so we outfitted the galley for 6 people.
Starting out, we found there was a mix of utensils, cookware, dishes, drinkware, etc., primarily in the class of “kitchen castoffs”. Many of the items were not seaworthy materials and there were items on board that were never used. Dishes, cookware, utensils and food were stowed together in any available space. So, we set about to organize the galley and make it more user friendly and efficient, with the goal of making it a pleasurable place to prepare meals.
In looking at the variety of ways the galley is used, it was decided to start with a basic complement of items allowing charter customers to prepare meals easily as well as provide for food preparation during class instruction. Since there is such a wide variety of use in this galley, we outfitted it with the basic essentials sort of a “Galley in a Box”, which provides essential gadgets, mixing bowls and utensils, cooking and serving pieces, cookware, dishes, flatware and drinkware. For privately owned galleys, we would customize this to the particular owner’s cooking preferences, starting with the “Galley in a Box” and tweaking it to the galley captain’s needs.
All of The Yachting Gourmet’s items are carefully selected to function well,(many providing multiple functions), stow easily, and to stand up to the boating environment We specialize in silicone collapsible items, multi-functional tools and Galleyware dinnerware.
So, let’s take a look at the galley on SmarterSail and how, with just a little organizing and a small budget, we were able to transform the galley to one anyone would enjoy using.
The area under the sink provides the largest storage space for bigger items. In the “before” picture, you can see it is full of many unrelated items. In the “after” picture you see the nesting cookware set (containing a skillet, Dutch oven, 3 saucepans, universal lid, two handles and 4 plastic storage lids) neatly stowed and easily accessible. (The shelf also contains the coffee maker.) Below it, are items such as a pasta cooker (the Fasta Pasta), microwaveable plates and food cover, collapsible salad spinner and a large collapsible colander.
The area above the sink is designed to store the dishes, utilizing stabilizing pegs to hold the items securely in their place. The space had become a collection point for many different items, as seen in the “before” picture. In the “after” picture you can see how easily and attractively the service for 6 stows in the provided space. The owner selected the Calypso pattern with the multi-colored mugs option.
The upper storage cabinets were filled to the brim with various items including some food staples, glasses, coffee mugs, spices and bowls. After redoing them and providing the right items for the galley, two of the upper cabinets were freed up for food storage and the one shown in the after picture contains Polycarbonate stemmed wine glasses and tumblers. We picked Polycarb because of its unbreakable and virtually indestructible qualities. It stays crystal clear without etching or clouding like acrylic and looks like glass. The stemmed glasses are also sporting silicone sleeves in an assortment of colors on their base. These sleeves (Ring-Its) give the glasses a non-skid quality and serve as identifiers so people can keep track of their own glass. The tumblers are a versatile 16 ounce size, perfect for juice in the morning, a soda in the afternoon, etc.
The two drawers below the stove were serving as a combination utensil and flatware storage area. Many of the utensils found in the drawers were coroding and there were several that had never been used. So, we reorganized and made one a utensil drawer and one a flatware drawer. The utensil drawer contains the essentials such as spatulas and a spoon/spatula for stirring, a can opener, SeaScissors for cutting absolutely anything, silicone and stainless tongs, a whisk, peeler, measuring cups and spoons. The flatware drawer contains service for 6 of the Rivet in blue, including serving pieces.
Just below the utensil drawer we found some of the pans and some other miscellaneous items. Since we placed a set of nesting cookware in the galley, this area became space for storing mixing bowls, a vegetable steamer, a multi-purpose silicone square cake pan and a silicone steamer. By using the collapsible bowls, we are able to get a total of 5 bowls in various sizes in this space in addition to the other items. Although this is the hardest to get to storage area, all items are easily accessible.
The area behind and around the cook surface was cleaned and reorganized, adding additional space for food storage. We added a Chop2Pot cutting board and hot mitt set, both of which stow easily when underway. By organizing and eliminating unnecessary items, the storage areas behind the stove and refrigerator are free for food storage. The coffee maker shown to the left in the “before” photo now fits easily under the sink with the cookware set.
With all the great cooking going on in this galley, we needed to address cleanup! We added a suitcase dish drainer and a colorful but functional loofah scrubber. The dish drainer folds and stores compactly either under the sink, or in the sink while underway while providing ample space for drying the clean dishes. The Loofah Art scrubbers come in many shapes (the sailboat shown here) and are a green product, naturally resistant to mildew, very durable and easy to rinse clean.
In this galley makeover, we did keep a few items that were already on board such as chef’s knives, the coffeemaker and a few gadgets. The entire makeover was accomplished for less than $650. Not bad when you consider all the improvements we made and it included dishes, flatware, and cookware! The galley looks great and functions beautifully for all types of cooking on board.
The Yachting Gourmet
St. Pete Beach, FL
727 360-COOK (2665)
www.yachtinggourmetstore.com
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