Galley up or down?

[philip van praag]

Originally Posted by tolly

You are right about the important question of who's living aboard and who's not, when making a reply. Of course their needs are different.
Our plan is to live aboard long time and slowly circumnavigate, with occasional visits from kids (4) and freinds.

Rolf

it looks like you are finding an answer
but something els to consider,

i get seasick and when sick the verry last place you will find me is the gally were ever you stick it, and nor do i want food.
this is a pointless objection to gally down
some one made a point about a cooker being safer up for fumes ,gas is hever than air and a gas leek from a hose would sink into both hulls not one as in gally down
if you are a keen cook then a well setout gally with every thing to hand and space to work i think is more important
at home do you realy spend time looking out the window when preping food.
i watch what i am doing less spills and cuts to fingers that way
we cant avoid a mess when cooking and the area around the hob gets lots of splater fat oil etc from hot pans
i would not like this all over my living area
so up or down rember what realy happens in a gally

[tolly]

Once I'm seasick (seldom) the last place I want to be is together with food, I agree there. But one of the the ideas for me with galley up, is avoid getting seasick so easily, when I need to prepare food on a trip.
Rolf

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by philip van praag

... at home do you realy spend time looking out the window when preping food.
i watch what i am doing less spills and cuts to fingers that way ...

Originally Posted by Tolly

... But one of the the ideas for me with galley up, is avoid getting seasick so easily, when I need to prepare food on a tri.

Occasionally looking out, at a horizon, is one of the fundamental preventatives and curatives for sea-sickness.

[philip van praag]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Occasionally looking out, at a horizon, is one of the fundamental preventatives and curatives for sea-sickness.

i know this is a comon cure but i find that if i sit with my eyes closed its much better as the brain does not have to reconcile the conflicting information
and smell of food is a big trigger as is tummy rumbles when passing a food vendor it can work against you
if you suffer then preparing food in advance in a flask or for warm up in the microwave is a better option.
and as i said befor you cant cook and look at the horizon at the same time (well men cant but as woman can multy task should be no prob)!!!

[GordMay]

On my boat, the stove did the cooking, and all I (or Maggie) had to do was the preparation; which could easily be interrupted by a look at the horizon (or an eye closure).
There is no conflicting information (eye vs inner ear) when viewing a horizon (or closed eye).
Looking at the horizon presents confirming information, whilst a closed eye merely denies (conflicting) information.

[imagine2frolic]

We have a small window at the kitchen over looking the backyard, and pool. I am constantly looking out the window, except for when there is a chance of a cut, or spill. I wish the window was at least 3 times bigger!

Originally Posted by scotte

When we were doing our boat search, my wife really wanted a galley up plan. It didn't take long (a few weeks) after living aboard our Privilege 39 with galley down before she agreed we made the right decision. Different strokes for different folks, but this is what works for us...

I am curious why?

[SeaKing]

First, I thought the Galley up design was for the privacy of the cabins since the large percentage of big cats are for charterers. There are owners versions but the largest percentage is of 4 cabin versions for the charter industry.

Our first cat was a PDQ with galley down. I always felt the UP would be better. Many times my wife was below on the PDQ preparing meals and missed something( nice boat or other interesting visual) that she can see now with the galley up. Also stepping below for a drink or fix a quick sandwich on watch you could see and had to hurry.

Now in the galley and rest of the salon , we have all around vision and I LOVE that!.

[Troutbridge]

I have a BB385, live onboard full time (cruising, not static) and singlehand most of the time. For me, it has to be galley-up for the view, for being able to get back to the helm/sheets quickly. I also prefer to talk to my guests when cooking/entertaining without having to peer up from one of the hulls. Also, during the first 12 hours at sea I get queezy. Galley-up makes a difference between existing on pre-prepared meals for the first day at sea and being able to make something from scratch.
There is no correct answer to this question. I suggest the 'cook' stand in the galley of a boat with the galley-down and see what their first impression is......in most cases I suspect that impression won't change once at sea

[sandy daugherty]

Phillip nailed it> Its the beam of the boat that matters. It needs to be 20' or more wide to have room for a galley and table up. Even then, a galley down arrangement offers more countertop space, and the possibility of a raised oven and vertical opening ice box. Galley down can give the cook good windows, and still be a part of the conversation, but traffic fore and aft on that side can be dificult, or even dangerous. On a bigger boat, that area can house bigger features, like a head or four.

[Fishman]

We have a galley up, when we were shopping around we looked at a few cats with galley down like the privilege 42, st francis 44 etc, at the time we almost went for the galley down, now we are so glad we did not. I have to single hand most of the time whilst my wife looks after the kids...I love being able to make a sandwich/soup/coffee and still keep a lookout (or just grab a cold one from the fridge), secondly, one of us can cook and keep an eye on the kids in the cockpit, 3rdly when we are doing a great cook-up whilst at anchor its great to socialize and help the chef chop etc. Also the dining table is right there, no moving hot dishes from one level to another. But we do have a pantry and a toploader freezer in the one hull. A galley down would have been a problem for us, also the exposed cockpit like the Privilege and the Catana.

[Southern Star]

Neither would be a deal breaker for me. I prefer the galley down (especially in a smaller cat, 4o feet or under) as:
1. It keeps the heaviest part of the accomodation/storage down low, lowering the center of gravity.
2. It frees up space in the main saloon for a full sized nav station and decent sitting/seating accomodation.
3. As already pointed out, you will tend to have more counter (and often storage)space.
4. It provides excellent bracing for the cook - and yes, cats do pitch and roll in heavy conditions.
5. Mine is set up so that half of the galley down is completely open to the main saloon, allowing the cook to interact with those in the main saloon. This also permits a large pass-through/serving counter.

Brad

[David M]

I think you have to consider that most of your time will be spent at anchor or tied to the dock. Where would you rather be during those times? Below deck an hour or two per day or up where you can see the view and socialize with your guests and significant other? One of the reasons for buying a cat is so that you do not have to live down inside a cave.

[schoonerdog]

Put another way, why would you decrease your space up in the settee area by 30-50% by putting a galley in it when you only spend 5% of your time there? At most you spend an 60 minutes cooking, and if you really want to go up above while cutting or prepping, you still can bring everything up. We have 8 feet of counter space, 3 burner stove, 130 liter fridge and 110 liter freezer, plus around 6 ft of storage above the countertop and 8 ft of storage below the counters in cupboards. No galley up gives even close to that type of storage. We also had a PDQ 36 and our galley down was larger than the lagoon 420 and was a major reason for wanting galley down. I would say though that seakings boat is much larger in the settee area than ours, so at a certain size it truely doesn't matter.

[Cheechako]

Much more space available.
All that steam and heat from cooking isnt so "in your face"
Your mess isnt laying around under your nose after dinner.
Let's face it, who spends a lot of time cooking in the tropics?
More room for a nice up nav station.
Our down counter was long enough to cut up large fish like a 60" long mahi mahi fillet. That way it's clean and you can package it, make sushi etc right there in the galley without it baking int he sun in the process. Open the "under" escape hatch and throw out the pieces you dont want! Oh, if you do that keep your spear handy, you might get a big snook!