sliding door

[tolly]

Me and my wife have a discussion about whether or not it should be sliding door and lots of glass facing aft in the saloon, where the galley is.
She think it would be nicer to see out when being in the galley, not just "facing a wall". It gives a more social feeling with the ones sitting outside, were you most likely will sit in good weather days.
I claim that if living permanently aboard, it will be more important to have as much of pots, pans glasses etc as close as possible to the galley. Instead of big glass area I wold prefer cupboards on the wall. I would still have a door leading out beside the galley, to have contact the ones outside.
The sliding door with glass wall concept to me lookes like a typical charter thing, being able to serve directly from the galley, to guests outside.
Wha's your idea about this?

Rolf

[philip van praag]

rolf
i see you are going at this from all directions
so answer me some questions
at home in the last 100 days how many times did you have people to diner
design for the norm not the exception
design for the budjet not the deam
were will you be crusing
design for the avrage climate.
we are two on our boat 37' long 21' beam and some way of finding seprate areas and some space to do difrent things in this space at the same time
is more important than our once in two weeks when we have friends on board
we entertain the same amount as we did when we lived on land no more no less dont think it will change
dont forget you will be going to other peoples boat so you do get a day off !

i have some experance as i used to be a kitchen designer for 10 years

[philip van praag]

click on my name to the left and click public profile then click my pics in the album
we have made some changes to our saloon area as this is the area we spend most time as will you no matter how mutch you like cooking
and i hope you have a big crusing budget to be feeding all these people all the time
sounds like a great party boat can i come ?

[tolly]

You're welcome, once we have bought the cat. But I don't think there will be that much partying. I totally agree with you in your reply, I just try to convince my wife of the same...even though she definitely is not a "party girl".
She is in this case "dreaming". Most of the time we will probable be by ourself.

Rolf

[Nordic cat]

Rolf,

I think a good compromise is the best,but what will be your typical usage?

If i look at the uses for the saloon/galley up, then one of the major uses is for comfortable sailing in bad weather away from heavy traffic.

To achieve this, then a good 360 degree or at least 270 degree view is great to have if you can achieve this from a seated position. The seated position gives less fatigue, you are dry and warm, so less likely to make mistakes....
If you can sit and work the radar and do chartwork at the same time then you have got it right.

So plenty of "glass" and a seat hight enough to enable you to look out.

If this is achieved using a sliding door, hinged doors or windows/ports/hatches doesn't really matter.

So my reccomendation is to balance these requirements, with "wall space" in the galley. Good storage utilisation with plastic containers for all the small stuff like condiments is easy to set up on a shelf/drawer. If you have a normal level of social activity, then the first 6 sets of cutlery can be at hand, any more stored away under a seat etc. for the few times per year you will use it.

Alan

[fastcat435]

Originally Posted by tolly

Me and my wife have a discussion about whether or not it should be sliding door and lots of glass facing aft in the saloon, where the galley is.
She think it would be nicer to see out when being in the galley, not just "facing a wall". It gives a more social feeling with the ones sitting outside, were you most likely will sit in good weather days.
I claim that if living permanently aboard, it will be more important to have as much of pots, pans glasses etc as close as possible to the galley. Instead of big glass area I wold prefer cupboards on the wall. I would still have a door leading out beside the galley, to have contact the ones outside.
The sliding door with glass wall concept to me lookes like a typical charter thing, being able to serve directly from the galley, to guests outside.
Wha's your idea about this?

Rolf

Having a lot of glass in the saloon , and specially the rear is helpful and creates a larger saloon area ( optically ) and more visibility both from the inside out as to the forward from the cockpit so it ads to the safety.
A sliding door is not really necessary to create this roomy looking tru feeling.
We started out with a sliding door on the prototype FastCat but have changed this to a folding door that hinges on one side and also has a central hinge so it opens in 2 steps.
the first step creates an opening of 420 mm and the second step doubles this.
Having a lot of glass will also increase communication since more of the crew is visible so a combination of glass and large opening doors are in my view the ideal combination
These pictures are taken just after this new style of doors have been installed but not finished yet, for this reason no seals are installed yet.

Greetings

Gideon

[Gordon]

[Gordon]

This is a view of galley up with the sliding doors giving the cook a view!

[Gordon]

[Gordon]

[fastcat435]

Nice kitchen layout , here is the view from the FastCats kitchen

[Octopus]

Originally Posted by tolly

...The sliding door with glass wall concept to me lookes like a typical charter thing, being able to serve directly from the galley, to guests outside.
Wha's your idea about this?

Rolf

Rolf

We love the 360 visibility that glazing to the rear gives you, it's also brings important safety benefits as Gideon says. Having a sliding window allows you to serve to the cockpit dining area from the galley. It may be designed for charter appeal, but it is just as appealing for cruising.

Make sure your sliding door can be properly secured. If the door gets loose in heavy seas it becomes like a guillotine. The rollers on sliding doors are height adjustable, but can unwind leading to bolts not properly locating. We put a wooden batten in the track to wedge the door open.

Chris
Octopus, Lagoon 420 Hybrid
Ardrossan Harbour, Scotland

[DtM]

The wooden batten is a great idea.

daniel

[kevingy]

Originally Posted by tolly

Instead of big glass area I wold prefer cupboards on the wall.

Based on most of the cats I've seen, regardless of whether the back "wall" of the galley is glass or a bulkhead, there aren't significant cupboards above the sink. (See the pictures already posted here.) Whether it's the shape of the bulkhead, the preference for visibility over storage, or the weight of cabinetry, even if it is a solid wall, I haven't seen many cases where the cupboards provided so much storage that opting for that storage would get you anything but an upset wife.

This assumes that regardless of location, your preference is "galley up". I have seen more storage in "galley down" configurations.

[James S]

Man....you multi guy sure have a lot of space....I'd go with the glass doors.