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The galley box build

Early this year, while I was waiting to find someone to slip my boat into the lake, I build a galley box for #dinghyCruising.

I’m not the first building a galley box, but still there was a lot of research going into this to create something save to use on a sailboat—just to heat up some water or food.

The idea

The idea of the galley box was a bit long winded: Initially I just wanted warm food, or “at least” water on longer trips with the boat. I now own a set of insulated bottles, cups, tins and bags. But they are only really useful when the contents are consumed on the same day e.g. when out on a day with rough, cold weather that’s fine. It's not enough for multi day cruises.

The idea for the galley box was inspired by the videos from Roger Barnes and Paul from Sailing Kate-Louise. And some others I found while researching boxes:

A separate box has the benefit of keeping the boat lightweight, the cooking area contained, secure. I can just close it and throw the whole thing overboard into the water and sink it if it get's completely out of hand–but that's the fourth level of security I build in.

The build

The galley box was actually a beauty case, where I ripped out the foam inserts. They are cheap, lightweight and can be bought in a lot of sizes. The materials are also used in pilot or doctor cases, or could be bought individually for a custom build. But that's all a lot more expensive.

My requirement was the winged lids to allow better draft for the cooker but also to block wind when needed.

My mods: The box has aluminium sheeting on all sides inside. The trangia cooker is clipped in and requires some force to pull out. The burner has carbon fleece inside and so the fuel is contained inside. The fuel is stored in a separate trangia fuel container before use. The box also contains a bio degradable fire extinguisher.