The Galley Sink

[greexc]

Hi

Maybe a mundane type of question but the galley sink would be one of the most frequently used items on our boat. We find it usefull for containing spillage when getting our hot drinks when at sea and it becomes exclusive space when traveling at night and needing to contain the dirty dishes until morning. The depth of our sink is average but not adequate and I believe 250mm depth would be valuable. The question is what is the most functional depth for the galley sink and where do they come from.

[Nausikaa]

The quick answer to your question regarding depth is, as deep as possible. Aside from yachts, I have "sailed" in merchant ships, warships and coast guard cutters and all of these have very deep galley sinks, not because of storage, but because of the issue of water slopping over the top as the vessel rolls.

Where you would find a deep sink in Oz I do not know but I am sure others will be along soon to advise.

Aye // Stephen

[redbopeep]

yes--as deep as possible is a good idea. Conversely, one can have a tiny bar sink and a very large "tub" for washing things in. Most folks have that tiny bar sink with absolutely no options for dealing with the need for a deep sink, though.

[mico]

Deeper is better but most marine suppliers seem to assume that yachties want to conserve water and only stock sinks that would barely float a tea leaf. On our previous yacht we did a tour of the commercial kitchen suppliers and purchased a very large and tall stainless steel pot with a rim. Drilled a sink hole in the bottom and presto - a deep solid sink that even came with a stainless steel lid. Many other friends have recently gone down the same path without any problems. Most commercial kitchen suppliers will have square and circular pots

[redbopeep]

Originally Posted by mico

Deeper is better but most marine suppliers seem to assume that yachties want to conserve water and only stock sinks that would barely float a tea leaf. On our previous yacht we did a tour of the commercial kitchen suppliers and purchased a very large and tall stainless steel pot with a rim. Drilled a sink hole in the bottom and presto - a deep solid sink that even came with a stainless steel lid. Many other friends have recently gone down the same path without any problems. Most commercial kitchen suppliers will have square and circular pots

The commercial pot is a good idea. We'd already planned on using a stainless steel mixing bowl in the same way as the lavatory sink because we cannot find a small enough sink for that location unless it's made for a yacht and costs way too much as a result.

[greexc]

Originally Posted by redbopeep

The commercial pot is a good idea. We'd already planned on using a stainless steel mixing bowl in the same way as the lavatory sink because we cannot find a small enough sink for that location unless it's made for a yacht and costs way too much as a result.

Thankyou all for the clues on improvising with the stainless steel pot, I may have something I can use, will post outcome if any is interested.

[Brent Swain]

Deeper sinks tend to have their bottoms too close to the waterline to drain properly on some boats. Make sure they and their parts, like strainers, are non magnetic. Magnetic strainers and sinks rust in the tropics . Ditto magnetic cutlery.
"Made in India" is mostly non magnetic, good stuff.

[redbopeep]

Originally Posted by Brent Swain

Deeper sinks tend to have their bottoms too close to the waterline to drain properly on some boats. Make sure they and their parts, like strainers, are non magnetic. Magnetic strainers and sinks rust in the tropics . Ditto magnetic cutlery.
"Made in India" is mostly non magnetic, good stuff.

Our sink is one with a macerator pump and discharge above the waterline. On other boats we've had too many issues with sinks that drain directly so we just decided to route this one up and over then down. Glad we did so. And it's a deep deep sink with a bottom very close to waterline indeed.

[Brent Swain]

My mother made a good point when she said
" If 30 inches is the most comfortable height for a counter, then that should be the height for the bottom of the sink, as it is mostly on the bottom where you work, and reach for." So mounting a sink a bit higher than the surrounding counter may be a practical idea. That improves drainage, and stops stuff from falling into the sink so often.

One one trip from BC to Tahiti and back, one of the most useful tools I had was an 18 inch piece of 2x2. Putting it against the fiddle on the downhill side of the counter let me put one side of the pan on it, getting it closer to level.
Next best thing to a gimbaled counter.

[redbopeep]

That's funny about the 2x2. We have similar bits of wood that function in strange but very useful ways around the boat. The counter height is all relative to the person. Ours, at home, were at 33" and we found that nice. The sink, at home was 8" deep and it felt fine. Here on the boat, we've got higher counters still at a range of 33" to 36" (our sole slopes) and where the sink is it's about 36". Ours is a 10" deep sink, making the bottom sit at 26" but has a 1" rack in the bottom so I suppose that 27" at bottom. 3" below your mother's ideal

It's all pretty good. I find the taller counters to be very nice for leaning against when things are rough, too.