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Galley Goes Gourmet

A new sink and an improved cabinet are the ingredients for a delicious upgrade. "Makeovers and Refits" from our July 2008 issue

Galley Goes Gourmet 368

To replace the old two-basin sink , the Schwartzes cut a new hole in the countertop with a jigsaw and drilled holes in the new sink¿s flange for the faucets and a sprayer. Neal Schwartz

Fundamentally, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the galley on our 1990 Caliber 33, Kailani. But my husband, Neal, and I enjoy cooking and entertaining aboard, and we had a vision of how much more beautiful and functional our galley could be. So we set about to make it so.

First, we wanted to build a secure, more easily accessible place in which to store cooking items that we frequently use, such as olive oil, vegetable oil, and vinegar. We removed the sliding cabinet doors and then sectioned off each end of the long cabinet above the stove using Formica-coated plywood. The interior width of the forward cabinet became 20 inches and that of the aft cabinet became 31 inches. Then we installed Formica-coated plywood sections on the front of the two new cabinets so that teak louvered panels would fit as fold-down doors.

Neal Schwartz| |After the refit, the galley was much more user friendly. | The height of the now-open center section was increased by sawing the top edge as high as possible without interfering with the electrical wires. The entire opening was trimmed with teak. Then we installed a removable teak batten to hold items in place while under way. The open cabinet area measures just over 21 inches long.
We also decided that we wanted a new, larger sink. We bought Kailani in 2005, and the finish on the double-basin sink was deteriorating. The sink was too small, and we couldn’t put dinner plates in the bottom of it for washing. After measuring the available space, including the faucets, we decided to replace it with a Kindred 17-inch by 23-inch single-basin household sink that we bought online for $80.

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We bought a grate for the sink to keep dishes from sitting directly on the bottom; we also purchased a wooden cutting board that we use as a cover. Concerned about using too much water when doing dishes, we went to a local discount store and picked up a plastic tub that fits under the cutting board. We use the tub for washing dishes and the space beside it for rinsing and draining. An additional advantage of the sink is that it requires only one drain, so there’s more room for storage underneath it.

Kailani’s new galley has made the saloon look sleeker and more modern. Better yet, it’s much more fun and more practical as well.

Beth and Neal Schwartz recently sailed Kailani up the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway from Little River, South Carolina, to Oriental, North Carolina. They’ve purchased a historic home in New Bern, North Carolina, and are renovating it.

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