The new galley stove
On Sunday April 8 the Berkeley Yacht Club held their annual Boaters Swap Meet. Those who know me know I rarely miss one of these events. They are a great opportunity to go through someone else’s boat junk to find some of your own boat treasures. Since these tend to be an early morning affair (typically 6 a.m.) Kristin rarely goes to these with me. But this year because I planned to bring a bunch of our old stuff to unload, Kristin agreed to come with and help with our booth. I also enticed her with the hope that maybe we’d be lucky enough to find a new galley stove. I think she liked the idea of me getting rid of some boat stuff for a change too.
The night before I went through the garage, the dock box and the locker for anything remotely useful that I’d been saving to take to a swap meet (instead of toss in the dumpster). There was a seized outboard that came with a previous boat, a ton of old line, a new Bruce anchor I’d never use, and a bunch of smaller bits of all sorts. All told it completely filled the Prius and Kristin had to ride in the passenger seat with two old fenders in her lap. We arrived shortly after 6 a.m. and about half of the other ‘vendors’ had already set up and people were eagerly picking through the new arrivals as they were set out. We quickly got our 10 x 10 space filled with our stuff for sale (or free) but realizing I had forgotten the roll of blue tape and a marker for pricing things I sent Kristin back to the boat to get those and some other things we forgot.
While Kristin was gone our neighbor vendor pulled out a nearly-new Force 10 galley range, exactly the model we had wished we’d find. I watched as the resident ‘picker’ descended on our neighbor and immediately tried to lowball him on the price. I overheard our neighbor say, “It’s only been used a couple of times, so I’d like to get 1/2 price of new for it – so $650.” The picker said he’d check back later and went back to his table, probably doing the math for how much profit he could get for it.
When Kristin returned I urged her to go check out the stove. “It’s exactly the one I’ve had my eye on,” I said, “you should go check it out and see what you think.” We went over together and inquired about the stove. “Looks new,” I said. “Does it come with the gimbals?”
“Sure does, and watch this,” the man said as he worked the latch for the oven, “this model is unique because the oven door slides under the stove when it’s open, so it doesn’t mess up the balance when it’s on it’s gimbal.”
Kristin crouched down and peered inside the gleaming oven.
“And it has an electric igniter and thermocouples that automatically turn off the gas if the flame is blown out,” I added.
“Oh, I like that,” Kristin said, still pensive, “do you think it will fit?”
“I’m pretty sure it will. I think I had measured our counters for this exact stove some time ago.”
“Ok, let’s think about it.” Kristin said as she started back to our sale area.
After a quick conference, we returned to our neighbor’s sale area.
“So will you take $600 for it?” I asked.
“Absolutely!”
And with that $600 changed hands and with a handshake we were making preparations to load our new stove into the car.
I think the guy was happy to see it go to someone who really wanted it and would put it to good use rather than someone just looking to turn it around for a profit.
Swap meets that start at 6 a.m. typically dry up by 11, so we were on our way back to Sonrisa with a nearly empty car save for a steering wheel a couple of battery boxes and our new stove.

After lunch we were back on Sonrisa wondering what we should do with the rest of our Sunday.
“Well, I think I have just enough time to get the new stove installed,” I offered.
“Really?” Kristin sounded skeptical.
“Sure. We have cold leftovers we can have for dinner, so as long as I finish tonight we’ll still be able to make coffee in the morning.” Secretly I knew I had a plan B to boil water outside on the grill if things didn’t go as I’d hoped.

So we unbolted the 38 year old Shipmate stove and hauled the new Force 10. I sized up the fittings needed (no two stoves are ever the same) and ran down to Svendsen’s.
After much test-fitting, measuring and re-measuring we still managed to get the mount slightly too high (wouldn’t clear the back cabinets by about 1/8 of an inch when it swung on it’s gimbal) so we adjusted and re-drilled the mounting holes. Now it fits as tightly as we’d hope and swings freely on its gimbal.

Mounting anything on a boat is much more difficult than anything in a house. You have to assume that nothing is straight and nothing is level so all of your measurements are relative to something else on the boat. An adjustable level is useful to make something ‘level’ in relation to something else. You set the level on something you assume to be ‘level’ and adjust the level so that the bubble is centered, then use that setting to transfer the relative ‘level’ to something else. With the heel of the boat neither are likely to be actually level, but this way you can align one thing to another on the same plane. There are even iPhone apps that do a decent job as a level.

By 9:00 the stove was mounted, the lines were pressure-tested and we were ready to fire up our new stove!