A few months ago I acquired an object I've been desiring ever since I got into boating: an Origo alcohol stove. I got the single burner 1500 model, since there is absolutely no room for a two burner on Koan, from Ebay. It's technically "used", but it's never been used. In another stroke of incredible luck I found a set of gimbals for it in the clearance bin of our local West Marine for $14! So the stage was set for creating some kind of cooking situation on Koan.
The original setup included a cart of sorts that had a stove on it. An alternative would have been to somehow install in the "chart table" that drops down from port, just forward of the companionway. In the end, I decided to build something similar to the cart, but mount it permanently, up against the bulkhead for the hanging locker on port. I would have preferred something closer to the companionway, so I can vent the steam, but I like the chart table as it is, and all the electrical stuff is on starboard, so adding steam was a bad idea. We'll see how well this works.
I built what looks very much like a PC enclosure out of plywood and square joists, aluminum sheeting and brass mounting hardware. It fits the Origo 1500 exactly, it fits under the support for the bench that goes over the port berth exactly, and it reaches to the front edge of the locker above it exactly. That makes it 16.5 in. tall, 16.5 in. deep, and 10.5 inches wide. The Origo has its gimbal cheeks mounted, but then the brackets for it were not used. Instead I mounted the cheeks directly to the galley.
I bought a cheap cutting board and cut it to size, and that goes on top, as a lid. For a little bit of heat shielding I used aluminum sheets on the rear and the part of the sides that's not covered by the cheeks. Finally, I stained the whole thing with Minwax Bombay Mahogany and gave it a spray coat of gloss polyurethane. It's fastened to the berth with four brass L-brackets.
Below the stove is a removable plywood shelf that stabilizes the stove when I don't want it to be swinging (the one with the finger hole). Under that, where you can't see, is an aluminum sheet shelf that isolates the stove from the lower storage compartment. I plan to put a couple bungee cords across that, to keep anything I put in there from flying out when the boat is heeled. I'm excited to try all this out!
The original setup included a cart of sorts that had a stove on it. An alternative would have been to somehow install in the "chart table" that drops down from port, just forward of the companionway. In the end, I decided to build something similar to the cart, but mount it permanently, up against the bulkhead for the hanging locker on port. I would have preferred something closer to the companionway, so I can vent the steam, but I like the chart table as it is, and all the electrical stuff is on starboard, so adding steam was a bad idea. We'll see how well this works.
I built what looks very much like a PC enclosure out of plywood and square joists, aluminum sheeting and brass mounting hardware. It fits the Origo 1500 exactly, it fits under the support for the bench that goes over the port berth exactly, and it reaches to the front edge of the locker above it exactly. That makes it 16.5 in. tall, 16.5 in. deep, and 10.5 inches wide. The Origo has its gimbal cheeks mounted, but then the brackets for it were not used. Instead I mounted the cheeks directly to the galley.
I bought a cheap cutting board and cut it to size, and that goes on top, as a lid. For a little bit of heat shielding I used aluminum sheets on the rear and the part of the sides that's not covered by the cheeks. Finally, I stained the whole thing with Minwax Bombay Mahogany and gave it a spray coat of gloss polyurethane. It's fastened to the berth with four brass L-brackets.
