Why the Hell is there a microwave on board?

[Looking]

I don't get it. The one I have at home is used for the occasional bag of popcorn or maybe heating up a cup of coffee... two things I could do without while cruising (the heating, not the coffee)... and yet every picture I see of a boat for sale on Yachtworld has one. Do people actually cook meals in these things? Am I missing something?

[TrueBlue]

This should actually be one of my pet peeves in that such named Sailnet thread. I am in constant awe over the number of marina friends who look at me in astonishment when learning that we do not have, nor ever want, a microwave oven onboard our boat . . . and we are summer live-aboards.

Some people just do not know how to cook, or have the motivation to prepare a decent meal. All I will ever need is our three burner propane cooktop and oven, combined with the BBQ grill on the aft deck.

If you need to reheat leftovers - put it in the oven and wait a few minutes - it'll be crusty and delicious. Microwave food sucks and is designed for the powerboater mentality - no time or patience and poor taste.

[tdw]

Originally Posted by Looking

I don't get it. The one I have at home is used for the occasional bag of popcorn or maybe heating up a cup of coffee... two things I could do without while cruising (the heating, not the coffee)... and yet every picture I see of a boat for sale on Yachtworld has one. Do people actually cook meals in these things? Am I missing something?

Never reheat coffee, ruins the flavour. At home we use microwave to reheat the odd leftover but mainly to warm milk for coffee. (Sorry but I hate cleaning the dried milk off that sticky milk frother thingy on the espresso machine). Ms Wombat wants a bloody microwave for the boat and that's all it would be used for. Maybe a couple of minutes a day. It seems insane, waste of space and an energy eating monster.

Then again, I do like my hot milk with morning coffee.......

[T34C]

You do realize that the year '07 does stand for 2007 right???
Why not just install a woodburning stove if you want "crusty and delicious"? I mean nothing really makes food taste as good as cooking it over an open fire!!!

When there are kids aboard you don't always have the time to just pop it in the oven and wait. While I'm not the primary cook on the boat, or ashore, I can appreciate the convience and speed a food nuker allows.

[Giulietta]

I have no microwave, its heavy....

Besides, we in Europe are not really Microwave dependent....

But I admit when we cruise its good and fast to warm the baby's food.

But the wife still uses that large cooker / ove/ grill/ stove she made me install....

[TrueBlue]

T34C,
You would be a perfect candidate for the Space Station . . . freeze-dried creamed scallops and poached lasagna . . . yumm!

We've got the high-tech commercial appliances at home, including a convection/microwave oven. But hey, I design high-end residences to help pay for my vices - including a preference for real food .

When you're on a sailboat - kids or not (been there twice, done that) - a microwave just doesn't fit the sailing lifestyle.

[hellosailor]

Microwaves have their uses, they make good breadboxes if you're not cooking in them.

I suppose if I spent time at docks with power cords, marina hopping that way, a nuke might make sense. Can't see dedicating that much space to something that sucks that much electricity otherwise, but maybe by now there's a whole generation that doesn't know how to cook without them. You know, like the kids who can't read a clock anymore--unless it is digital. (sigh)

[Hawkeye25]

Microwaves are used to quickly kill fish. You can also speed dry your Docksiders, once, and store important papers in it.

I can not believe someone would go without popcorn while cruising. Mr. and Mz. Firstime enter the anchorage and begin to try to anchor. It is a popcorn event. Yesterday, I saw a couple actually drop their Bruce off the bow without the rode attached, then they circled with a makeshift grapple for 30 minutes before going to the reserve mini-fortress. I actually had time for microwave corndogs.

Two guys came into the marina and decided to hoist one of them up to the masthead to tweak the ears on a windex and fix the anchor light. Mr. SuperIQ went up while Curly stayed below and kept forgetting whick line he was supposed to be tending, leave the bright guy dangling and clinging for his life at least 3 or 4 times. That was a two bagger. And they accomplished nothing. They asked me for help afterwards and I pretended not to speak english.

Mr. and Mrs. Couldn'tbe happier got drunk again last night and screamed at each other until one of them apparently fell down and passed out. One tray of mini english muffin pizzas.

How do you live without a microwave?

[Jeff_H]

As much as I would prefer not to have a microwave on board, there are good reasons to have one if you cook a lot, even under way. Microwaves are extremely efficient using far less energy to heat something than carbon fueled stoves and in warm climates they put far less heat into the cabin.

In theory, even without solar collectors or wind generators, the amount of fuel needed to recharge the batteries is supposed to be less than the amount of fuel used to heat food on a stove or in an oven.

On land I frequently use a microwave for cooking for health reasons. Microwaves keep more of the taste, destroy fewer vitamins and produce fewer free radicals than conventional cooking.

Jeff

[hellosailor]

"Microwaves are used to quickly kill fish."
Hawkeye, I'd call that torture. When I take fish I don't kill them "quickly" I kill them instantly with a head shot (spear) or a followup with a knife. That's my obligation, as a hunter. Anyone who can't or won't kill their dinner that quickly--is torturing it and doesn't deserve to catch or eat it.