Best BBQ for a sailboat

[eherlihy]

WHERE IS CD ON THIS ISSUE???!!!???

I always thought Catalina + BBQ = CD

[SlowButSteady]

Originally Posted by CharlieCobra

Ah folks, no charcoal on a saltwater boat. It combusts spontaneously doncha know, after exposure to saltwater.

As a grad student I took care of a university's recirculating seawater systems (each was several hundred to a couple of thousand gallons; much bigger than a home aquarium, much smaller than your favorite public aquarium). Part of the filtration for each system consisted of a 5 gallon plastic bucket with a perforated bottom, filled with activated charcoal. Seawater was percolated through the charcoal to absorb dissolved organic matter from the water (just like a home aquarium).

Although the charcoal would warm up slightly when a new batch was hydrated, the effect was at most on the order of 10˚C. I never had any problem with spontaneous combustion (SC) or even excessive heat. Browsing around the Web, it appears that this whole SC of BBQ charcoal myth probably started with the the very real phenomenon of large (several ton) batches of charcoal (or perhaps coke) igniting when wetted. In other words, it's a scaling problem; a few pounds of charcoal are about as safe a material one can have on a boat. If it weren't, fish tanks all over the world would be ablaze as we speak (not to mention the charcoal filters on holding tank vents, etc.).

[Rangernewell]

I've recently purchased a Mirage 24. She came equiped with a force 10, railmounted charcol BBQ. I have never used it and am going to switch to a gas model. Just thinking that with charcoal, if any gust of wind popped up, that there that there would be dust flying around as well as a chance of hot embers in the cockpit area