Breakfast on board

[Raphael]

My wife made breakfast out on the lake one morning last summer

 

[leeatmg]

My wife made breakfast out on the lake one morning last summer

Oh. Hell. Yes.

My Magma grill is the one of the best things I've ever bought. Mount mine the same way on the tall pole off the swim deck. Have never done breakfast out now I'm gonna have to try that.

 

[itsdgm]

Looks yummy. Making me hungry

 

[Raphael]

I've had my Magma Grill for a few years now and to this day I've never had to press the igniter more than once.

 

[Julian]

@Raphael You are a lucky man! Would love to have a grill...but running out of room for all the "Stuff"!

 

[leeatmg]

@Raphael You are a lucky man! Would love to have a grill...but running out of room for all the "Stuff"!

@Julian, it's all about priorities:

Space for cooler full of beer: #1
Space for liquor support (cups, rum, limes, etc.) #2
Space for food: #3
Everything else: #4

On a serious note, aside from the chore of lugging it to and from the boat (those Magma grills are heavy, and I'm not about to leave it on the boat in my wet slip!) it's a great item to have. There is something about freshly cooked food out on the boat. Makes everything better. This was taken about ten minutes before we enjoyed a delicious dinner feast of beer brats, pre-cooked in beer before departure and grilled to perfection at anchor.

---Lee

 

[Julian]

@leeatmg You forgot the other priorities for those of us addicted to surfing.....boards, ballast bags, pumps, ropes, etc

So what do you do with your grill? If its too heavy to move around but you don't recommend leaving in a boat in a wet slip....then what?

 

[leeatmg]

@Julian - well, something's gotta give, and if I have to choose beer over boards, so be it!

I store the grill on a shelf in the garage, and when we go down to the boat with plans for an on board dinner, we lug it in our car down the dock (rented slip about 30 miles away.) Our slip is down a flight of stairs, and past about 40 other slips, all the way at the last slip in the complex. It's a long haul, and the thing probably weighs 50 pounds or so, which isn't a lot otherwise but on a shoulder strap walking down a 3'wide dock, it's bulky more than anything. I have occasionally used it at home, too - on the patio as a supplement to the main grill; for camping, tailgating, etc.

We are blessed with at least three good restaurant/bars on our home lake, so we don't use it every outing. I think we used it about every other outing last season on the weekends, which probably added up to be 6-7 times just on the lake.

 

[Raphael]

The other issue besides the bulky/heavy storage challenge is the heat from the grill is practically SOLAR! keep kids away from the sides else risk serious burns and it takes 35 mins or so to cool down enough to put it back in the Magma bag, I have some straps that I tie it down on the left side of the swim deck. I usually bring it with us back to our camp/hotel at night because it's a mental challenge to leave a $500 grill on your boat overnight exposed that being said it's defiantly worth it for us, I'm more of a leisure family boater so tubing, swimming, drinking and eating is what we do.

 

[Bruce]

I bought a Magma in a black friday sale. I used it in the kitchen on a rainy day to see how it worked. It is a great grill but you are absolutely right about staying away from the sides. They are crazy hot.

How well did it handle the sausage grease? I worry about overflowing the drip tray.

We plan to use ours for much of our cooking at Bimini 2014 .

In the past we used a Coleman grill. We often sit at the sand bar and grill on Lake Hamilton, Hot Springs, AR and at the Islands on Lake Ouachita, Royal, AR. Last year we grilled some fish caught while on Ship Island National Park - Gulf Coast - Gulfport / Biloxi MS then on our second trip after an outing on a charter boat we grilled fresh shark that was amazing!

 

[leeatmg]

The other issue besides the bulky/heavy storage challenge is the heat from the grill is practically SOLAR! keep kids away from the sides else risk serious burns and it takes 35 mins or so to cool down enough to put it back in the Magma bag, I have some straps that I tie it down on the left side of the swim deck. I usually bring it with us back to our camp/hotel at night because it's a mental challenge to leave a $500 grill on your boat overnight exposed that being said it's defiantly worth it for us, I'm more of a leisure family boater so tubing, swimming, drinking and eating is what we do.

Yeah - that's a real negative (the heat from the grill.) You need to stay away from the thing for a 30 minute window before and after cooking. That said, though, I think it cools down faster than I would have expected. We store ours in the starboard rear compartment under the seats. Inside the bag, it just, just, just fits (you have to wiggle it a bit.) If we are going out with the grill, we redistribute everything in that compartment elsewhere on the boat.

We are like you (minus the tubing, but that will likely change this season) so we prioritize space for food and beverages and swimming gear and the things needed to support those three activities. Over the years I have added things like a cutting board over the head compartment, a cooler (that I spent months finding because it sits perfectly in the ski locker) and well organized tubs of things like the ubiquitous red Solo cup, plastic silverware, knives, and so on plus clips to dry towels and swim suits during the ride back to the dock.

 

[leeatmg]

I bought a Magma in a black friday sale. I used it in the kitchen on a rainy day to see how it worked. It is a great grill but you are absolutely right about staying away from the sides. They are crazy hot.

How well did it handle the sausage grease? I worry about overflowing the drip tray.

We plan to use ours for much of our cooking at Bimini 2014 .

In the past we used a Coleman grill. We often sit at the sand bar and grill on Lake Hamilton, Hot Springs, AR and at the Islands on Lake Ouachita, Royal, AR. Last year we grilled some fish caught while on Ship Island National Park - Gulf Coast - Gulfport / Biloxi MS then on our second trip after an outing on a charter boat we grilled fresh shark that was amazing!

@Bruce - I got the infrared model, and I can't speak for the other models but that one does a great job of vaporizing a lot of the grease (though it makes for a very smoky grilling experience!) If you look closely at the photo, underneath the grill, I foil wrapped the grease tray and if anything drips down there, I can just throw that away. The brats didn't give off much grease (they way I precook them in beer & mustard & onions, all you are really doing is browning them and reheating them anyway) but the worst was hamburgers. That's the only time I saw much grease in the tray (still not a lot though) and if you look in the photo I posted, you will see a very wet towel wrapped around the base of the post. I did that the next trip after the burgers because I was worried about grease splatter on the swim deck. Has never happened, though.

 

[txav8r]

The Magmas are great and I do envy having one on the boat. For the above mentioned reasons, I just didn't get one. But one thing I learned a good while ago, is that some foods will stay "off the grill hot" and even moist and tender for hours after you finish cooking them. Especially brats and beans...even the buns are perfect! How I managed this was to have a small hard cooler that was pretty air tight, a little bigger than lunch box sized. I would remove the brats (works for burgers, steaks, chicken, kabobs, etc.) from the grill, wrap in foil, wrap in a towel, and place in the cooler. If I had several things, like corn on the cob, I might wrap a towel around the several items. But I generally would foil all brats together and all corn together, then wrap in the towel. The foil keeps the heat in, the towel keeps it moist, and the cooler keeps it from losing temp overall. I had a small soup thermos that I would keep beans, other veggies, or potato salad in. It won't keep all day, but it will keep for about 3 hours at serving temp. It won't replace that grill, but it is an option for those that want to do some of that great grill food and just want to eat it on the boat without having the mess, prep, or cleanup. If your camping, you need a grill! Even all day at the lake and the evening cooking...you need a grill. Those of you with a slip, you could certainly use the FTC (foil/towel/cooler) method. Ok...here it comes..."FOOD" for thought!

 

[leeatmg]

The Magmas are great and I do envy having one on the boat. For the above mentioned reasons, I just didn't get one. But one thing I learned a good while ago, is that some foods will stay "off the grill hot" and even moist and tender for hours after you finish cooking them. Especially brats and beans...even the buns are perfect! How I managed this was to have a small hard cooler that was pretty air tight, a little bigger than lunch box sized. I would remove the brats (works for burgers, steaks, chicken, kabobs, etc.) from the grill, wrap in foil, wrap in a towel, and place in the cooler. If I had several things, like corn on the cob, I might wrap a towel around the several items. But I generally would foil all brats together and all corn together, then wrap in the towel. The foil keeps the heat in, the towel keeps it moist, and the cooler keeps it from losing temp overall. I had a small soup thermos that I would keep beans, other veggies, or potato salad in. It won't keep all day, but it will keep for about 3 hours at serving temp. It won't replace that grill, but it is an option for those that want to do some of that great grill food and just want to eat it on the boat without having the mess, prep, or cleanup. If your camping, you need a grill! Even all day at the lake and the evening cooking...you need a grill. Those of you with a slip, you could certainly use the FTC (foil/towel/cooler) method. Ok...here it comes..."FOOD" for thought!

Mel - that's a great method for short days out for sure. I used something like that once for corn on the cob. Most times, though, we'd head out at noon and come back at dark, which always meant dinner at a restaurant on the lake, which with three kids and two adults that enjoy a cocktail or two gets pretty pricey. It was economical for us - a $500 grill pays for itself by avoiding about six dinners on the lake. We figure we broke even this year with it, and next year it's all savings!

Sorry to @Raphael, the OP, for hijacking this thread. Maybe we need to start (or move part of this thread) to a boat grill thread or something...

 

[Raphael]

No worries I love my grill, the hardest question for me was the size. I bought the larger size Catalina because I have a family and I wanted to finish all the food at the same time but it does pose a storage issue. My grill retailed for $500 but I bought it for $350 after a bunch of coupons and price matching at a boating store.

 

[leeatmg]

No worries I love my grill, the hardest question for me was the size. I bought the larger size Catalina because I have a family and I wanted to finish all the food at the same time but it does pose a storage issue. My grill retailed for $500 but I bought it for $350 after a bunch of coupons and price matching at a boating store.

That's the one I have - the infrared Catalina model, and for the same reasons (we often take another couple with us and their child, so we usually are cooking for eight.) I didn't get nearly as good of a deal - think I paid low 400's on Amazon for it. But I do love it and it does the job well.