Do rail mounted grills make a mess?

Do they drip onto the deck?
We have one but haven't used it yet.

Was just thinking about how our big grill at home has a big drip tray under it.

Star0210 said:

Do they drip onto the deck?
We have one but haven't used it yet.

Was just thinking about how our big grill at home has a big drip tray under it.

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I don't have one and have been looking at them. That is a damn smart question and one I liked to know myself.

I had a small one set rail clamp so it was over the water somewhat, it didn't drip grease but it did get greasy pretty quick please it with oven cleaner.

We have a Dickenson mounted on a teak rail. It has a small drip tray built into the bracket. No problems with drips or heat.

Go to Walmart and buy an automobile trunk liner carpet. Cut out a square a bit larger than the grill and place it on the deck under the grill when you are using it.

Any stove has splatter depending on the food cooking. Some stoves catch drips in a pan, some in the grill bottom and some drip. Depends on the design. I had one on a fishing boat (30 years ago) that hung off the stern, over the water. When done it swiveled and dumped the ash, etc., over the side. Probably illegal now.

I have a Dickenson rail mount on Seeker and love it. It has a small catch pan that came with it that takes care of the drips I've had so far. That said I mostly cook for 1or 2, what you cook like burgers will make a difference. Try it out you will soon see !! Jim

I have a magma round grill and I put a fiberglass cafeteria tray on the deck under it when I grill.

Our rail mounted Magma had a drip tray or capture . Most if not all grills do... look up the various models and see! I can't imagine any grill for any use not having one..

We have a Magma Kettle grill pole mounted over the swim platform. I rotate it over the side as much as possible. It makes a mess cooking burgers. Grease splatter hits the deck and swim platform. It has a catch tray with no way to drain it except tilting it into the water. If you do dump it by tilting, the wind better be blowing away from the boat. We don't need the larger models but they may be cleaner.

Been using mine all week.

It does have a small leak in one corner of the drip tray.

A couple drops might hit the deck if I have it angled to better block the wind, but a wet, warm, soapy paper towel swipes it up no big deal.

Have one of these for 4-years now. No rust, no mess, cooks great. Much less expensive than a "marine" bbq.

weber q1000 - Walmart.com

Mine cost $80.

Lowe's Master Forge grill and I bolted on a bait cutting station rod holder support that someone had tossed.

Same basic grill as a marine Magna but definitely the stainless is eithervlower grade or less polished. For 1/3 the price, I could live with that.

For liveaboards with limited storage, rail mounted are one way to find anther unused spot....in my case except when trolling....

fryedaze said:

We have a Magma Kettle grill pole mounted over the swim platform. I rotate it over the side as much as possible. It makes a mess cooking burgers. Grease splatter hits the deck and swim platform. It has a catch tray with no way to drain it except tilting it into the water. If you do dump it by tilting, the wind better be blowing away from the boat. We don't need the larger models but they may be cleaner.

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This is the one we currently have.
And that's what I'm afraid of.
I'm working too hard sanding and scraping prepping to paint and once it's ever finally done I don't want to mess it up with grease from the grill.

I like the idea of putting something down under it on the deck.

I'm also thinking we might need an upgrade later to a different type.

Our boat doesn't have any sst rails so I built a stand for ours . It's from an old helm chair and a piece of starboard . I set it off on the dock when cleaning it up .

I have the Magma rectangular grill mounted on the bow SS rail. I do line the drip tray w/ aluminum foil which makes for easier clean-up. No drips at all. That tray will leak some grease if not lined.

Pack Mule said:

Our boat doesn't have any sst rails so I built a stand for ours . It's from an old helm chair and a piece of starboard . I set it off on the dock when cleaning it up .

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I like that!

ragin cajun said:

I have the Magma rectangular grill mounted on the bow SS rail. I do line the drip tray w/ aluminum foil which makes for easier clean-up. No drips at all. That tray will leak some grease if not lined.

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Thanks, I'm pretty sure we're going to end up with that kind or one like it and I'm going to remember to tell hubby to do that.

Our Magma stainless kettle grill made so much mess down the side from its upper deck railing location on our Selene that we stopped using it. Would look for one that collects the fat rather than letting it drip out of the bottom. Be careful of flare-ups if the fat container gets full and overheated!! I think the best approach if possible is a deck mounted unit with adequate heat resistant material beneath and far enough away from flammables..

Chrisjs said:

Our Magma stainless kettle grill made so much mess down the side from its upper deck railing location on our Selene that we stopped using it. Would look for one that collects the fat rather than letting it drip out of the bottom. Be careful of flare-ups if the fat container gets full and overheated!! I think the best approach if possible is a deck mounted unit with adequate heat resistant material beneath and far enough away from flammables..

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We need a like button!

Mine doesn't drip often or much when it does we like burgers but seldom do them on the boat, I guess they and sausage are the messiest. I do have a pad of that ridged thin rubber which rolls up it is about 3"x 3" I sometimes put it under the grill or when doing any messy job anywhere on the boat.
Speaking of grills I like the round kettle Magma, a paella pan fits fine and I like to cook in a Wok often, I take off the cooking grill and put a "fire ring" into the kettle around the burner the wok fits right in and heats up fast.
I made folding windscreen out of light plywood it keeps the grill from blowing out in a breeze. We have the stand too, in case we want to bring it ashore.

When we don't use the boat for a good while I take the grill off wasps seem to love to make nests in them. Be careful.

Bay Pelican doesn't have an aft rail so we had a small U shaped mounting bracket fabricated. The Magma grill attaches to the bracket which is screwed into the cap rail. The Magma has a drip pan. Several photos of the rectangular Magma have been posted.

fryedaze said:

We have a Magma Kettle grill pole mounted over the swim platform. I rotate it over the side as much as possible. It makes a mess cooking burgers. Grease splatter hits the deck and swim platform. It has a catch tray with no way to drain it except tilting it into the water. If you do dump it by tilting, the wind better be blowing away from the boat. We don't need the larger models but they may be cleaner.

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We have one of these but only use it to cook steaks when we have them. So far no issues at all. I distrust the peizo ignition on all grills so we ALWAYS use a long tip lighter.

We have the Magma kettle grill and cook lots of burgers on it. I have it mounted to a SS rail on the bow and over the water. I keep it slightly tilted back so any drips go out the back and into the water. Works great for us.

I think we had one but Chris and/or Sara dropped the grill grate overboard.
We just do our cooking on the propane stove in the salon. Chris makes good use of pan lids and the SS surfaces on the Force 10 three burner stove on top or in the oven. Right above the stove there is an open window that helps w cooking oders. She was very interested in getting the oven and I can now see why.

We only cook for ourselves and don't feel the need for the grill. Now that we are not in Alaska cooking in the cabin may be too hot when it's 85 degrees. That's about the only reason I can see to get an outside grill. I will ask our close by friends about the grill.

We have a dickenson seabbq mounted to the rail. Like other have noted, it has a drip pan that catches anything that drips through the grates. When we cook steaks, chicken breasts, fish, anything without a lot of fat, no problem. When we cook wings, fatty burger or sausage, we can get splatters on the deck, but that would happen with any grill. I've not used any sort of mat, but may think about it given others' comments. We treat the deck with Woodywax, so it usually cleans up fairly easily the next time we wash the boat.

Nomad Willy said:

I think we had one but Chris and/or Sara dropped the grill grate overboard.
We just do our cooking on the propane stove in the salon. Chris makes good use of pan lids and the SS surfaces on the Force 10 three burner stove on top or in the oven. Right above the stove there is an open window that helps w cooking oders. She was very interested in getting the oven and I can now see why.

We only cook for ourselves and don't feel the need for the grill. Now that we are not in Alaska cooking in the cabin may be too hot when it's 85 degrees. That's about the only reason I can see to get an outside grill. I will ask our close by friends about the grill.

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Yes, it's way too hot here to cook inside. My poor AC's can't keep the boat cool enough as it is.
So it's either grill or eat stuff that doesn't require cooking.

We have a big grill at the marina so we use that and thus haven't had any need to use our little one on the boat.

We haven't taken the boat out overnight yet but are going to try to spend the night anchored out Saturday night if the finicky genny will cooperate. That will be our first need to use it.

We had a charcoal Magma on our Morgan 27 sailboat. I mounted it on the pushpit so that any drips, or worse, ended up overside.

We had a propane Magma on our LeComte Northeast 38. I mounted it on the stern pulpit so that any drips, or worse, ended up overside. After loosing the ell and valve I wired the replacement part to the support arm so that it could not be lost. I also wired the grille to the support arm. 1/16" SS cable and Nicropress = easy. It eventually corroded to uselessness so we replaced it with:

We bought a propane Magma rectangular larger grille from West Marine. Mounted on the stern pulpit so that...you know the drill. It had a drippings pan which did not have a very large capacity, but no problem. Buy our LeComte, you'll get the grille!

We bought a Cusinart "portable" propane grille for Revel. Portable means that the lid latches and it has little folding legs and a handle. Of course, if you tipped it up to fold it, the drip pan would pour all over. I have not arranged an over-side mount. It can't function as intended aft since it would be over the swim platform and/or the dinghy. Mounting on one side or the other means making the thing readily removable since docking would be a larger chore. Sorta' defeats the purpose of a permanent overside mount! Still mulling. 'Til then, it sits on a folding table and has not soiled the Teak.

Magma rectangular on stern but mounted in a angled rod holder. Any drippings not caught by tray is outside of boat. Works well for us.

Chrisjs said:

Our Magma stainless kettle grill made so much mess down the side from its upper deck railing location on our Selene that we stopped using it. Would look for one that collects the fat rather than letting it drip out of the bottom. Be careful of flare-ups if the fat container gets full and overheated!! I think the best approach if possible is a deck mounted unit with adequate heat resistant material beneath and far enough away from flammables..

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I've been reading the replies and wondering what people cook on their grills... We've used a Magma most recently and we always have some grease leaking. It is not the biggest deal to clean up but it is certainly part of every grill we have owned other than our Big Green Egg and that would require a much larger boat than we can afford!

To answer the question, yes, they make a mess but the end result is so worth the clean up!

Bruce