Getting the stove out of a Pacific Seacraft 37 galley

This post is meant as a little contribution to other Pacific Seacraft 37 owners.  This may also apply to 34 and other models as well.

I replaced my Force 10 two burner stove when I first bought Luckness, three years ago.  We got the stove out by taking off the grab bar which crosses in front of the stove.  You can see the bar in the photo's below.  Taking the grab bar off involves drilling out four teak plugs in each side and then unscrewing the teak pads.  Its not too much work getting the grab bar out but isn't something I want to do very many times either.

While I was on my return passage from Hawaii I was watching the stove rock back and forth and scraping the surrounding frame as the pivots weren't lined up properly and the stove wasn't sitting square in the surrounding frame - this was a problem its had since I installed it originally but it had gotten worse.  I would have to take the stove out in order to fix the problem with the pivots.  I had nothing else to think about for a while so I though about how I would fix the stove eventually.  This lead to a simple idea which has worked out pretty well.

Rather than taking off the grab bar, I've cut notches in the teak rails at the counter top surrounding the stove.  This allows me to lift the stove up off of its mounting plates and then forward horizontally below the teak rails over to the notches and then up very carefully and out.  I've cut the notches so that there is only a small gap between the stove pivots and the teak rails as I wanted to reduce any chance that the stove could work its way out if the boat is ever inverted.  Judging from the difficulty of lifting the stove out of this gap I've cut, I can't imagine the stove would ever come out accidentally.

With these two notches cut in place, I can now lift the stove out any time to clean or maintain the stove or surrounding region.  Maintenance is now much easier.

I didn't get pictures of every step in this project, but you should get the idea.

First I picked up the stove and got the pivots on each side out of the mounting plates.  I was then able to place the stove down on the frame it normally swings above.  This allows enough space above it to work on the teak side rails.

The basic idea is that I made two cuts in each side, at roughly 45 degrees or shallower in a short distance using a Fein tool.  I then used a chisel to cut out the wood between these two cuts.  I did this on a scrap piece of board I had around, several times, before I made the cuts in the actual teak.

The stove out and the notch cut

When choosing the location of the two grooves, make sure they aren't so far toward the boat's centerline that the stove won't fit between the groove and the grab bar.  Measure the stove from the pivots to its forward frame and add a little.

After cutting the teak and chiseling out the wood between the cuts, try to lift the stove out of the area with the pivots sliding between the rails at the cuts you just made.  If the pivots don't make it, cut a little deeper.  You don't want the grooves to be too deep - try to make the stove a close fit when it comes out.  Once the stove is out, then you can cleanup an area of the galley you probably haven't been able to access for several years.

Once the stove is out, sand the grooves you've cut out with coarse sandpaper.  I started with 50 grit.  Work up to finer and finer paper until you're happy with the results.  Apply some teak oil.  I continued after this by applying a gloss finish, but that was a separate project.

At this point you're basically done.  Drop the stove back in carefully, reattach the propane hose and make yourself some coffee.

Finished!