Dish drying, the small boat edition

I’ll state up front that I am not a fan of double sinks. Not in a house, and especially not on a boat. I’d rather have a big space in which to soak pans and work comfortably. I may have been scarred from too many double sinks that barely had room to fit a coffee cup and required mega contortions with creative splashing to even wash a plate, but I’ll also say that I’ve not spent much time on larger boats.

Have I mentioned how much I adore my sink on board? See poor dish drying option in corner of photo!

In a recent podcast, Carolyn Shearlock shared an idea from a reader who talked about using one side of the double sink as a dish drainer. No water going everywhere, no counter space required. Dishes don’t go flying.

Dish drying on Calypso over the years has gone through iterations. We used to line the stove top with a bath towel and lay dishes on that. Good in that it gimbals, is a large space, and has some semblance of racks to help air flow underneath. Bad in that it traps water on the stove top. We tried a drying mat, just laid out on the counter next to the sink. Good in that the mat was easy to stow. Bad in that it does not allow for efficient airflow; the dishes often would require an additional thorough rub with a towel even after overnight “drying.” Finally I bought a dish rack and used the drying mat underneath it. Good in that there was decent air flow. Bad in that if there was any kind of motion, the rack couldn’t be left to work its magic for any length of time.

Drying rack with no ANYTHING underneath it. Not recommended as a way to dry dishes . . .

Then we hit on the idea of getting a dish pan that the dish rack could fit into. This deep plastic tub holds the dish rack securely, acting much as that second sink does in the podcast referenced earlier. It can be wedged anywhere, happily sitting on the counter or under the table or in a corner in the cockpit. There’s no water left under a drying mat. It IS a bit difficult to store 2 separate pieces like that (they fit under our sink with a little patient wiggling around the sink thru hull). Finding a rack that fits into a dishtub like this was a matter of trial and error and would be difficult to do online in my opinion - the tub and rack combinations I’ve seen include a very shallow pan, or are self-draining. So if this is an idea that might work for you, plan on spending some time at Target or Walmart trying different combinations. You also might find the dish pan (called a bus pan) in a restaurant supply store.

Black plastic dish tub

Combination. Note the rack doesn’t sit on the bottom of the dish pan.

Instant portable dish drying apparatus!