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GalleyWizard is live: happier galleys, less stress, better meals at sea
The galley is where a passage succeeds or frays. Skippers talk weather and sails; crews remember whether dinner landed on time, whether the vegan watch got a real meal, and whether the avocados turned to sludge under the potatoes. GalleyWizard is live — ready to ship for sailing crews and yacht chefs who want that problem solved before they leave the dock.
Why the galley needed a plan, not another list
On land, a forgotten onion is a walk to the shop. At sea there is no corner store. You buy once (or a few times in a few ports), stow everything in weird lockers, and cook while the boat moves. The usual tools — a notes app, a shared spreadsheet, a printed list from last year's ARC — fall apart the moment diets change, a day of rough weather cancels prep, or the fridge dies.
GalleyWizard grew from that gap: one place that plans every meal for the passage, turns the menu into shopping rounded to real pack sizes, says where each item goes aboard (front for the first days, back for later), and times the prep work — soaking, dough, cook-ahead before the blow. It also respects diets and allergies, and favours food that is in season where you actually provision.
What we built
In short: tell it the trip, then cook from the plan.
- The trip. Boat, crew, diets, route and stops — a few screens, mostly prefilled. About two minutes to set up a whole passage.
- Shop and stow. One shopping list per port, in supermarket order, quantities rounded to what shops sell (1 kg bags, 400 g tins, a count of avocados). A stowage map so tonight's dinner is not buried under week-three potatoes.
- Day by day. Recipes scaled to your crew, with prep times and when to start so dinner can still land after the night watch. Caught a tuna? Swap it in — stock stays honest.
It works offline at sea: install it on a phone, keep planning, ticking, and cooking mid-ocean, then sync when you get signal in port. The app already carries hundreds of boat-galley recipes across many cuisines — from Thai to tapas — built for small galleys, not restaurant kitchens.
The hard parts of feeding a boat
Anyone who has provisioned for a week offshore already knows the traps:
- Buy “just in case” and throw it overboard. On land, the average person wastes a lot of food each year; UNEP’s Food Waste Index puts the figure in the tens of kilograms per person. At sea every kilo you bin is a kilo you hauled, stowed, and kept cold for nothing.
- Fresh first, or fresh never. Lettuce and bananas do not wait politely for day twelve. Stowage order and eat-by logic matter as much as the recipe.
- Diets multiply. One vegan, one gluten-free, one who will not eat fish — without a plan you cook twice or someone goes hungry.
- Weather eats schedules. When it is blowing thirty knots, you need food you can make one-handed from what is already forward and unlocked — not a three-pan dinner under the settee berth.
- Ports are not interchangeable. Tomatoes in Mallorca in summer are not the same shop as Auckland in January. Seasonal, local food lasts longer and tastes better.
Those are the challenges GalleyWizard is built around — not a pretty recipe blog bolted onto a packing list.
How it turns the galley into a happier place
Less stress starts before you cast off. You leave with a menu that matches the crew, a list that matches the supermarket, and lockers loaded so the first days’ food is on top. At sea you get day-by-day recipes and prep nudges instead of improvising every sunset. Spoilage warnings are meant to offer a fix — use it tonight, swap the meal — not a lecture. Diets are covered in the plan so nobody is the awkward exception. When the sea is kind, you still get room for a BBQ night or a treat; when it is not, you have simple, stow-forward meals ready.
The point is not perfection. It is fewer arguments about dinner, fewer mystery bags in the bilge, fuller plates, and emptier bins — happy bellies, calmer watches.
Ready to ship
GalleyWizard is launched and ready for real passages: coastal hops, delivery runs, charter weeks, and ocean crossings. Set up the trip, shop the ports, stow with a plan, and cook day by day — online in harbour, offline at sea.
If you are writing a menu and a shopping list right now, GalleyWizard plans the meals, builds the shopping list rounded to real packs, and sets the stowage order so the short-lived produce goes first and the long-keepers are still there when you want them.
FAQ
What is GalleyWizard?
A web app for sailing crews and yacht chefs that plans every meal for a passage, builds port shopping lists, maps stowage, times prep, handles diets, and prefers seasonal ingredients where you shop — including offline at sea.
Does it work without internet mid-ocean?
Yes. Install it on your phone; the plan, recipes, and ticks keep working offline and sync when you are back in port.
Who is it for?
Skippers who provision, yacht chefs, and crew who share the cooking — from weekend coastal sails to multi-week ocean crossings.
How long does setup take?
About two minutes to set up a whole trip: boat, crew, diets, route, and stops, then you get meals, shopping, and stowage from there.
Useful sources
- GalleyWizard — product overview and features
- UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 — household food-waste context cited on the GalleyWizard site
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