Phil Sampson gathered a bunch of friends, four grills, and a whole load of meat to give us the ultimate best boat grill cook-off!
Summer: Balmy days, sunlight glistening on the water, and the ubiquitous waft of the barbecue drifting in on the cool evening air. Sounds perfect, doesn’t it? And so it is, which is why so many boaters consider getting the absolute best boat grill (or boat barbecue to UK readers) to be an essential piece of kit for entertaining during the season.
From everyday charcoal-burning barbecues to luxury high-spec gas-fuelled units there’s a multitude of choice out there, and to help you pick the boat grill that’s right for you and your boat we’ve tested four of the most popular boat grills on the market.
For best boat grill test, we decided not to use any disposable barbecues – we’ve seen too many of those discarded after use – or open charcoal grills, partly due to potential fire risk and partly because of the problem of disposing of
Best boat grill – 4 top options tested
Cobb Premier Gas+ Barbecue Grill – Best boat grill on test
Specifications: Fuel – Gas | Dimensions – 33cm diameter x 40cm high
Reasons to buy: Cooks like an oven with the lid on making it versatile | Great build quality
Reasons to avoid: A little complicated to pack away | Not as much char as you might expect
The Cobb Premier Gas+ is a brilliant piece of barbecue engineering and is designed to cook with its lid on, meaning its heat source remains concealed and safely contained at all times. While the lid does get hot (hence the well-designed insulated handle) the outside of the body stays cool.
The one thing the Cobb doesn’t have is a rail mount option, so all cooking has to be done on a table top or the pontoon. But if that’s ok by you, then for around £200 you can have yourself a premium quality BBQ that’s going to stand the test of time.
As Chef Nigel noted, cooking with the Cobb is a little different to your average barbecue: “With the Cobb, you kind of feel that it’s not getting hot enough because when you look at the meat it doesn’t appear to be browning as much as the other barbies,” he said.
“But with its lid on it’s like an oven, cooking from the top down as well as from the bottom up.
LotusGrill Standard Barbecue Grill – best boat grill for charcoal lovers
Specifications: Fuel – Charcoal | Dimensions – 35cm diameter x 23.4cm high
Reasons to buy: Great build quality | Fast to light | Great charcoal flavour
Reasons to avoid: Some fiddly assembly | Struggles in windy weather
Lighting the LotusGrill Standard Barbecue Grill is simple; just pour on the lighting fluid LotusGrill supplies, add a match and off you go. To ramp up the heat, the unit has a built-in variable speed fan which is powered by four AA batteries or a USB cable, and controlled by a rotary switch on the front of the unit.
It only takes a few minutes for the charcoal to warm up, and once there cooking temperature is maintained for up to 90 minutes. And if you need to refill the charcoal holder it can be topped up at any time.
The three lidded grills on test – the two Magmas and the Cobb – cooked away merrily throughout the cooking process while the open-top LotusGrill struggled in the day’s breezy F4 conditions.
Chef Andy confirmed that as long as it’s kept out of the wind, the Lotus Grill is a fabulous piece of kit. “I really, really enjoyed cooking on it,” he explained. “Okay, it did struggle a bit in the wind, but in the shade and the calm it really came into its own. Out of the bright sunlight you can see the little fire box going away.
“Turn the fan down and you can see the heat instantly drop away. Makes it easy for the chef to ensure everything cooks beautifully. Great little machine – and with the charcoal it cooks like a real barbie!”
Magma Newport 2 Barbecue Grill
Specifications: Fuel – Gas | Dimensions – 57.8cm (L) x 29.8cm (W) x 29.5cm (H)
Reasons to buy: Plenty of space for a portable BBQ (ideal of larger groups) | Impressive looks and build
Reasons to avoid: Prone to ‘hot spots’ | Quite expensive
Justifying its relatively hefty price tag, the Magma Newport 2 is packed with heating technology under the bonnet. First and foremost, Series 2 units feature a completely redesigned combustion system with anti blowout screens which, Magma assure us, simply will not blow out.
Then there’s a ‘first time every time’ electronic ignition system, and at the business end air and gas are pre-mixed to ensure a consistently hot blue flame. Heat from the flame is directed onto a dual-element infrared radiant plate which theoretically spreads heat evenly across the unit’s entire 18 x 9 inch cooking area.
Andy, our chef, said: “This is a good barbecue which cooks large amounts of food really well. Personally, I like to see what I’m cooking and with the wind blowing in quite strongly on the day I did find it seemed to cook at one end more than the other, so I kept having to move the meat around on the grill. But that was down to me and bringing the lid down fixed that.”
Magma Marine Kettle Barbecue Grill
Specifications: Fuel – Gas | Dimensions – 37.8cm diameter x 27.9 cm high (inc rail mount)
Reasons to buy: Even heat spread | Very controllable cooking
Reasons to avoid:A bit more work needed on the mount system, which was disappointing
Constructed from 100% 18-9 mirror polished stainless steel, Magma’s Marine Kettle is literally a dazzler – don’t forget your sunnies. Designed to be fuelled by disposable Camping Gaz propane/butane mix gas cylinders, the Kettle employs a combination of radiant plate heat distribution and convection heating to achieve a hot, even cooking temperature using minimal gas.
A big plus in terms of the boat grill mount is its simplicity means it would fit onto any boat’s rail. But as Chef Phil pointed out, it wasn’t all plain sailing: “We did have a little problem though where part way through cooking the kettle actually began to swivel on the mount.
“Luckily we caught it and retightened the retaining bolt, but it was still a little suspect and we had to take care not to lose the food – I didn’t want to be calling out ‘Sausage Overboard!’ So I think there’s a bit of work needed on that mount to make it more secure.”
How we tested the 4 best boat grills and barbecues
While product reviews are all well and good, when it comes to group testing the best boat grills and boat barbecues there’s only one way to go – gather your friends round for a pontoon party! And that’s exactly what we did on a fabulously sunny day on the River Hamble.
Three boats and their crews joined in the fun. First up was a Sealine SC35. Being the biggest of our boats it was allocated our largest barbie, the Newport Grill 2. Next came a Monterey 275 Sports Yacht with a post table on its bathing platform – ideal for the Cobb Premier Gas + unit. Lastly, a Fairline Targa 34 greedily gobbled up the other two BBQs – the LotusGrill on its forward guardrail and the Magma Marine Kettle on one of its transom rails.
We began by faffing around with the mounting brackets. While the Magma Marine Kettle’s single-point mount was relatively straightforward to assemble, the Newport 2 grill required two brackets to be fitted beneath the drip tray. Here, the nimble fingers of one of our party, Luke, came in handy:
The LotusGrill was rather more tricky as the stanchion we had to use for the lower mounting point was angled inwards to meet the gunwale. Happily LotusGrill supply two pairs of adjustable top brackets to cover such eventualities and the longer of the two solved the problem – after a lot of juggling we finally had the grill sitting level.
As we fumbled with the LotusGrill conundrum the Cobb was simply placed into position, its non-slip rubber feet gripping firmly onto its allotted table.
Eventually we were ready to spark up our barbies, and here it’s worth noting is that the Cobb was the only one of our three gas barbecues that has a flame failure device built into it. While that’s not a mandatory feature for barbecues used outdoors, it’s something we would nonetheless prefer to see.
As the only charcoal-fuelled unit the LotusGrill was given a head-start over the gas models. Within just a few minutes its grill plate was too hot to touch and so battle commenced. Four chefs were duly appointed – Nigel on the Cobb, Andy 1 on the LotusGrill, Andy 2 on the Newport 2 and Phil on the Magma Kettle –and faced each other down with sausages, burgers and chicken drumsticks drawn.
We then took a group round up of the products tested, with our overall rating based on four key factors – Build Quality (assembly, ease of mounting/sturdiness), Convenience (availability of fuel, ease of lighting, speed of heating up, size of cooking plate, safety, ease of cleaning and ease of storage), Value for Money and Cooking/Taste – each of which we rated on a scale from one to ten.
