Rolling pin doubles as paper-towel dispenser
Issue 53 : Mar/Apr 2007
Few onboard items are more likely to spread microbes around than that good old bug farm, the towel. Thus it came to be that we now keep a paper-towel roll in the head.
Paper towels need a dispenser, but the ones in the hardware store are either all-plastic, with poor anticipated longevity in the rough-and-tumble of shipboard life or, worse yet, they contain chrome-plated ferrous parts that will soon be leaching rust. Anyway, conventional domestic dispensers designed to blend with the aesthetic of a modern kitchen or bathroom tend to look tacky on a classic yacht. It had to be something salty.
Our solution presented itself in the improbable form of an old rolling pin, one of those unsophisticated species turned from a single piece of wood and having no moving parts. My partner, the lovely Joyce, suggested that this time-scarred and (by mysterious synchronicity) obsolescent denizen of our home galley could form the core of a paper-towel dispenser. By a further happy coincidence, the rolling pin appears to conform to an obscure European Union standard for kitchen-roll internal diameter. It just doesn’t get better than that.
Throw in some timber scraps to make a back-plate and two cross-ribs to prevent splitting or warping, and an overlength cross-beam on the front. Varnish the assembly, then set it aside to dry. Meanwhile, cut two short lengths of natural-fiber rope, clap an eye-splice in one end of each of a size that will just squeeze over the handles of the rolling pin, serve the splices with some tarred marline for authenticity and aroma, lead the rope-ends through drilled holes in the by-now-dried cross-beam, and secure with stopper knots.
It remains only to garnish the assembly with two brass hooks capable of holding conventional towels and your cabinet of easement is not only graced with improved hygiene but, for the discerning yachtsman, a feature that has to be this season’s “must-have” in élégance nautique.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
