Thursday, March 10, 2011

How big a refrigerator does a sailboat need?



Certainly not one big enough to hold a 200lb Irishman (unless my wife has plans that I'm not aware of). Yes, that's me in the in the fridge removing the gizmos at the bottom.

The W42 has a very nice fridge/freezer molded into the hull liner. Its BIG. From my direct experience women do not like hanging upside down in a fridge trying to recover the last piece of wilted lettuce. On our last boat I got away with reducing the size of the fridge by about 1/2. I am about to do the same on TIH.


The blue bits are layers of Extruded Polystyrene to fill up the void space. Two fiberglass boxes will then be fitted through the existing openings. The extruded polystyrene resists water absorption but I plan to coat each sheet with polyester just in case. I will drill a drain hole in each compartment to allow any condensation to drain away. The boxes themselves will be sealed and not have drains.


Existing freezer


Existing fridge, 32" deep.


Spill over (under) vent at the bottom, designed to be operated automatically depending on temperature. I'm sure it worked at some stage.



Old compressor (in the engine room where the port fuel tank was on many W42s')



New compressor. (behind stove, keel cooled.)

1 comment:

builder said...

Having thought about refrigeration on my own project (the box almost the same size and shape as TIH's) I am leaning to a split system. A deep reach-in-from-the-top refrigerator is asking for trouble: how about that size week old chicken you forgot about at the bottom?

Anyway, the inboard side fridge would have a side mounted door (not energy efficient I know) to reduce chances of things getting "lost". The icebox would be reach-in from the top. Each would have their own mechanics.

I have been looking at something like this for the fridge side.

http://frigoboat.com/MS%20Stainless%20Box%20Guide.pdf