2211Hrs – To Fill Or Not To Fill ….
A relatively short 3 hour session today, I slept badly last night, I had a headache and my general energy level seemed down. I’m always torn when I have days like this, half of me acts like a drill sergeant who yells at me to stop acting like a wimp and to get to work, whilst the other, more intelligent side, knows that unless there’s an urgent need it’s usually counter productive to ignore what my body is telling me. Better to stop, rest up, regroup and come back stronger. That’s what I chose to do today.
Before that though I removed all the temporary screws and washers from the mast beam I put together yesterday and then I spent a couple of hours second filling the starboard hull. I’m using a light fairly runny mix of microballoons and resin that goes on nice and thin where needed. It looks as if I’ve put loads on when you look at the hull but it’s not the case, there’s no need and I’m conscious that I only want to sand lightly with a fine paper this timer rather than create more work for myself. I wear a high powered head torch when working with the filler as I’ve found it’s the perfect way of seeing the imperfections left behind in the first coat.
During a break with coffee I sat in the galley and pondered the subject of cold box/ refrigeration. Brad asked what I was doing about it in his comment last night and the answer is ‘I don’t know yet’. It’s one of those subjects that is debated endlessly amongst liveaboards and you’ll get strong opinions both ways. Either a simple well insulated cold box and ice or a decent electrically powered refrigeration system is essential. Given my desire for ‘Gleda’ to be completely self-sufficient for long periods the reliance on a supply of ice isn’t feasible and as I’m determined to ensure that I have a battery and charging set up that’s more than capable of supporting the running of a fridge I’m minded to have one. That said I also want to keep things simple.
I do like the Waeco drawer fridge that Warren fitted on ‘Natural High’. As you can see in the photo it fits perfectly in the space under the oven and is very accessible for smaller items in the galley. It’s an expensive item though and the best price I can find is £450. There’s no reason not to have a well insulated built in ice box in the corner of the counter top as well. I’m certain I’ll do that, again this is what Warren has done on ‘Natural High’. I also think that one of the decent spec portable chest fridges like those that Coleman and Waeco make would be a very worthwhile investment up in the deckpod. Cold beer and chilled rose and white wine are essential after all!
Anyway as always I’d welcome any thoughts. I suspect I might just plan to build in a pots and pans drawer under the cooker anyway and then, depending on how the budget goes I can always slot in the fridge later on.
Here’s a photo of all four beams ready and waiting for the next stage.
Rather than using a headlamp, try getting a portable light and placing it on the hull to shine it sideways down the hull to see the imperfections..It works with drywall.
I have wondered about gas powered (absorbtion) fridges for use on a multihull. They are out of the question for a monohull because they dont work properly or safely if heeled over for a period of time, but I believe they have been used on multihulls. I asked on a boat design forum if anyone had any actual experience with this type of fridge on a catamaran, but got no replies. I think you would need to install a gas fridge so that any leakage of gas vents overboard and it would be very advisable to have a gas alarm as well. – John
We used a propane refrigerator that was salvaged from an old motor home on our Tiki 46. A 20lb tank of propane lasted about 2 weeks during the summer months and the fridge worked great at anchor and while sailing. The only problem was it gave off quite a bit of heat. It was in the deckpod where our bed was and at the height of a Florida summer the temp was just too high for comfort. Placed somewhere else it would likely have been less of a problem, but the fridge was too big to fit through the hull hatches so we were stuck with it up on deck.
Gemini catamarans use a propane refrigerator and there are few complaints about them.
Thanks for the info Sue. I downloaded the instruction book for the Electrolux (Dometic?) Type Model RM123E fridge. This operates either on gas or electricity, but when on electric operation it uses more electricity than a normal compressor fridge, so I think that on a boat you would want to operate it on gas except when you have a shore power connection.
The heat is produced at the back of the fridge so I would imagine that it should be possilble to ventilate this heat to outside the cabin. Might even be possible to have some kind of flap that would direct the heat outside in warm weather and inside in cold weather. The instructions for the RM123E fridge say that it uses about 0.39 lbs of gas per 24 hours on medium setting, so on that basis 20lbs should last about 7 weeks. However, this is only a tiny fridge, your one may have been larger. Also, any fridge will use more energy in a hot climate.
For a conventional electric fridge on a sailing catamaran with a little used engine probably an outboard, the options are either a petrol/diesel generator and/or renewable energy, i.e. solar panels, windmill. The gas fridge option would seem to be lower in first cost than either of these and possibly a bit lighter in weight.. The renewable energy option is the lowest running cost, but there are times when it wont work at all.
Enjoying the discussion on gas refrigeration. Has anyone thought of (or actually done it) putting the cooling coils in the ocean? Seawater is a much better conductor of heat than air and it seems likenitnwould be a much more efficient fridge if it didn’t have to vent to the air.