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...............................................--- Boat Fridge Install on the Boat Part I ---
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Getting the fridge up on the boat at the yard wasn't too hard, but...
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.... getting it up to the top of the ladder proved not to be too hard, but getting it up over the top presented a problem for just Ruth and I. We tied it off there and I went looking for help and found...
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...two willing volunteers. The guy on the ladder works for one of the contractors and the fellow holding the box was there with his boat in the yard. Guys I'm sorry I forgot your names, but thanks again.
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Once the box was up on the boat Ruth and I were able to get it down...
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...into the cabin. The arrow points to the portable compressor type cooler that we use on the Mac and had used driving down and were using in the boat until the new one was installed.
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Please excuse the mess inside of the boat during the following pictures. We lived and cooked on the boat for the 3+ months we were there working on it and at times it was a real mess.
The boat install was begun with some supports for the fridge inside of the old fridge opening. The arrow points to the first support. These were screwed to the sides of the walls that were there.
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The supports were just two boards screwed together and ..
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... to the sides of the opening. The cross piece helped to position them and to keep them from wanting to turn in once the fridge was sitting on them.
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I also had to cut away part of the post that was in this area flush with the inside wall since the fridge had to slide in. I'm not too concerned about the cut above. This wall does provide a bulkhead in the boat but the mast is keel stepped and way forward of this area. The fridge is also screwed to the walls shown here and helps to also stiffen the whole area up.
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Note the PVC pipe above for the coolant line and wiring and how much of it is exposed. Shortly you will see that this area has received an additional 2 inches of foam (2 one inch thick pieces). You can also see how the box rests on the runners that were installed above.
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The picture above shows the supply line for the water tanks. I actually have a water hose pushed down through that supply line and it is used vs. the larger hose. The bottom arrow points to the 110 and 12 volt wiring that was there for the old fridge. The 12 volt wiring was used with the new fridge as it was of adequate size for the run.
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A view of the box pushed into the opening. It would go in and out a number of times. The two arrows point to two sections of the sole that are removable to get to the bilge, water and fuel tanks. There are a total of 4 of these sections running from the companion way where the diesel resides forward to the bow end of the main cabin. The fridge does not go straight down so that these can be removed from the area where the fridge overhangs them. The fridge has not interfered with removing them in any way.
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The main reason that the one end of the box is smaller is to keep the access into the galley area open. You do have to step around it slightly compared to the old entry, but having a real fridge/freezer and more counter space is well worth it. Also note that the companion way on this boat is very wide so coming down the companionway and past the fridge is no problem. In essence we felt there was a lot of wasted space in this area of the cabin.
For some time we used the propane stove from the Mac and not the ship's propane stove we used it later after running new lines and installing a new regulator. On trips we will continue to take the smaller stove just in case we had a problem with the larger on and we used it on the trip right after we had bought the boat.
