Cold Sauvi Blanc for the admiral

[ausmike]

Have finally bought myself that Xmas present - an almost new 26M . It came with a bunch of gear never used (still in packets even) and mods galore. Very happy and can't wait to get her on the water, however have found myself already listing projects for her during the winter... One that has cropped up, that is of great importance to she who must be obeyed, is how to keep the wine cool for the admiral. On reflection, trips back to port for ice every 2 or 3 days seem a little too much (not to mention valuable space the ice takes for other necessities like beer), so I began to think about a 12v fridge.

Anyone out there put one on their Mac??? Do they draw too much power to be considered usable on the boat without running the motor all the time to charge the batteries? Am I just placing too much heat in the cabin to make it comfortable to drink afore mentioned vino??? Any advice here greatly appreciated (solve this one and the Admiral will let me move on to much more interesting ones )

[Y.B.Normal]

I bought an Igloo Koolmate for Y.B.Normal; it wasn't my best purchase. While it's good in the van for cooling or warming
things, and makes a good beverage cooler in the rec room, it uses too much energy for the sailboat.
There are better, more efficient refrigerators out there. If you go with a refer, I suggest installing more batteries and/or
solar panels to keep the batteries charged. There are a number of super-efficient coolers out available that will keep
your beer and wine cold for up to 2 weeks using ice.
Dale

[Trouts Dream]

Maybe you can get her to change to a light bodied red wine.
A light-bodied wine will have fewer tannins present and less presence on the palate. These wines tend to be less demanding partners with flavor-filled foods. An example of a light-bodied red wine would be one derived from the Gamay grape varietal, such as France’s famed young red wine: Beaujolais Nouveau.

We all must make small sacrifices when we sail.

[ubi_est_via]

Hi,
It's manatory that I keep enough cold bubbly on board to keep the crew from going AWOL so I run a 45lt WAECO fridge/ freezer. I've set my Mac up with a second battery & have enough power to last 3 days before I need to plug in & recharge.....Cheers, John

[Duane Dunn, Allegro]

Any of the small Dan Foss compressor ice chests work great. Their power draw is low enough and can be mostly compensated for with a medium sized solar panel. Stay away from the piezo based coolers, they consume 4-5 times the electricity as the compressor ones. Waeco, Engle, and Coolmatic are good brands.

[KayakDan]

Look at the Engel 35 fridge/freezer. 2.7A draw,and it can make ice.
http://www.marineparts.com/partspages/Engel/Engel4.htm

Add 80w of solar to the boat with a controller,and your all set.

I'm planning on adding an Engel 45 with 130W of panels(stanchion mounted)for our boat,'cause beer takes up more space!

[Duane Dunn, Allegro]

That actually brings up a refrigeration approach I think would work well.

We already have two coolers already installed in our X, a igloo 52 qt 5 day that is under the aft dinette seat (the standard spot) and an igloo 'cube' cooler that sits on the seat area just aft of the galley. Both actually work very well as is. The under seat one is the main 'food' cooler and the 'cube' is the 'drink' cooler. The only issue over the years is needing to get ice every 2-4 days.

So what I think would work well is to get a smallish 12v cooler and use it as a freezer, rather than one big enough one to use as a fridge inside the boat. It would make ice for drinks and freeze a set of blue ice blocks that would be used in the existing two other coolers. I'd have two sets of blue ice, one in the existing coolers and one in the freezer. They could be rotated every day or two as needed. I'd even have some space for luxury things like ice cream.

I would locate the freezer out in the cockpit under the helm seat where it's noise and the heat it produces wouldn't have an impact on the boat interior.

What do you think?

[waternwaves]

That location makes the most sense. I too have looked at the Engle and the blue ice.... We are kind of looking at 7 days max on the mac now...so having the Ice maker is a big goal. But I still have to put an arch on first for the solar panel. The engle actually llooks a little too large for just freezing blue ice, rum, and a few cubes... We would like to fit it under the forward dinete seat, so we can keep the regular cooler in place.

Duane.


I am not quite understaning, in the cockit....don't you loose too much aft berth space diggin through the fiberglass?? or are you mounting it across the cockpit footwell adjacent to the companionway hatch like Billys AC?

If you were going to put it in the boat, I have to ask, would you mount it to the sides of the dinete seat and and/or shower wall? and then vent/use the waste heat as cabin heat? or would you mount it on a tray above the ballast tank, with a lip rail on the hull?

I am leaning toward on the hull/ballast tank..... just for the quieter vibration issues..... everything rattles the liner already.

[Duane Dunn, Allegro]

I'd just set it on the cockpit floor under the seat in the lower standing area. No cutting of anything needed. We use that space now for boot storage. In general we have stopped going in and out of the boat via the transom, we do all dinghy boarding now out the side with our fender step. That has allowed us to fill up the transom area with things like the BBQ and the BBQ table above the motor. One more obstruction sitting on the floor under the seat would not be a problem. I already have the arch for the solar panel so I'm set.

If I were to put a larger one inside I would just set it on the plywood panel I already have on the ballast tube under the dinette seat. I removed the drop in liner tub years ago to make room for the larger 5 day 52 quart cooler. For lack of a better choice I would add ventilation holes in the footwell area of the dinette area. I don't like this however as in the summer we don't want anymore heat inside the boat, that's why I think out back makes more sense. It might be possible to vent into the head and then add a powered external vent in the head which wouldn't be a bad thing to have anyway.

[C Striker]

Hi Mike - congrats,

I hope your m is set up nice and I'd love to see some pics of your previous mods if you are able and don't mind sharing . My m is still new with newbie painted bilges that look like white mirrors waiting to silacone if they ever would get the weather forecast right. I have to figure out what mods i need to do for space along with how/what i need to live for a month or dare i say 2 months aboard with 2 and a dog. i hope to do the bahamas before feb 2012 ... not to be superstitious. that link to the live-aboard mentioned months ago that we aren't talking about is a nice list of mods. wish i coulda... umm never mind.

about refers... what size do you all think would be good for a trip that long? a#?
or do i need the space for more dry stuff? Me n the punkin admiral can rough it with food i bet and as for the beer - whiskey with a beer chaser seems cold in a way.

And what would 'younz guys recommend as far as wattage for solar panels...? I hope panels are the cheap way to go. I have 2 batteries and had hoped they could stay put intil next winter. I may dare to roll the dice and not box them yet- is this a bad idea...? I have sailed 4 times all on the Striker, all without the main... so I will be playin it safe for now.

So what I think would work well is to get a smallish 12v cooler and use it as a freezer, rather than one big enough one to use as a fridge inside the boat. It would make ice for drinks and freeze a set of blue ice blocks that would be used in the existing two other coolers. I'd have two sets of blue ice, one in the existing coolers and one in the freezer. They could be rotated every day or two as needed.

.
I wonder if this is the way to go or not ? I wonder if those blue bags will need rotated at least daily, if those expensive coolers are really worth it... are they

hmmmm,
Erik

[ausmike]

Wow... Some fantastic ideas here guys, thanks.

I think I like the Solar Panel (was always on my list anyway) and the small freezer idea. Seems the most efficent use of space and allows for ice for the Rum and cool Sauvi Blanc and beer from the cooler with the blue blocks and... we could even bring a few frozen preprepared pasta sauces or what ever for when the fresh stuff runs out. With careful rationing of rum, wine, beer and water (next project will be to install pressure water and a bladder) seems 5 days to a week out of port is a real possibility .

[waternwaves]

I have a 35 gallon bladder and pressure system.... it is not going to last a week for 2 without refillin in hot weather, especially with flush toilets... you might want to look at a through hull supply for running your toilet water supply.

The arch is a necessity for holding the mast and the solar panels.80 wat panel is just about right for a small 12 VDC freezer system.

[temall00]

If you have a porta-potty, that will be your limiting factor. It'll need to be dumped every two days (your mileage will vary.) If you are out in the ocean you can dump over but most of your time will probably be inland cruising.

If your stopping to dump, a few bucks will get you 10 lbs of ice.

10-20 lbs of ice every other day will keep the sauvignon blanc plenty cold and the admiral happy.


If you have a holding tank... never mind.

Tim

[Don T]

Hello,
My admiral prefers the cool bilges to keep the wine at just the right temp. Of course we do most of our sailing in northern waters which are pretty dang cold (50* or so).

Don

[Chinook]

I considered the operating approach suggested by Duane, but ended up taking a different approach. Running the Engle as a freezer substantially increases the power draw, which is a concern of mine. Our 65 watt solar panel was able to keep up just fine. I'm not sure how well the panel would do if the frig was set to run as a freezer. Also, putting the frig in the cockpit would expose it to air temps which are often higher than water temp. We put it in the ice chest space below the aft table seat, where cool bilge air helps. I also lined the frig with 2 inch rigid insulation, which would be difficult to do in the open cockpit. We operated with both an ice chest and the frig. We loaded up the ice chest with ice for the beer, pop, and wine. We enjoyed chilled beverages when ice was available (also, cubes in the margaritas and rum cokes), and used the frig to keep perishable foods cold. We set the Engle at 40 degrees, and it held that temp beautifully. It's difficult to keep food in an ice chest consistently that cold. We had virtually no wastage from mold, rot, or food in contact with ice meltwater. This approach worked well for us on a 7 week cruise.