[origially posted on 7 Feb at at www.SVOctopussy.com]

Over the past week we have been wrangling with the issue of refrigeration… or the lack thereof, on our boat. We have an icebox which is built under the starboard aft bunk. That’s it.

When we first decided to buy the boat back in November, in the couple of days we had back at home between the reconnaissance trip, and the whirlwind week of cleaning, surveying, and acceptance trials, we sat down and made a spreadsheet of everything we needed (I use that term loosely) to add to/upgrade on the boat.

That list added up quickly, and the grand total was : $58,254.

Wow.

Well, when you budget $10,000 for a generator, $5k plus for a water maker, $$$$ for wind and solar… it adds up quickly.

Then, however, there was the washer-dryer, and the total galley refit with induction cook-tops, new stove/micro, etc. totaling several more thousands of dollars. Then there was the three drawers of Vitrifrigo we were going to build into the starboard aft cabin, after we ripped out the bunk.

Yeah. We got a little overzealous.

Our list of “necessities” very quickly approached the $60k mark.

And that did not even include everything. Such as new lines, sheets, halyards, spinnaker (parasailor actually), anchor windlass, and the hard dodger that we want to construct… you know the important stuff that adds up fast!

It has been fun to discuss all of these things we said we needed for the boat. We have been able to sit back after making that initial list, and say, “Do we really need that?”

For example, we wanted to totally redo the galley. Then 007 looked at the propane stove/oven that we currently have in the boat. He called me, because I was running Dr. No between weekend activities, and was on my way over.

He said, “You know, I’ve been pondering electrical consumption. I mean… if you think we should still go ahead with the induction plates and new micro/convection stove, then that’s totally OK. But, I just took a good look at this propane stove/oven we have onboard, and it’s actually pretty nice.”

Settled.

It’s funny because we’ve had several other similar conversations over the past couple of months as well. Actually, over coffee each morning, we surf the Internet, defender.com, and Cruisers Forum, and talk about potential items for the boat, or things we might not need.


Prudentiam: Sometimes he’s got to beat it into your head if you don’t listen the first time!
The latest, as I wrote, was refrigeration. At first we were looking to see how many Vitrifrigo sliding fridge/freezer drawer units we might be able to fit into that aft cabin. (Not to mention the stand-alone ice maker. 007′s excuse was that M and Q love to chew on ice cubes… it had nothing to do with scotch apparently.)

Then 007 used his wiz-bang geometry skills, and we figured out that the existing icebox built under the bunk is actually around 3 cu ft. Not bad.

So, to consider ripping apart an entire cabin– more specifically, to consider the time and expense of ripping apart an entire cabin– to install refrigeration, began looking like a pretty inefficient use of our time and money!

So, currently we are on Plan B… which is much more realistic, both in convenience, practicality, time and money.

They make these things… called cold plates…. amazing. ; )

And… we can retro-fit one very easily into the existing icebox.

While we might refit a space in the galley to make an additional icebox, overall, it is a much more practical plan.

So we have, once again, been reigned in by the god, Prudentiam. He can be a pain in the ass, but you know it’s only because he’s usually right.