During the Refrigeration Installation

Here's a photo of the boat during the installation of the new refrigeration system - and this is why you can't live aboard during a project like this.

As you can see, there's barely room to walk through the boat because the stove, floorboards, and the new freezer drawer are on the port settee, and the temporary refrigerator and new refrigerator are on the starboard settee.

The electrical panel had to be opened up to run the new circuits. The Captain is also redoing the navigation panel because some of our instruments were fried in the lightning strike two years ago and the new ones are a little different.

Floorboards had to be removed and the generator area had to be opened to run the wires. Tools are scattered everywhere. Someone is trying to stain and varnish while the other someone is trying to run wires and fit doors. It's chaos!

We were able to slip the freezer unit in without too much trouble, but we had to lower the refrigerator down from above before the countertop was put on because the space was just too tight. We also had to remove the drawer front to get the drawer into the unit.

I'll bet you didn't know that you had to be authorized to purchase or install Corian solid suface countertop material. But with persistence, we found a countertop installer in Jacksonville who would sell us the eight square feet that we needed. We took a scrap of the old top and found the perfect match. We re-used the old fiddle rails. With lots of sanding, and fresh stain and varnish, they look like new.

This little panel next to the sink had a controller for the old refrigeration system, so we had to make a new one since we removed that controller. With more space we were able to move the generator instruments down a bit which makes them easier to see.

The compressor for each unit is mounted directly below but only uses half the space, so we are utilizing that extra space for storage. On the right we will store large pots and pans, and on the left we found space for a trash bin. The Captain made the new doors match the old ones exactly. We think its very important to match existing details in any remodel.

So far we love the new refrigerators and the new storage space that we created. We'll do an update on power consumption after we've lived with them for a few weeks.

SOURCES:

Refrigerators - Hanson Marine, St. Augustine, 904 825-7448

Cherry - Florida Southern Plywood, Jacksonville, 904 786-4382

Corian - Wellcraft Fabrication, Jacksonville, 904 880-6921 wellcraftfab.com

Hardware - Fisheries Supply fisheriessupplies.com

Fingerbreakers aka Fingerpulls - LaLuna ♡