Importance of freezer for cruising?

[boatguy30]

Hello-

I''ve done a fair amount of coastal cruising and some offshore work and am currently preparing my 35'' Pretorien for extended, worldwide cruising. I''m trying to decide if it''s worth devoting the space and amps for a seperate freezer. About 2.5 cu ft in my case with a 5 cu ft refer. Anyone have any insight about how useful or useless a freezer was on a long cruise in the South Pacific for example?

[Jeff_H]

When you talk about "extended, worldwide cruising" in a 35 foot boat you really do not have the luxury of carrying enough diesel fuel and batteries to make a freezer worth doing. I am not sure that a freezer makes sense even on a bigger boat, but giving up the space involved is extreme on a 35 footer.

Jeff

[kimberlite]

If your freezer is properly insulated, it will make the difference between camping out and having a little luxury during long passages.
having frozen meats and fish is much better than to eat out of cans. you can also freze fish that you catch along the way.
fair winds,
eric

[fourknots]

Freezers and fridges are highly over-rated. Never had either in three years of cruising - never missed either. If you like to work on your boat in exotic ports, get one.

[WHOOSH]

Boatguy:

I think yours is the typical kind of question we see here which, bottom line, others can''t help you very much with. Jeff''s right that a freezer can put add''l stowage & electrical demands on you, but it''s really your cruising style that determines whether these are unsuitable or worth the trade-off. Can you do without refrigeration altogether? Others find it acceptable or perhaps even desireable...but what does that mean for you and your crew?

Having said all that, I think you''re asking a ''digital'' question for an ''analog'' issue: yes or no to a freezer. We have a 5 cu ft reefer, as well, yet we''re able to stow away a small amount of frozen food as needed and our ice is as clear and hard as any other boat''s with whom we''ve had contact. So don''t overlook having both in one box...and if your current system can''t support this on a reasonable electrical budget, perhaps the real question you mean to pose is whether it makes sense (for you, not me or others...) to modify the box and system so you can have your (5 cu ft) cake and eat it too.

(As a general guideline, we''re seeing a 35 amp/hr/day demand for the above, in Florida and the Caribbean. That level of electrical demand seems very reasonable to me, especially for solar- and wind-rich SoPac cruising where alternative energy sources pay good dividends...but only if your crew finds value in the reefer''s benefits to begin with).

Jack

[jbanta]

I see alot of high tech ideas here but the simplest one seems to be lost. When I first started live aboard I bought all my meats deep frozen. I when packed them in my ice box I layered them with thin strips of dry ice. I would only open the ice box evey other day. My meats stayed hard frozen for 3 weeks. I guess if I would have had more to put in it I could have made it last alot longer...Just an idea..

[GordMay]

DRY ICE - OMO:
It would take about 50 Lbs of Dry Ice, at a cost of about $30, to keep an ice-chest (& it''s contents) frozen a couple of weeks.
Beware of CO2 build-up, as the dry ice sublimates (condenses from solid to CO2 gas).
Don''t store "unfreezable" stuff in the same box.
Thoroughly check out < www.dryiceinfo.com > before using.
Respectfully,
Gord

[jbanta]

This is a trick I picked up from sail mag. It worked in my built in ice chest. I don''t use it any more since I had my 8 months of live aboard time and added a frig. But it worked....

[el]

Whoosh

I just read your statement "as a general guideline, we''re seeing a 35amp/hr/day demand...in Florida and the Caribbean". I have read several other places to count on 60 amp/hr/day. How are you achieving such good results and what system are you using? 25 amp/hr will certainly make a big difference in any power generating/storage systems that we install!

I would also love to hear from others. What systems and how many amp/hr?

Thanks for your help!!!

el

[Koene]

We have just returned form 3 years of cruising with the luxury of a large refrigerator and separate freezer. I see a lot of discussion on the amp usage. However, our system was coldplate driven. Yes we did have to run the engine 1 hour a day in the tropics. Running the engine did charge the batteries at the same time. An installation like this does take a lot of preperation to do it right. In our case it worked excellent without having a constant draw on the batteries.