We seam to be getting quite a few storms at the moment, but just because we are staying in at the moment doesn't mean that we have stopped doing stuff, as I went to Southampton boat show while Beverley cleared up the issues with our fridge and fixed it.
Fridge issues
We were having fridge issues, so we thought that it was the fridge compressor that was causing the problem. Now our fridge compressor, which is a Waeco, has gone out of production and the ones that you can get now are from Isotherm and they come in two models either a 80l or 150l. So in case we needed to replace the fridge compressor we needed to measure the capacity of the fridge. To do this we used the metric system because it is a lot easier to convert a volume into litres with the metric system. So our fridge is basically two boxes stacked on top of each other. So the smaller box measures 0.50m x 0.35m x 0.25m, while the larger box measures 0.70m x 0.35m x 0.25m So the volume of the smaller box is 0.04375 m3, while the larger is 0.06125 m3. Added together these make a volume of 0.105 m3 which means that our fridge capacity is 105l. (Measurements differ from blog as they were retaken) Now we only store goods in the lower section so Beverley is inclined to purchase the Isotherm 80. Personally I wanted the larger capacity, as it could mean that we could store our food at a colder temperature. This would however mean that we would have to consider the power consumption of the new unit, so I wanted to wait until I knew more about there power cunsumtion and how that compares with our current unit.
One of our followers from the sail cruising Facebook group suggested that we checked the current, in that if the unit was ceasing then it would draw a lot more current. So our fridge is rated at 40W at 12v so the current for the unit should be 3 ⅓ Amps under normal conditions. Now when Beverley measured the current it was drawing 3.5Amps which is not unreasonable because say the voltage was slightly less than 12v then a slightly more current would be needed to compensate.
So seeing as we had tested everything, the only thing that we could do is cut off the old crimps and put new ones on. Ever since then the fridge has worked fine. I also think that having the fridge off for a few days helped charge the batteries up so that they were at maximum charge.
Since changing the fridge crimps and charging the batteries for a few days, the fridge and battery system has worked fine.
Southampton Boat show
One of the few advantages of being a berth holder at Bangor Marina was that all berth holders were given the opportunity to get free tickets to Southampton Boat show. So seeing as my daughter now lives in Southampton, I thought why not see my daughter and check out the boat show out at the same time.
So I thought I would look at some boats
Bali 4.4 - Catamaran £570,000
The good thing about Catamaran is that they have great living spaces as they are much more like a home with a large living space out the back along with a large enclosed living space. The one I looked at was an owners version rather than a charter version as it had one leg dedicated to an owners cabin, with a bedroom, dressing area and a lard head. While the other leg had two cabins, each with there own head.
Lagoon 46 - Catamaran £613,000
Another owners cabin, nut on this one I noticed the escape hatch. On catamarans you will always have an escape hatch because in really bad conditions catamarans have been known to turn upside down, so in these conditions you have to hit a particular glass window with a hammer.
Bavaria C38 - Monohull
On the monohulls at the moment a lot of them have windows in the side of the hull, this means that there is a lot more light coming into the cabin, The downside of the windows is that it reduces the amount of storage that you can have.
Beneteau First - £589,243 for a 44foot yacht
I toured the 36ft version and it did not have a squeaky floor, wonder of wonders. The V berth had a head as well as a head in the rear section so with the two heads and windows in the side, there was simply no where near as much storage as Salty Lass.
