Hello,
There is a thermo electric cooler in my parker 325. I would like to change it and put a true refrigerator with a compressor. Has somebody done this? Will I need a third battery? Thanks for your help.
Best regards.
Pascal Claeyssens P 325/27 (the French one)

Hello Pascal
It's Blue Moon again. I didn't realise that Parkers fitted the thermo electic coolers on the 325's, Blue Moon has a proper fridge unit capable of providing plenty of ice cubes for the gin and tonics that the crew crave . The battery drain is not too bad, as example we can leave the fridge on overnight and batteries are not too bad in the morning but I wouldn't do this if I didn't have a separate engine starter battery .
When I am next on the boat I will check out the identity of the fridge unit and it's claimed power consumption, our battery set up is 2 house batteries 120 amp hour each plus a starter battery again 120 amp hour.

Jan
Blue Moon 325/32

Hello Jan,
thank for your answer. My 325 was for the exportation I suppose( I have found her in Germany last summer). She is written 335 on the hull and the sails. I will send you some photos of the kitchen cupboard near the fridge where I can put a compressor( Danfoss BD 35 F) On your boat, is the compressor put down or up inside this cupboard?
Have you a flat evaporator or a close one inside the fridge? I have 2 batteries under the port bunk in the main cabine( 110 amp hour each one for the engine the other one for all uses)and another one for the bow thrust in the front cabine. Where have put your third one?
Best regards.
Pascal
Maruli 325/27

Hello Pascal,

I have a Frigomatic 35F compressor driven fridge on my 325. The boat originally had a thermo electric unit which was useless. I still have just the standard two batteries which from memory are 110AH each. The fridge will run overnight on one battery although it is best to make sure that you charge the battery the next day.
The compressor is housed in the port side cockpit locker at the front end so that the fridge is just the other side of the bulkhead and the piping can easily be run through. I had a metal grill made to fit in the locker and the compressor is behind it which protects the compressor from damage but lets air through to keep it cool. All in all it is a very neat arrangement and it has run faultlessly since I had it installed 10+ years ago.
I hope this helps.
Jonathan Houston
Tilikum 325/23

Hello Pascal
Blue Moon has exactly the same set up as Jonathan has on Tilikum. I have checked spec. on compressor and it claims 2.3 amps, which should not create any battery problems if fridge is run overnight,maybe my unit is older and draws more power .
It does not look like a very difficult installation.

Best of luck
Jan
Blue Moon
325/32

Thanks for your help!
Is there a ventilation frame between the cockpit locker and the cockpit for your compressor?I have the gas box in the middle of the cockpit locker front end. There is a ventilation tube( coming from the front end of the cockpit) in the galley locker near the stairs. I don't know if I will put the compressor here (with a ventilation with the aft cabine) or in the cockpit locker ( where this one can have water with the tender,the ropes and the fenders.I will see the problem on the boat next week-end.
Best regards
Pascal
Maruli P325/27

For what its worth, I recently converted the crude food locker in my SS26 to a prper fridge using a Waeco kit. used it a few times this past summer (only managed a few outings on the boat!) and am very pleased with the efficiency and low noise levels. If it would be of interest I can give more details of the project.

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Hello Pascal,

Sorry for the slow response.

I don't have any ventilation from the cockpit although the aft end of the locker is open into the stern space of the boat where the fuel tank is etc. It did initially worry me whether the compressor would have enough ventilation since the locker is quite full of gear but it has worked quite happily for years so it seems to be ok.

Maybe my boat is slightly different; my gas bottle is closer to the hull than the middle of the locker and so there is room for the compressor between the bottle and the cockpit side of the locker if you follow me?

I can try and take a photograph next weekend if this would be useful to you?

Regards

Jonathan
Tilikum
P325/23

Hello Jonathan,
I am interested by photographs. An other question: has who made the two stainless stell hull fitting for the rudder because? these ones are worn and the rudder moves to much. Sorry for my poor English!
Best regards
Pascal Maruli P325/27

Hello Pascal,
I am taken some photographs but could not work out how to post them on the forum. If you can let me have your email address I will send them to you. ( my email is in the members handbook).
I am sorry but I do not know who made the rudder fittings.
Regards
Jonathan Houston
Tilikum
P325/23

I had a keel cooled fridge compressor fitted last year. The compressor is small and tucked at the back of the cupboard next to the cool box. The "keel cooled" piece, if you don't know (I didn't) is like a large anode attached to the hull immediately below the compressor.The advantages are that is more energy efficient as it doesn't rely on a fan or pump and is much quieter for the same reason. The downside is that it must be switched off when dried out.I fitted a solar panel to hopefully ensure I can keep it running for long periods without running the engine. It is only a fridge so no ice cube box. The boat yard fitted this but now I've seen it installed it would have been a relatively easy job.

Hi Pascal, I read this old posting about slack in the rudder. My Surprise also has some slack in the rudder gudgeons, that can be felt most when sailing in choppy water. Have you (or any other 325/335 owner found a solution?

Hi Dirk

When the rudder on our boat got a bit loose after about 10 years, I used a reamer to open out the holes in the gudgeons and the fittings on the rudder a little, then replaced the original 12mm bolts with 13mm ones. All a bit crude but it worked fairly well. I think other people have done the same.

Thank you Martin. Sounds as an easy and feasible solution. Next time I will measure the current width of the worn out gudgeons and the length of the bolts. Probably it will be about the size you mentioned.
Did you (have to) remove the gudgeons from the transom to reame the holes to 13mm?

Hi Dirk
I went to follow Martin's advice and ream out the gudgeons but was worried that the remaining metal would be too thin. On closer inspection it turned out that most of the movement was caused by the original pintle bolts being a little short, meaning that the threaded portion was bearing on the gudgeon. I replaced them with longer bolts with the smooth unthreaded shank long enough to cover the whole of the gudgeon; this does mean that I have to pack the end with lots of washers to get them tight, but it works well and has dramatically reduced the movement. It would certainly be worth trying first, as it was cheap and easy to do.

Good luck
Peter

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Just realised this is about rudder bolts not refridgerators!

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That is probably my fault as I replied to a posting from Pascal that originally was about the refrigerator. I didn’t change the subject title. Perhaps this part should best be separate with “gudgeons slack” as a title. I’m not sure I can do that. Probably only the webmaster has that functionality.

I didn't take the fittings off the transom, I used a ratchet drive for the reamer. It might have been easier to take them off but access to the nuts on the inside of the transom would have been very difficult.
I entirely agree with Peter that it is worth seeing a slightly larger and/or longer bolts will solve the problem.