Woo hoo! Hello icecream! It’s only taken 6 months, but we’ve finally got a working freezer unit back on our catamaran, Sea Goddess. But the path to all manner of frozen goodies was not smooth, as has been our experience thus far its one step forward and two steps back.
This blog has a bit of background, so for those of you who are unfamiliar with the freezer saga click here http://seagoddessadventures.com/warranty-woes-vitrifrigo-freezers/
Some of you may recall that a replacement thermostat was delivered to us on 17th January 2020 and we squirreled this safely away while we considered options to divert rainwater from the bimini and helm station toward the port deck. To date when it rained water would flow unchecked from the bimini, into the helm station and either flow down the front of the freezer unit into the cockpit, or onto the locker seat located behind the helm. So, there was really no point in replacing the faulty freezer thermostat and placing the freezer back into its usual position until the rainwater issue was addressed.
We tossed around several ideas and considered the following:
- It had to be safe.
- It couldn’t encroach on ease of movement from the cockpit to the helm station (via pre-existing stairs).
- It had to have some degree of flexibility.
- It had to look good, not ugly or bulky.
- It had to be cost effective.
Initially we thought tempered glass which would sit behind the stairs leading to the bimini, a bit like a splashback. But tempered glass wouldn’t provide the flexibility we needed so we moved to perspex. The
n how would we fix it in place? We have a great relationship with the manager at Gateway Marine who suggested we use teak moulding in an L-shape, rout a section out of the top and silicon the perspex into the teak. For the top we re-used the aluminium track previously used to fit a piece of rectangular Sunbrella cloth which spanned the space from above the freezers to the cockpit ceiling. Essentially the perspex, though larger, would in effect replace the shade cloth.
Gateway Marine supplied and routed the teak moulding, and Peter sourced the perspex from a local business here in Brisbane. We chose a grey colour for the perspex since this married well with the windows of the sliding doors leading into the saloon. The colour will also help reduce sun glare from the helm station into the cockpit as well. Peter spent the weekend fixing the teak moulding, track and Perspex into place. He also filled, sanded and polished the holes in the fibreglass caused by the removal of the Sunbrella cloth press studs and tracks. It looks awesome, and fits seamlessly with its surrounds, everything we had hoped for.
Then we turned our attention to the freezer and the moment of truth had arrived. Would the replacement thermostat give us the fix we were looking for? Unfortunately, what we discovered was that the wrong thermostat had been delivered to us. UGH! Quite frankly we were so disappointed and annoyed by this. Note to self – check all replacement parts for correctness on delivery, make no assumptions. We immediately emailed the warranty representative at Wind Craft Australia requesting that a correct replacement thermostat be urgently sourced. Initially there was some concern regarding supply since the local distributor did not have a thermostat in stock and was unable to get one from the factory in Italy or from other suppliers in France. Luckily for us he was able to source the correct thermostat via an agent online.
So, the thermostat arrived which Peter installed, and immediately lights came on and the unit started to hum. Success, yes!! We manouvered and lifted the unit back into position, ensuring that wiring and the water outlet hose were kink free and not impeded in any way. Cleaned and polished the drawers on the inside and outside, then slide them into place. Then it was time to go shopping, and even though our purchases were restricted due to the COVID-19 craziness, we managed to purchase most of the items on our ‘favourites’ list. So happy days, icecream is on the menu once again at Sea Goddess.
