By Jeff Church, C387 #145, IdleWild

Mainsheet, February 2010

As we provisioned IdleWild, our 2008 C387, for our first summer cruise, it was apparent that we would miss the ample refrigerator capacity that we had on our previous boat, a Catalina 320. I didn’t see any alternative but to put a large cooler in the aft cabin, at the foot of the berth. That cooler turned into a real nuisance. It tended to slide around underway, it was a trip hazard, and it had to be drained and restocked with ice every other day. On that 6-week trip we used the locker next to the galley sink for dry storage, but I started thinking about converting it into a second refrigerator. It was an attractive idea; the locker and lid are already insulated, but it would take considerable effort and expense to install a second compressor. Then, this spring, I