I was very frustrated with the fact that the ice box on our 87' C27 was/is essentially useless with respect to keeping stuff cold. After a visual inspection a couple years ago I relegated ours to dry storage. There wasn't any chance that the factory box was going to perform as it should given that the hot water heater was shoulder to shoulder with it and the entire box was exposed to the wide open engine compartment. Again, "useless".
Last year I decided to eliminate the alcohol stove, never used it. We have a rail mount propane grill. I looked at that space once occupied by the stove and began to formulate a plan. We really wanted to have an onboard icebox/cooler, mostly to alleviate the need for additional carry on coolers. I came up with a plan and settled on one idea. I purchased a 4x8 sheet of high density foam board rated at R3.0 at the local HD and a very sturdy plastic container. I created a front and top for the cavity where the stove once lived and used the existing cutting board as the lid. I mocked this up and tweaked a thing or two and finally assemble it for the 4th of July weekend. Not 100% complete but fully functional. We filled it up, dropped in one block of ice and off we went. With the old box we were lucky if a block of ice lasted 6 hours. When we left the boat after two days there was a about 25% of the block left. The triple layering of the foam board (a bump to R9) around all the sides, bottom and top of the plastic container seems to work well. I'll post some before and after pictures next week after I add the final trim pieces. The total expense for the conversion, $30, about what a lesser performing plastic cooler would cost.
Steve
Last year I decided to eliminate the alcohol stove, never used it. We have a rail mount propane grill. I looked at that space once occupied by the stove and began to formulate a plan. We really wanted to have an onboard icebox/cooler, mostly to alleviate the need for additional carry on coolers. I came up with a plan and settled on one idea. I purchased a 4x8 sheet of high density foam board rated at R3.0 at the local HD and a very sturdy plastic container. I created a front and top for the cavity where the stove once lived and used the existing cutting board as the lid. I mocked this up and tweaked a thing or two and finally assemble it for the 4th of July weekend. Not 100% complete but fully functional. We filled it up, dropped in one block of ice and off we went. With the old box we were lucky if a block of ice lasted 6 hours. When we left the boat after two days there was a about 25% of the block left. The triple layering of the foam board (a bump to R9) around all the sides, bottom and top of the plastic container seems to work well. I'll post some before and after pictures next week after I add the final trim pieces. The total expense for the conversion, $30, about what a lesser performing plastic cooler would cost.
Steve
