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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

Catalina 250 Specific Forum

5-Day Cooler that fits in C250 Galley

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TakeFive
Master Marine Consultant

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2269 Posts

Initially Posted - 09/01/2015 : 21:12:17

This is a reincarnation of a thread that I started last year (now archived).

The Igloo Maxcold 50 quart 5-day cooler that I linked in that thread dropped to $40 on Amazon a couple days ago, so I pulled the trigger and bought it. Typical price had been around $73 with shipping at Amazon and other sites, so this was a significant price drop. As of now, it is still available for $40 on Amazon.

There was some risk in making the purchase, since its size and weight would make it cost-prohibitive for me to return it if it did not fit. And the last thing I need is another cooler that doesn't fit my boat! The C250 cooler area is exactly 25.5" wide, and some sites list the MaxCold-50 as 24", others as 25.5", and some other sites list it at 27.5". Since I could not ever find one in a store, I did not know for sure which was right. Also, the listed depth is 16", but the depth of the cooler cutout is more like 14", but can vary depending on how you measure it since it's not perfectly rectangular.

The answer is, all the numbers for the width are are right, and wrong. The width of the box itself is about 24", from handle bracket to handle bracket is 25.5", and from the outer edge of the handle to handle is 27.5". But there is a trick: If you remove the handle brackets and re-mount them upside down, then when they are raised they are exactly 25.5" wide and will fit in the galley space. The handles are curved so that they fit the contour of the cooler when they are down, so when you mount them upside down they stick out a bit in that position. But when the reversed handles are up, they are more compact against the lid and therefore fit within 25.5":

I should mention another "trick" that some have used is to re-mount the handles in the front and back. That would make the cooler fit even better, but I'm not willing at this point to poke new holes in the brand new cooler.

As far as the depth goes, you can push the bottom back far enough to get it behind the bottom lip, but the cooler is tilted slightly forward when you do so:

The cooler is higher than the stock Coleman cooler, but you can still open it far enough to fetch a drink. Or you can slide it out to open the lid further:

I am hoping to head out to the Chesapeake Bay for the holiday weekend, so I'll report on how this works in practice.

Rick S., Swarthmore, PA
PO of Take Five, 1998 Catalina 250WK #348 (relocated to Baltimore's Inner Harbor)
New owner of 2001 Catalina 34MkII #1535 Breakin' Away (at Rock Hall Landing Marina)

Edited by - TakeFive on 09/02/2015 06:45:05

islander
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3993 Posts

Response Posted - 09/06/2015 : 17:29:26

I have 2 of those coolers, I haven't used them in a while but they do keep things colder for longer. 5 days might be stretching it if I remember but that depends on the frequency of openings and outside temps.

Scott-"IMPULSE"87'C25/SR/WK/Din.#5688
Sailing out of Glen Cove,L.I Sound

TakeFive
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2269 Posts

Response Posted - 09/06/2015 : 19:22:12

I'm at the end of day 4, and the ice is still holding out in the 1-gallon jug that I had frozen. There's an inch or so of water in the outer layer, but a solid core of ice in the middle. Smaller 500 ml bottles that were frozen solid on day 1 now have a little sliver of ice in the middle.

Days 1-3 I was accessing the contents of the ice chest every couple of hours. Temps in the cabin got as high as about 92 those days.

Today (Day 4) we did a side excursion so the boat was locked up. We did not open the cooler, but my memory-thermometer registered a max temp of 117, so it was a real test of the cooler's insulation. So far so good. I did add a few frozen-solid bottles this evening, so that will somewhat invalidate the test for Day 5.

The cooler definitely fits in the galley area, but it is very tight. You can open the lid a few inches to grab something on top, but if you want to rummage around inside you need to pull the cooler out onto the floor. And, like any cooler, if you pull a large item from the bottom, something from the top will always fall into the hole. Then if you want to put that large item back, you need to pull a bunch of stuff out to rearrange everything. The result is a lot of lost chill, especially if you're doing this in 90+ degree heat. I might try to make some dividers to prevent this from happening in the future, but that's way down the list.

Rick S., Swarthmore, PA
PO of Take Five, 1998 Catalina 250WK #348 (relocated to Baltimore's Inner Harbor)
New owner of 2001 Catalina 34MkII #1535 Breakin' Away (at Rock Hall Landing Marina)

dmpilc
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
4593 Posts

Response Posted - 09/10/2015 : 11:03:35

Has anyone tried freezing water in a large baking pan or tub to make a block of ice for the bottom of the cooler? Or maybe 2 square cake pans? How well did it work? Years ago I raced on KY Lake with a guy who had a Swiftsure 33. He had a block of ice made as suggested above in the bottom of his boat's built-in cooler. After the regatta Sunday, we threw out ice that had not yet melted.

DavidP
1975 C-22 SK #5459 "Shadowfax" Fleet 52
PO of 1984 C-25 SK/TR #4142 "Recess"
Percy Priest Yacht Club, Hamilton Creek Marina, Nashville, TN

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The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.