Refrigeration
An interesting day today... I'm about to order our refrigerator insulation from R-parts! This stuff is very expensive, but very efficient. One inch of VIP vacuum panel has an R value of 28, so you can super-insulate your refrigerator without losing precious space.
Neil's building the box liner this weekend. The liner itself will be made of fiberglass sheet, then one inch of VIP panel, then 3/4"-1" of regular extruded polystyrene rigid foam insulation. This will give us a box with R=31 throughout: much much better than most production boats, and waaaaaay better then most 20-year-old boats with water-logged old expanding foam insulation.
I also had a very interesting and comforting email discussion with someone else who is involved in a project much like our own. We met Ted through the Cruising World Bulletin Board and he is involved in a similar major renovation so that he and his family can go cruising. However, his wife is the one working and he's the boatbuilder and "Mr. Mom". It was really great talking to him and discussing the joys and frustrations of our similar projects.