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As said, it depends on your lifestyle and charging ability.
That said, for me, a moderate sized fridge and freezer is essential. The unit I have now, a AB cold machine will be changed out one of these years, and the box rebuilt to 2" of vacuum panels ~R60 for the Freezer at about 4-5 cu. Ft, and 1" vac panel plus 1" blueboard insulation for the Fridge at ~10 cuft. Frigoboat evaproator plate with BD50 compressor. I would have it set up so either could be used in a pinch as a fridge or freezer. Using Rparts custom vac lids, they should draw around 50 amps each, but of course will probably be a bit more in real life. I have 200 watts of solar now, and plan to have a total of 600 watts prior to leaving on the retirement cruise. I will also have either a honda or diesel genset.
Its a lot of cost to have cold food I agree. But diet is extremely important to long term comfort and mental stability. Canned for while its ok in small amounts, is incredably high in sodium, not a good thing. And to go from living from a refrigerator to living without one imo is one way quick to stop a cruise from being fun.
So design a system that will work for you, keep it as small as possible with some built in redundency, a good charging system and good battery bank, and frozen steaks, chicken, vodka, ice cream, butter, fish along with a large assortment of drinks, condiments, etc will make your first mate happy.
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