With our current boat our concern has been all about staying warm in northern waters but we are now on our way south and wondering about staying cool. We have plenty of hatches and an air scoop but we have been wondering about fitting air conditioning. We have s 4kva 240 volt A/C diesel generator and also have ducts in place for heating and dehumidifying.

I was wondering about simple air conditioning solutions that would be easy to install and not too power hungry.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

Simon

Thanks Dick very useful comments born of experience.

We are certainly not wedded to the idea of A/C and all the noise that goes with it whether powered by generator or shore power. Our experience thus far of warm water sailing was in our old boat which had no fridge, no freezer, no fans and no cockpit shade. We are anxious to avoid the mistakes of the past! Our current boat is very well prepared for the cold but we have not yet even equipped it with fans and so we are really just considering options as we drift south.

I take your point about cruising in the cool months and that is indeed our plan as I am also keen to retain the day job and return to work leaving the boat to roast. The fact though that we will have to lay the boat up from time to time probably means that we will be forced to do more marina time than if we were permanent live aboard and it is those stifling marina nights that we remember from summer charters in Turkey that have tainted our memories.

My guess is that if we do go down the A/c route it would be used nearly always on shorepower during enforced marina stops at the beginning and end of a sojourn on the boat. But, as we have a generator, it might occasionally get used at anchor in exceptional circumstances. Installing a/c on our boat probably wouldn’t be too great a task as we have air ducts everywhere (for heating) and can easily tap into a through hull for the heat exchanger. We also have 240 volts via shore power and generator. The units I found on the West Marine website are relatively inexpensive in yachting terms so it’s not out of the question.

What is evident on our way south is that we need to fit fly screens and fans as an absolute minimum as we neglected those in the original specification. All advice on keeping cool most welcome.

Simon