How Do You Keep Your Boat Cool In The Summer
- Thread starter kartracer
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone who enjoys boating.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
FF
Guru
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2007
- Messages
- 22,552
It's all yours 
...
It is far easier to create warm air than cold air.
...It is far easier to create warm air than cold air.
- Joined
- Jun 25, 2008
- Messages
- 10,104
- Location
- Australia
- Vessel Name
- Now boatless - sold 6/2018
- Vessel Make
- Had a Clipper (CHB) 34
Why do you think you need to bother..? Just do something like Insequent suggested in post 13. I have a slightly smaller solar vent in the for'd cabin hatch, and just leave one small screened bathroom window open, and ok, the boat is a bit warm when you first go in on a summer day, but quickly improved by opening the pilot and cockpit doors and a couple of windows. Our climate in summer is just as hot as yours, and like Brian says, seems crazy leaving power hungry stuff on, to wear out and chew up electricity, when it is serving little purpose. You US guys have just got too soft & too used to mod cons I reckon...
ranger58sb
Guru
Why do you think you need to bother..? Just do something like Insequent suggested in post 13. I have a slightly smaller solar vent in the for'd cabin hatch, and just leave one small screened bathroom window open, and ok, the boat is a bit warm when you first go in on a summer day, but quickly improved by opening the pilot and cockpit doors and a couple of windows. Our climate in summer is just as hot as yours, and like Brian says, seems crazy leaving power hungry stuff on, to wear out and chew up electricity, when it is serving little purpose. You US guys have just got too soft & too used to mod cons I reckon...
The humor (humour) is good...
But sometimes opening doors and windows just makes the whole pace even hotter inside, no cool-down effect... "Quickly improved?" Not.
And sometimes it's gotten hot enough inside so that the glue holding some of the wall coverings onto the bulkheads dries out, wall covering starts curling up, pain in the neck...
That's at least as difficult to avoid as mold...
-Chris
Steve
Guru
It is very humid here, I run a dehumidifier it keeps it dry, but still hot. I figure if I try to vent out the hot dry air it will be replaced with hot "wet" air and I think the high humidity: mildew, mold, etc is worse than the heat. That or may not be so. I haven't noticed any damage from the heat. I do try to get by there a couple or more times a week to open things up. The flybridge gets hot too the back is open so I'll try putting a solar fan up there to circulate the ir some.
go-planing
Senior Member
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2015
- Messages
- 204
It's all yours
Bruce
....standard aviation term for life limited parts..
Captain Paul
Veteran Member
I keep two of my four units, the salon and one SR set on humidity control. If you are having to replace your unit, I'd buy one with that capability and use it.
Steve
Guru
Maybe a small 110 window unit, easily removed when the boat goes out, or one of those "portable" units that stand in the room recycle cool air and exhaust through a vent or window? A 110v is dirt cheap and the portables are not expensive, I have one for "hurricane season" I might give it a try on the boat.
Carolena
Guru
We do the same. If the boat is dry to start from running the dehumidifier, it cools very quickly when we get there and turn on the AC.
Mule
Guru
Kindda like standard grocery store term. Best if used by ?/?/???? I have past mine I think. Getting a little stale.
I first set the temp high. Then occasionally used the humidity setting but noticed that the water lines would grow more stuff if that was running. So then I just hooked up a small fan to move air around. That seemed to work as well and running the ac or the humidity setting.
sbu22
Guru
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2011
- Messages
- 1,253
- Location
- US
- Vessel Name
- Panache
- Vessel Make
- Viking 43 Double Cabin '76
With 85-90 degree injection temperature from May to September, my old A/Cs still do a good job. However, I do not leave them in operation full time - only when aboard. Yep, pretty warm when you first get aboard. Give the AC 15-20 minutes and it's OK. At 45 minutes, fine.
I can't see wasting the energy and running equipment to avoid the initial discomfort.
As to mold/mildew - I do keep a carpet dryer fan (similar to this: Lasko Pro-Performance High Velocity Pivoting Blower Fan-4905 - The Home Depot) running 24/7, winter and summer. The way my boat is laid out, the fan projects a sensible air stream from the V-berth doorway all the way through the galley and saloon, to the aft cabin. Moving air = mold suppression.
I can't see wasting the energy and running equipment to avoid the initial discomfort.
As to mold/mildew - I do keep a carpet dryer fan (similar to this: Lasko Pro-Performance High Velocity Pivoting Blower Fan-4905 - The Home Depot) running 24/7, winter and summer. The way my boat is laid out, the fan projects a sensible air stream from the V-berth doorway all the way through the galley and saloon, to the aft cabin. Moving air = mold suppression.
dhays
Guru
- Joined
- May 26, 2015
- Messages
- 9,045
- Location
- United States
- Vessel Name
- Kinship
- Vessel Make
- North Pacific 43
yeah, I see what you mean. So there is no relief by having the water cooling the hull.
FWIW, I have used dehumidifiers on my last two boats. It runs full time when at our home dock. I always set it on the galley counter and had it drain into the sink. Sailboaters would get all worried that I wasn't closing the galley sink thru hull when leaving the boat, power boaters don't seem to care. I have yet to put the dehumidifier on the new boat. I will do it it likely in the fall when the humidity starts to rise and the temps start to cool. Doing that keeps the boat bone dry even in our winters.
Last edited:
menzies
Guru
My brother bumped his sailboat aground on an outgoing tide last year right outside the marina. It dried out on the sand so he put out a kedge and walked ashore. When the water started getting close to lifting the boat he went back to it to find it flooded with water coming up through the head sink. Cost him thousands, new iPad, new fridge, etc. etc. If he had left it another 45 minutes or so he may have not be able to bail it out before the water reached the gunnel.
The big difference is the keel. A sail boat, (unless bilge keel) lies on its side. A powerboat tends to sit on its bottom.
Attachments
dhays
Guru
- Joined
- May 26, 2015
- Messages
- 9,045
- Location
- United States
- Vessel Name
- Kinship
- Vessel Make
- North Pacific 43
Like your brother, I doubt that I would have thought about closing the thru-hulls in his situation. What a bummer.
Capecodder
Senior Member
I'm in South West Florida very warm 90* +/- canal water plus hard growth in my strainers in four to six weeks if used everyday, (growth looks like tiny mussels). A cheap non programmable home window air conditioner on a mechanical clock timer is what I use. (First power outage and the fancy auto/programable need to be reset by a person.)
Last edited:
FLSunfish
Member
Would not leave AC units running unatended here in the FL Panhandle. We're on the Gulf Coast Intracoastal Waterway between two passes, and we get inundated with jelly fish at times. Even with an oversize water pump and sea strainer, they can shut down an AC system in a few hours.
janice142
Guru
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2011
- Messages
- 1,239
- Location
- USofA
- Vessel Name
- Seaweed
- Vessel Make
- Schucker mini-trawler
One old timer's trick it to put a few pennies or copper pipes into your sea strainer. Use pre 1981 pennies because they are copper. When the pennies turn pink, replace them.
It will keep those little mussels away and kill anything else in there.
I've never had anything in my sea strainer.
