Sea Gypsy (Hull #743) is berthed in Northwest Florida. After suffering through one very hot summer with no air, the wife & I decided we must find a way to cool the cabin. We looked into permanent, water cooled systems and were appalled at the cost and the fact that we would need to have the boat hauled to drill yet two more holes in her bottom. We were in Lowe's one afternoon and found ourselves looking at window unit air conditioners. I've seen these used on sailboats with varying degrees of success and some really horrible installations. The price, under $100 for a 5000 BTU unit was far more attractive than the permanent version. So maybe there was a way to do it without trashing the boat. We decided against using the forward hatch because of the difficulty in directing both the supply air and return air correctly into the cabin. Also installation over the forward hatch would make accessing the controls difficult. We finally decided the companionway was the right location. After a little engineering and some time in AutoCAD, here's what we constructed;
After constructing with some spare mahogany plywood & trim and several coats of varnish, here's what the final product looked like installed;
The chock on the top is a carrying handle. When we are ready to go sailing, I just unplug, lift it out the companionway. and off we go! The 5000 BTU is sufficient for keeping the main cabin nice & cool, but at night with two adults in the V-berth we have to use a small fan to help circulate the cool air forward. A larger A/C unit might cool better, but it also presents difficulty in fitting into the companionway. Not shown in this picture is the condensate drain hose I attached to the bottom of the unit and drain into one of the cockpit scuppers.
