Added a bit of shade to cover the portable AC on Encore
Posted By RichC on July 13, 2011
One of the problems with being dockside during a hot and humid Florida day is that the cabin temperature can climb to a pretty uncomfortable levels. Since we are tethered to the dock, we have the advantage of having enough electricity to run appliances such as air conditioning – something not all that easy when on the hook. Some boats are centrally cooled with a built in forced air marine air conditioning and heating system. With this complexity come more maintain not to mention initial cost.
For Encore, we use the same 7,000 BTU unit to cool the main cabin as we did for one of our previous boats — Tulla (discontinued but almost identical to the Carry-on West Marine unit). One of the inefficiencies of the air-cooled unit that sits over a hatch is that the sun beats down on it and reduces its cooling. Today I rigged up a little awning to keep the sun off of it and to keep the rain from dripping in the hatch. Above is a photo I took today of Encore sporting her new baby awning forward – it still needs some tweaking. (By the way, I’ve removed the Bimini in order to patch and repair and although I like the shade of the boom tent ShadeTree awning that I have, the fiberglass stiffeners and bungee cords can’t handle the wind without breaking, besides it is difficult to both put up and walk along the decks)
Comments