How Would you Add A/C to a Tiny Boat?

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by CaptForce

.....and neither would I since I've been living aboard mostly in Florida like you, but I can understand how, in some climates, it would be easy not to have AC. I also have very little to heat my boat in the winter. 'just a little 8"x8" electric heater with shore power only. I guess that's the trade off. I suspect "S/V Alchemy" in Toronto has some type of heater for the winters that's far more than my little electric fan heater.

That's exactly how I do the heat too.

You can have heat waves anywhere, but there is something (I have no idea what) in boat design that can make a boat much hotter or much cooler. The little boat I had before this one was 110º inside when it was 85º. This boat is 90ª when it's 85º outside. I imagine the suggestions of wet tarp, etc., would help, but in Florida that tarp is going to dry so fast (even a canvas one). You'd spend your whole day joined at the hip to the hose (and then the marina would tell me that this wasn't what they had in mind when they said "water included.")

This boat can be quite tolerable even in the heat with a wind scoop, but I have netting over the inside of the forward hatch to keep the cat in, so using a wind scoop is problemmatical. I had one figured out, but it was very old and eventually just fell apart.

These are the threads people who are thinking about living aboard should read, because a lot of things take five times as long as you think they will, and are far more complicated than you ever imagined -- and a lot of the others take 10X as long.

And none of them involve actually sailing.

[az_r2d1]

Originally Posted by Teknav

Have you considered placing a dehumidifier in your boat? It would be an alternative to A/C. (As a bonus, you'll be generating a lot of usable water!)

Mauritz
Going to behave now!

This is the direction I am going. I am in San Diego and the humidity at night gets very high. Spikes my wifes asthma. Next time I am bringing a big dehumidifier. Just noticed there is one on sale at our favorite big warehouse.