Does One Need a Generator and/or AC

[Zydeco]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

I agree wit AC being a big thing if in a marina, which I think is why my boat has AC but no generator as would only use the AC when in a slip.

Originally Posted by Tellie

The above is VERY good advice well worth taking into consideration. I have lived, boated, camped and sailed in south Florida all my life so I'm a bit tainted. I feel about the summer heat the same way people who live way up north feel about snow. Your cruising stlye is going to dictate if an A/C unit is worth the investment. You won't need to use it all the time. In the summer there can be great breezes that in good conditions make open hatches wind scoops almost blanket weather. But like skipmac says above, I've been caught many times in windless conditions during the summer without A/C where your choice is to bake in your own sweat or get eaten alive by noseeums and swamp angels. Swamp angels have no problem flying out to your boat anchored well offshore. Baking in a closed up boat is far better. But if you have an admiral on board who you want to have spend time with you down here during the summer better think hard about an A/C.

Agreed. I don't care how many fans or opening ports you have, it can get very uncomfortable inside a boat tied up in a Florida marina in the summer. God forbid it starts to rain.

It can also get uncomfortable on a still night at anchor, especially if you are in some buggy bayou or river. The Little Shark River leaps to mind for one.

As I get older, my tolerance for heat declines.

We had an epiphany a couple years ago - we had a Honda 2000i generator on board to charge the batteries. One hot, still night at anchor it dawned on us that it had enough juice to run our little 8000 btu a/c. OMG! Best night of sleep ever! Cool, dry, comfortable, and no bugs - aaaaah!

[capngeo]

+1,000,000 on Needing AC. I don't care what anyone says, but even in the Keys where the trades blow 90% of the time, sometimes it doesn't and at midnight thirty you sweat your ass off in the bunk. If you are in a marina, you need AC, if you are in a spot where the tidal set turns the boat out of the wind you need AC.

Now of course, I know our ancestors didn't have it... Or Dacron, fiberglass or Internet.... But damnit, you need a generator to make ice cubes... AND NOBODY SHOULD SUFFER A COCKTAIL WITHOUT ICE!

[Cheechako]

Spent about 3 years in Bahamas and Carribean. The only time I even thought about AC was on the hard in Trinidad. In fact there were times when I was cold. I usually departed during the peak of the summer season though. It is very doable without either, but if you will be there and not mobile in the summer, you may want it.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by Zydeco

Agreed. I don't care how many fans or opening ports you have, it can get very uncomfortable inside a boat tied up in a Florida marina in the summer.

I dunno about Florida, but a few years back I desperately wanted aircon in a Marina in the South of England - the boat was basically unliveable during the day......but the Marina had a cool bar . But never been a big fan of sitting in a concrete parking garage as a recreational activity, onshore or afloat - so in practice not a big problem for me.

I must confess that I have never had any intention of fitting a/c on my boat (mostly will be in a temperate climate - with fairly few absolute scorchers, but we do get 'em).....but if I go Electric Power (with a Generator) would have the juice to spare.........I guess this is how the voyage from KISS to fully loaded with toys starts .

[mbianka]

I've never felt the need or desire to put air conditioning on my boat. I've found that fans do a great job in keeping one cool. But, then IMO there are fans and then there are Caframo 747 fans:
THE BIANKA LOG BLOG: FEELING HOT, HOT HOT? WHAT WORKS!
Which are the only ones I use on board because they work and don't draw a lot of amps doing it.
As far as generators the Honda 2000i is a real workhorse on my boat providing power for the electric propulsion system. It also charges it and the 12 volt house bank too. It also allows me to use 120 volt power tools while at anchor for boat projects.

[Canibul]

Obviously, the answer to all of this is to just get a bigger boat.

You need the generator to run the ice and frozen margarita machine and the washer/dryer, water maker, satellite system and big screen simultaneously, so you may as well get one big enough for the air conditioner(s), too. The choice of luxuries on a sailboat ( or any boat, for that matter) breaks down to a cost vs benefit evaluation. The costs are the money, of course, to buy, install, and permanently maintain the generator and A/C, and the weight penalties ( the equivalent of another person or two on board with you, forever) and added complexity to the boat ( wiring, plumbing). Your boat will definitely sail slower with ac and a generator than it would without them. How much slower depends on how much boat you have, but it's physics.

The benefits of course are the ability to sleep comfortably, or stay inside and read through a three day drizzle on the hook near a mangrove swamp. And generators can be useful for a lot of things. Most of which add cost and complexity and weight to the boat. thats why I said get a bigger one.

If you are going to be staying in marinas (where the wind is always blocked) and sleeping on the boat, you'll probably wish you had ac. BUT you probably don't need the generator for the sole purpose to have ac in the marina. You can stay in marinas with power.

Where you anchor will determine if you will have a bug problem. If you anchor close to shore in the lee of land, you will likely have bugs. There is a bit of an art to picking good anchor spots at the edge of a land mass. If you really, really hate bugs as much as most people from northern climates do for the first few years down here in bug heaven, I'd say get a boat with ac and generator already installed. You will get more accustomed to the bugs, eventually. But it takes years until you no longer bother slathering on bug juice.

I'm saying this because you are going to be going through enough adjustments in your comfort zones coming from Alaska to the tropics, so why add the misery of sweaty, buggy, sleepless nights to it? You want to be able to enjoy your time on the boat. You already know you want the ac, so get it. She will be a lot happier, too.


I spent a fair bit of time in Alaska in a previous life, both summer and winter. I know you've got mosquitos up there that need 40 ft. of landing strip. The little noseeums you'll find in the tropics are different. they can crawl right through the mesh of most standard sized screens. They can get through any crack in a door or hatch. And there isn't a "season" for them, really. They are always around, south of Florida. And you really don't want to be cooped up inside to get away from the bugs during the sunset, especially. If the screens are fine enough to keep the gnats out, they will also keep a lot of the breeze out. So, it gets miserable inside. It also gets miserable inside when it's raining hard outside. You close the hatches.

In about three or four years, when you are used to the conditions and weather, and are ready to move on to your second boat, after determining what you would want to change from your first boat, then you can re-evaluate the need for ac and generators with your own experience and how it relates to you.

[Zydeco]

BTW: if you end up getting a/c, you can probably get by with a much smaller unit than the a/c manufacturers will try to sell you. For me, the idea was just to make it comfortable inside the boat, not cold enough to store meat.

On our 38' center cockpit boat we have a single 8,000 btu unit that gets the job done which is about half what the a/c people recommend. (It also does heat - I know, you're going to the tropics where you won't need heat but when were were anchored in Lake Worth for a couple weeks last December waiting to cross to the Bahamas it got really cold a couple times and the heat was wonderful).

Anyway, our little a/c works great even in the hottest Florida summers. It cools and dries the air enough to make it very comfortable inside.

In my opinion, unless you have a pretty big boat, you don't need all that ductwork running all over the place either. It takes up way too much storage space and you lose some of the cold air. Just find a good spot in the main cabin to mount the a/c and use a short duct with a single vent. That cool, dry air will find its way around the boat easy enough. It might not be quite as cool in the head, but were you planning on spending a lot of time in there anyway?

[clockwork orange]

Ive only done two month long cruises in Florida and these were in the winter so quite comfortable, noseums were a real problem and with the finer noseum screens you get less airflow than with mossie screen. When i move there i will have to find solutions with awnings, scoops etc as i am one of those rare folks who think about how my actions effect others so, consequently, i just cant see running a genset and AC at night for my comfort at the expense of noise polution for those around me, its just not in my dna. I would certainly have Ac for dockside on shore power though.
Steve.

[svHyLyte]

Originally Posted by clockwork orange

Ive only done two month long cruises in Florida and these were in the winter so quite comfortable, noseums were a real problem and with the finer noseum screens you get less airflow than with mossie screen. When i move there i will have to find solutions with awnings, scoops etc as i am one of those rare folks who think about how my actions effect others so, consequently, i just cant see running a genset and AC at night for my comfort at the expense of noise polution for those around me, its just not in my dna. I would certainly have Ac for dockside on shore power though.
Steve.

Steve--

Our generator is fitted with a sound enclosure such that it cannot be heard over the whoosh of the fan below decks and is only a quiet purr when sitting on the cockpit seat directly above it. It cannot be heard at all from amidships. Last summer the power was out in our basin for a couple of days and we ran our generator during the period. At one point our slip neighbor stepped over to our boat to borrow some something and commented that she didn't realize our generator was running until she came aboard. (That night they borrowed some amps with a long extension cord to power a box fan needed to make their boat livable.)

Frankly, at this point we rarely hear growling generators in anchorages and, if so, they are usually on older power-boats that commonly head for home about sunset. A generator need not be an imposition on one's neighbors.

FWIW..

[Zydeco]

Yeah, I don't accept the premise that anyone running a generator is being inconsiderate. As HyLyte mentions, most generators these days are very quiet. Even our portable Honda is hard to hear more than a couple boat lengths away. I don't like to annoy other people so when we first got the Honda generator I dinghied around the boat to see how far away I could hear it and the answer is not very far. I even stopped by nearby boats to see if it bothered them and the answer was always the same: "Didn't know you had a generator running". (Some of these had their own generator running).

In any event, I'm very tolerant of other people enjoying the anchorage including the guy who endlessly plays "Freebird" at top volume and the guy camped on the beach with a $300 Home Depot generator running so his girlfriend can run her hair dryer. I expect others to tolerate what little noise I make. I do my best to be considerate of others, but it does not include being miserable just so the neighbor can have total and complete silence (if such a thing even exists).

I understand what Steve is saying, but my point is that most of the time its not an issue - usually there is a nice breeze or its plenty cool and a/c isn't needed. But if it's beastly hot, I don't think its inconsiderate to run a generator and a/c.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by Bash

My boat, which is optimized for Baja, spends a great deal of time in the Sacramento Delta during the summer months, where the temperature is often higher than anything anywhere in Florida. We will often go weeks at a time where the daily high exceeds 100 degrees, and yet are quite comfy with our cabin fans.

Well, I remember quite a number of days last summer with temps in the high 90s and touching 100. Agree inland CA can get just as hot but, you aren't in 100 degrees with 90% humidity.

Originally Posted by Bash

I stick to my original point: it depends on the boat.

I 100% agree 99% of the time. It certainly does depend on the boat and being properly set up with shade and ventilation. The only time I ever felt like I needed AC was when the bugs were eating me alive but I had to leave the hatches open for ventilation. Yes I do have screens but screens don't stop noseeums. Yes I also know the trick of spraying or wiping various liquids: repellent, diesel, etc on the screen to keep out the noseeums but have found they are either ineffective or smelly.

So, do you have bugs to deal with in the Delta?

Originally Posted by Bash

BTW: I've logged a couple thousand dives in Monterey Bay in a wetsuit. Not really a problem if you know what you're doing.

Didn't say one couldn't dive Monterrey Bay in a wetsuit, just preferred a dry suit for myself. Maybe I'm just too used to warmer FL water.

Have not done a couple thousand dives in Monterrey but I do know a bit about diving and don't have a problem with diving wet or dry.

Bash hope you aren't taking my comments as criticism. I was really sincere in my comment about CA weather and diving. I love it out there and if life lead me in that direction would move there in a minute.

[WorldWind]

Generator......a big yes,not necessary to have an inboard,Honda....,,yes=quiet

A/C.......never....

Jump in the water if your warm...
That's what it's all aboot

[Amapola]

We get used to the heat and very rarely run the AC. Because we anchor out exclusively, I would not part with the generator.

[saylor240]

Panama City, Pier 98 marina, Mid August all hatches open (6 total), fan blasting, butt naked, 87 degress with 99.99% humidity at 3am.....looked on CL the next day and purchased the first Portable boat AC i could find.(150 cruiseair)..just spend the night in a marina in Florida in August...then decide if you want to buy a AC unit or not...

[gonesail]

i doubt you would live thru a summer in tampa without an AC .. think lows of maybe 85 with no wind and 100% humidity .. with huge bugs just waiting for you to leave a hatch open