The 75lb beast is out of the boat!! We removed the King-Air Marine Air Conditioner.
The removal took about 2 1/2 hours. The electrical connection was the easiest part. Fortunately, the unit was plugged into a dedicated, grounded outlet that the previous owner had installed and all we had to do was unplug it. This made disconnecting the power extremely easy and now we have a 20 amp electrical outlet, if we need it. After disconnecting the power and hoses from the unit, Bill had to remove some teak molding to pull the unit out. The unit might only weigh 75lbs, but those 75lbs were awkward and hard to hold, then add being on a floating boat. After Bill finally got the unit off the boat, our water line went down an inch! Well maybe not an inch, but at least a 1/8 of an inch. In any case, we could tell the difference.
To complete the job we had to remove the plumbing hoses. Good thing that we had a wet-dry vacuum, because there was almost 2 gallons of water in the hoses.
Another task off the list!! Only 90 to go (we're still adding to the list weekly).
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Maybe I missed something... will you replace this unit with a smaller one? My daughter lived on a cat in the BVIs for a time and her crew cabin didn't have A/C, they had to sleep with the hatch open and only managed to get a slight breeze when the wind was in the right direction. No air and fighting mosquitoes didn't make for a very restful night.
ReplyDelete@jomamma: ugh, that would indeed be miserable ... mosquitoes and hardly any breeze. BVI is known for hot nights.
ReplyDeleteThe air conditioner we had on the boat could only be run when attached to shore power. Since our intent is to live on the hook, we wouldn't have been able to run the AC we had anyway.
We don't currently plan to replace the unit with a different one (one that could potentially run while we are on the hook).
Our thinking has us focusing on our ventilation strategy, which includes fans on our hatches. The fans we are considering operate on solar and DC power quite efficiently (we've already bought one and are conducting some experiments).
The bug situation is one we read a lot about too. Our approach will be to secure the openings with very fine mesh screens. We've read some good things about this approach. Only time will tell as beasties are notorious for wiggling their way through.
Worst case, if we end up someplace where the nights are too hot, bugs are too thick, and we can't sleep, we will simply have to sail someplace cooler and more enjoyable. :)
If we find that we are miserable too much of the time due to a lack of an air conditioner, then we will simply have one re-installed. Our gamble is, we won't need one.
As always, great comments jomamma. Thanks for sharing the thoughts ..... it helps us keep it real! :)
thanks for the reply, I'm not a sailor and only live vicariously through my daughter. Seems like if you are anchored a decent distance away from shore the bugs wouldn't be a problem. I look forward to reading more about your adventure.
ReplyDeleteIf you are looking for high quality marine hoses then check out the growing market of PVC compounds Marine Hoses. You want to choose the marine hoses from a company that passes all of the required industry certification so that they are safe to use on your boat or those being used by leading boat builders throughout the world
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