Keep Cool – Tips and Tricks
With summer in the Caribbean approaching, boats are starting to heat up and their owners are looking for ways to stay cool and comfy aboard. If you’re a live-aboard in a marina, installing an air condition unit might be your best choice. But if you can stay out in an anchorage, wind scoops, shades and fans are a cheap, energy-saving and ultimately healthier alternative!
95 degrees, 100 percent humidity, not a cloud in sight and thanks to a current, our SY Pitufa is presenting her beam to the wind while swaying at anchor. Right, so that’s why it’s suddenly getting unbearably hot in the salon. Stepping out on deck, I quickly hop back with an “ouch!” Even though the deck is painted white, it’s too hot to step on with bare feet. Time to turn on the air conditioner? Well, we don’t have one, so I don protective gear (hat, long shirt, flip-flops) and venture out to adjust the wind scoops for optimal airflow.
In the course of our 14 years as cruisers we have gradually improved our system of shades and scoops, trying out different designs and materials. Overwhelmed by the stuffy interior and mold growing in hot and rainy Panama we bought a dark-blue/tan tarpaulin: a cheap, convenient material available in all hardware stores that seemed perfect—until it started disintegrating after just a month, sprinkling the deck with tiny plastic particles. We got rid of that canvas to stop being the source of plastic plankton and got out our sturdy winter covers: we were not planning on going anywhere cold ever again, so at least we could use them as improvised shades. Made from heavy-duty PVC the tents we built on the foredeck were perfectly waterproof, but unfortunately they were so good at shading off the deck that we ended up sitting in a pitch-black dark salon. They also didn’t fit well and were flapping and fluttering loudly whenever the wind picked up.
Over the following few years we adjusted our itinerary to avoid areas with sweltering heat —easy in the many climate zones between the islands of French Polynesia. In the pleasant, breezy summer weather of the southernmost archipelagos (Gambier and Austral Islands), it was enough to put a light windscoop made from old spinnaker cloth over the big forward hatch and another one over the aft cabin. According to my experience the typical triangular-shaped scoops with just two attachment points at the bottom and one at the top, work like a charm in a stiff breeze (when it’s cool anyway). But once you really need them, as soon as the wind dies down, they collapse and don’t even properly shade off the hatch. Big, rectangular awnings stay in place, shade off a large area and can be rigged sideways (if the wind’s not blowing from the bow because of e.g. a current).
Travelling further west in the Pacific, avoiding cyclones suddenly became more of an issue than breezy surroundings and we decided to spend a summer close to the equator in Papua New Guinea. We knew we’d be in for some serious boiling and steaming, so I got out our trusty sewing machine and made a large, tent-shaped cover for the foredeck: reminiscent of the winter-cover we had tried before, but cut to fit perfectly between the mast and the baby-stay, low enough over the deck to keep rain away from the two small hatches, tilted to provide an airflow, and with a large-enough gap to the railing on the side to be able to step next to it, so we wouldn’t have to remove it while sailing short distances. Unfortunately the material (marine PVC) turned out to be slightly elastic, so I ended up sewing a thin rope into the seam to help it keep its shape and to be able to tighten the tent properly without stretching and dilating the corners. An additional advantage of this solution is that we didn’t have to put in grommets (which tend to get rusty) or sew on straps (which easily get ripped out during a squall).
Additionally we installed 12 Volt fans in each room. Tip: make sure to either try them out at the shop to check their volume (plenty of models are too loud to get any sleep next to one) or if you order online, just pick different models so you can install the noisy ones where it doesn’t matter so much (Like in the galley, where it’s likely to drown out the swearing of the sweating cook. And yes, it’s okay for me to write that, as I’m the one doing most of the cooking and cursing).
Halfway through our equatorial summer, our experience is so far quite positive. With shades and fans we can comfortably live aboard and even get some productive (boat/home-) office work and/or general DIY maintenance done during the heat of the day and—even more important—get restful sleep at night. We find it essential though, to be somewhere with clear water and lively reefs nearby, as nothing gets the body temperature down as effectively as a long snorkel with friendly fishies. In water temperatures above 84 degrees you need to stay at least an hour in the water to feel a lasting, refreshing effect. Ship’s cat Smurfy doesn’t enjoy baths and (very reasonably) just keeps an extra-long siesta over noon. Whenever he starts panting while running on deck during his morning/evening playtime, we try to coax him into having a shower (with more or less success).
Birgit and Christian have been cruising since 2011, ship’s cat Smurfy joined the crew in 2024. Visit their blog www.pitufa.at or check out their books: “Sailing Towards the Horizon”, “On Velvet Paws Towards the Horizon” and “Cruising Know-How” are available on Amazon.
The post Keep Cool – Tips and Tricks appeared first on ALL AT SEA.