My AC System

[joeC]

The Coleman Mach Ac system I installed works great. I now have over 100 hours on it and in the evening it will freeze the house on the Tomcat. Honda's 3000 inverter gen will run for about 12 hours pulling the Ac in economy mode on 3 gallons. At night on low the cabin will pull down to where you need a blanket fast. In houston it can also be 90F at night so no Ac no way. If I adjust the thermostat on the coleman up at night the honda has to be in normal mode instead of economy or the compressor will not start so I just leave it turned down. Also I did install a CO monitor in the cabin which I purchased at West Marine for to much almost a hundred bucks Walmart has same thing for 17 bucks. It is very advisable for all these cabin boats to have CO monitors we have had it go off trolling with the rear door and front window open and only outboards running. When I was thinking about this AC project I almost went with a 7000Btu unit but I found it would not the job on these hot summer days. The 13500 Btu unit grunts pretty hard in the hot sun and I normally see about a 20 degree drop from ambient temp. In the boat I added another panel for the Generator input and installed a large GFI to try and keep it all safe, saltwater and 125 volts do not mix well.

[drjohn71a]

Thanx for the info, Jo. I was thinking a 13,500 bTu would be needed. I had one in my old boat and it barely kept up with some high 90's or 100 degree days.

I was wondering if you got my pm about my son, Chris who is just moving to Seabrook. He has an apt. with a dock right out front. If you could use some crew now and then, give him a call. John

[CaptMac]

With the C-Dory cabin, there is a better way to cool off on a hot day other than warm air blowing through the center opening window. I have a custom-installed, sea water-fed a/c system on my 22' cruiser. The return air handler is compactly tucked underneath the passenger seat. Since I have the tall top cabin, I did not want a roof-mounted unit. Duct work runs throughout the cabin including four vents and a digital thermostat.

Saturday I was kingfishing offshore when the temperature was 95+ degrees. I kept having to step outside the cabin to warm up. When I put tint the side windows next week, I can see myself having to go outside to scrape the ice off the cabin . I can run the ac from either the 2k honda generator or the inverter underneath the wallis stovetop. Ac on a C-dory is the only way to go.

[drjohn71a]

Capt Mac, how many btu's is your a/c system? If it works down there, it ought to work about anywhere. John

[Byrdman]

Hey Mac.... That sounds great. I had a short talk with Jeff at C-Dory about the possibility of leaving out some of the foam under the front deck on the 22's for a "more southern friendly" AC set up using a system like yours. Please share some more details.....and some digital pics.

My fear in the rivers and lakes is the water intake.... Your thoughts on that please.

Byrdman.

[Molly Brown]

Gentleman et al:
Though we've had our TC24 almost 4 years now without AC, it's been coming up more and more lately, that we're considering making the commitment to have some sort of AC unit on our boat. Very interested in this subject and look forward to more discussion about this. Almost bought a Honda 2000 and would like a set up to use that power supply for the AC. We currently use a portable unit while we store the boat which really helps to keep down the mildew and stale air but I'm not too keen on hauling that unit around and having to set it everytime we need to use it. We don't store anything in the spoons so that would be the logical place to put it but don't know if the pounding would affect the potential unit we would decide on. The sea water intake unit sounds like the way to go but would naturally be concerned about corrosion. All our boating is in salt water and if we've learned anything it's that only the very best of metals properly matched will hold up to this enviroment. Please pass along your experiences and viewpoints as well as anyother pertinant info you all might have. I love this site!

[CaptMac]

Here in Florida, it is hot and humid nine months of the year. My two, previous C-Dorys did not have ac. It was not comfortable enough on a 90+ degree day to depend on the center opening window to cool off. On days with little or no wind, when stopping to fish or slow troll, the non ac C-Dory cabin gets miserably hot .

I have the Mermaid Marine Air. The ac on my 2003 22' C-Dory is the M9 9,000 BTU. This unit is designed to cool up to a 30' cruiser or a 32' sailboat. Other items include a bronze foot scoop, bronze seacock, water strainer, bleed off valve, thru hull overboard, condensator, 4, 4" supply grills and a digital, programmable thermostat.

It appears the Eastpoint/Apalachicola, FL C-Dory dealer sells some of their boats with ac: http://adcache.boattraderonline.com/6/9/2/84151092.htm (C DORY 25 CRUISER.INCLUDES DOUTHERM ROOFTOP 7100 BTU A/C AND HONDA 2000 SUPER QUIET GENERATOR).

Hopefully the factory will consider offering ac on a C-Dory as an option. The enclosed 22' cabin gets super cold on the hottest of days with the ac feature. The only problem you will encounter with ac on your C-Dory is having to go outside to knock the icecicles off the windows .