Chillin' Out

I figure I should write about our air conditioning system before summer is completely over.  Frank built this last summer for us, and I realized that I never wrote about the ingenuity of his simple design.  When we are in the water and plugged into shore power, we use our built-in water cooled Cruisair AC/Heating unit..  But since we've been on the hard, we've been forced to use a regular window unit as going without AC in the humid Florida summer is pure insanity (especially with no sea breeze and the heat radiating off the rocks on the hard.)  We initially looked into the carry-on hatch units but after realizing the cost to BTU ratio, it didn't make sense.  We did a bit of brainstorming, and eventually Frank decided to install a regular 8000 BTU LG window unit in place of our hatch doors (it even came with a remote).  He cut out a thick piece of plywood in the shape of our companionway doors as the frame to hold up the AC.  He then used the existing hinges on one side of the doorway to allow the whole AC door to swing open like a normal door.   This has been a huge lifesaver as it does a great job cooling down the entire boat.  In fact, we are still currently using it as the days here are a warm 85 degrees.