Keeping Your Cool

The cooler temperatures that I've experienced in northern Florida and Southern Georgia since I moved aboard in December seems to have given way to more regular warmer temperatures. Day time temperatures are now regularly in the 80's and some 90's F.  And since boat hulls are not terribly well insulated (that 1/8 inch of fiberglass core just doesn't seem to help much), a closed up boat can get pretty warm.

Opening hatches can provide a breeze through the boat if the breeze is coming from the front of the boat, but when you are in a marina this doesn't tend to be the case very often. And to make things worse, big neighbor boats can block much of the breeze you could get if it were blowing from either side of the boat. So, when you are at a marina and plugged into shore power, air conditioning tends to be the go-to solution for cooling down a boat.  Of course, this tends to be expensive if the marina meters and charges for electrical use.

Of course, as the heat arrived the air conditioner in one of my neighbor's boats went out.  Being a monohull, all the opening hatches on his boat point upward and he was having a hard time getting airflow into the boat.  I found all of this out when he was trying to rig up a small nylon scoop (it looked like a very small spinnaker) to try and catch the breeze.  The scoop he had is designed to rig on a halyard and pretty much only directs air in that is coming from the front of the boat.

When I purchased my boat, it came with two Breeze Boosters for the hatches that I had yet to try.  These devices stand up on their own so they can be turned into the breeze.  I let my neighbor borrow one, and after a quick Google search, we figured out how to set them up.  He was able to turn it into the breeze that was blowing across the beam of the boat (from side to side) and get air flowing into the boat.  He said it made quite a difference and he is now thinking of getting some for himself.

A couple days after getting his AC fixed, it was a sunny day with a decent breeze blowing across the beam of the boat and the interior temperature on my boat was in the mid 80'sF and rising, so I decided to deploy the boosters myself.  Placing one on each of the forward berth hatches and opening the salon door into the cockpit gave a nice breeze through the boat.  It dropped the temperature in the boat down around or just below 80F and with air moving it felt much more comfortable.

So far, I have to say I'm impressed with these things.  Since they don't need support at the top, they seem to work well for catamarans as well as monohulls and even powerboats.  I even managed to get them working around the "safety bars" that surround my hatches...although it does somewhat limit the rotation options.  The day I used them the temps were in the upper 80's outside, and my air conditioner stayed off all day.  I consider that a win.  I'm glad I have them.

More Leaks

I have a bone to pick with the Florida Tourism department.  They call this "the sunshine state" and winter is supposed to be the dry season.  Well, much of the time I've been here it has been cold and rainy.  I guess I can't complain though, as much of the rest of the country seems to be in winter blizzard mode.  But I didn't pack much in the way of winter clothes, so temperatures in the 30's and 40's farenheit have made it an interesting time...I even had to break down and buy a sweatshirt when I was running low on long sleeve clothing.

One thing the cold and rain has done is point out that several hatches and windows leak.  Ironically, the hatch that isn't leaking is the one that the surveyor said probably was. Of course, the problem when it rains and rains, all you can do is sit in the boat and play "catch the drip" with cups and towels. One of the worst offenders is a hatch located above the settee table...aka the dining room table and office desk.  Not a great place for a leak.

I tried taping up the seams where the hatch mounts to the fiberglass to see if I could better determine if it was the gasket that was the problem or if I would need to rebed the hatch.  The tape didn't help the next time it rained, so I started looking for gasket and hinge pins for the hatch. You would think a quick search would yield results, but you would be wrong. This South African manufactured boat used Goiot hatches that are made in France and I could only find one source in the U.S for the hatch parts and they were very expensive.

I was able to find the same parts at 1/2 to 1/4 the price at Budget Marine in St. Maarten.  I thought shipping would be a hassle, but I was given a contact and decided to order from them.  The shipping was a bit expensive, but not as bad as I would have thought for next-day and was easily covered (and then some) by the price difference in parts.  The shipment arrived the next day and all I can say is I'm very impressed by the service received through Budget Marine...I can see why they are the go-to chandlery in the Caribbean.

I replaced the gasket and hinge pins and the hatch seems to seal well.  Of course, the next rain proved that my trick taping the seams didn't work as the leak returned.  I had to rebed the hatch.  We finally had a nice weekend, so I decided to give it a try.

Since I have the butyl tape, I figured I would give it a try on the hatch since it has good properties for remaining flexible and maintaining a seal.  In hindsight, I probably should have used 4200 since the hatches are screwed into the fiberglass without much additional support or backing material that makes compression of the butyl difficult.

To remove the hatch frame, you need to remove the hatch first.  This requires you remove the hinge pins.  As I've learned, they are a simple friction hinge consisting of a plastic cylinder that is squeezed by a screw and nut that each have a hex head.  You loosen the screw and then from the slot in the middle of the hinge assembly on the hatch frame, you can push the hinge out.  Or, if they are as old as the ones I have, you can remove the screw and the plastic disintegrates and the hatch just comes right off...then you push the pieces out.  Taking out the screws on the frame made it apparent it was the source of the leak as half the frame was not attached to the surrounding fiberglass, the sealant had released from the frame.  A thin scraper helped to sever the seal with the other half of the frame.

Once the frame was out, I used a plastic scraper to remove as much of the sealant from the frame and hole as possible.  I then cleaned both with a little acetone and applied the butyl tape to the frame with loops around the screw holes.  I centered the frame over the hole and pressed it into place. Since the screws only attach to the fiberglass, after applying some butyl to the heads and around the base, I very carefully tightened them...and went very slowly.  I didn't get it as tight as I would have liked, but didn't want to risk stripping out the screw holes.  I did consider removing it and going to find some 4200, but after backing out the screws the frame seemed to be stuck pretty well to the hull, so I reapplied some butyl and reinserted the screws.

Hopefully that will resolve the issue with this hatch...of course I'd like the nice weather to hold for a while so, Mother Nature if you are listening, I'm OK with not having to test it out anytime soon.