While posting over at the Macgregor forums as part of looking through All Discussions, I posted this. Thought it was clever enough to consider for further thought. The Catalina 27 inboard really is an ideal candidate for this, as the aft lazarette on the inboard models is an ideal location for such a device. Here is a copy of my post over at the Macgregor AC thread:
I saw a neat install recently while perusing a classic camping trailer website. Now understand this is a 13' vintage camper site, so space is a premium!
A gent had taken a 5000 BTU home unit from Walmart or the local BigBox and built it into a box. The box was designed to sit under the camper after getting to a campsite and seting up.
In very basic terms, the guy built the box with three "chambers": The hot side, i.e. the part that normally hangs out of a house window. That really was not a chamber per se, but rather an open backed space or volume. The second chamber was the cold side, where the cold air blows out the front grate/vent/outlet. Finally the "warm' side, which was the return air from the camper that was pulled in, chilled and blown back out..
The AC unit was fitted inside and sealed. The controls were accessible through a gasketed door for the RV application, (inconvenient) but I see that someone could remove them and wire them to an umbilical.
The cold side and warm, or return side were connected to the RV through very short lengths of dryer duct.
I can see something similarly engineered, where one could use a little ingenuity and do similar or basically the same in a sailboat, with the chambered enclosure in one of the cockpit lazarettes. Pop a few round holes and connect them to the cold side via flexi duct. Insulate it of course...
Then another rond hole or two connected back to the return vents.
It is redneck as all get out, but could be built for well less than the drop-in-the hatch style, and would be more permanent than the window-unit-you-gotta-step-over mounted in the companionway... It also will prevent a guy from cutting a big unsightly rectangular hole in a bulkhead to mount this same window unit directly into the cabin area...
For an inboard Catalina 27, the ideal place for such a unit would be the aft laz... It is already plumbed to gravity drain, so condensation from the AC would basically be a zero issue...
I saw a neat install recently while perusing a classic camping trailer website. Now understand this is a 13' vintage camper site, so space is a premium!
A gent had taken a 5000 BTU home unit from Walmart or the local BigBox and built it into a box. The box was designed to sit under the camper after getting to a campsite and seting up.
In very basic terms, the guy built the box with three "chambers": The hot side, i.e. the part that normally hangs out of a house window. That really was not a chamber per se, but rather an open backed space or volume. The second chamber was the cold side, where the cold air blows out the front grate/vent/outlet. Finally the "warm' side, which was the return air from the camper that was pulled in, chilled and blown back out..
The AC unit was fitted inside and sealed. The controls were accessible through a gasketed door for the RV application, (inconvenient) but I see that someone could remove them and wire them to an umbilical.
The cold side and warm, or return side were connected to the RV through very short lengths of dryer duct.
I can see something similarly engineered, where one could use a little ingenuity and do similar or basically the same in a sailboat, with the chambered enclosure in one of the cockpit lazarettes. Pop a few round holes and connect them to the cold side via flexi duct. Insulate it of course...
Then another rond hole or two connected back to the return vents.It is redneck as all get out, but could be built for well less than the drop-in-the hatch style, and would be more permanent than the window-unit-you-gotta-step-over mounted in the companionway... It also will prevent a guy from cutting a big unsightly rectangular hole in a bulkhead to mount this same window unit directly into the cabin area...
For an inboard Catalina 27, the ideal place for such a unit would be the aft laz... It is already plumbed to gravity drain, so condensation from the AC would basically be a zero issue...
