Cowl vents
- Thread starter Dug22
- Start date
Raise the boom end, and tilt your Bimini forward. Makes a great little "porch". You can leave the crib boards out, for the most part.
We love the solar vents. They can be set to exhaust or pull fresh air in. Get the 4" version to pull more air flow. Mounted one in the for'ard hatch and very pleased with the vent and location. Reasonably quiet. CD stock them but available almost anywhere on the web.
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High on the house works best for cowl vents. To keep out rain and spray they need to be on a dorade box of some kind to keep water out of the cabin. Plus as stated, you have to exhaust air from the cabin, usually achieved through the companionway. You'd have to figure out an exhaust route with rain protection(dodgers achieve this on most larger boats, a small companionway spray dodger on your 22'?). Edit: Genes solution for companionway rain protection is great.
On a 22' a couple 3" cowl vents on dorade boxes at anchor in the rain, with just a little breeze, could be the difference between a comfortable and unbearable night below.
My boat does not have the pop top. So along both sides of the sliding hatch, aft end of the coach roof is where my boat has vents fitted. They are kind of passive in that there is no forced draft due to fan. I may remedy this by fitting fans like they have in "electric ducted fan model jet aircraft" in the internal tube part of the vent.
These pictures are from the early days of my refurb thread!
These pictures are from the early days of my refurb thread!
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Is it me? Are cowl vents old school? Solar vents may not help much on cloudy, rainy days without battery reserve. There are some wind driven vent that might work. Opening up and fan use work best I think.
Old school I agree, but I don't think a better option to ventilate a small boat at sea (or anchor in the rain), has been invented.
Cowl vents on dorade boxes are expensive on new boats so unless the boat is/was designed to spend time at sea, I don't see them often.
I still see cowl vent/dorade boxes on new designs that will spend some time at sea. I count at least 6 on ANNA, a newly launched custom boat. ANNA will spend enough time off shore to need the dry air below for the crew in a wet seaway.
ANNA cost $7,500,000 to build, shiny cowls fit within the budget.
