Fans. What type and how used?

[r. gallagher]

I am building my knowledge base for our 5 year planned departure. I don't want to start an "anchor thread" but I would like to get some feed back on what type fan you use in your boat while out cruising and how they are used (24/7, cycled on and off, only when below deck, etc). Also, what promted you to use your particular brand.

Thanks in advance,

Robert

 

[Ross]

We have a little 8 inch desk fan that we run on a small inverter when I gets too hot. Mostly we just avoid going out when it s extreme.

 

[zeehag]

i am cheap.i use a 12v 02cool portable in lightning storms, and a regular floor based 120v cheapo in marinas, wherein i am rarely able to be found, except during stormy seasons.
the floor based fan is for moving air conditioned air to my berth from dinette. underway i can use the 02cool.
walmart sells a perfectly good lil dc fan--for 9.99. i plan on getting me some. they work fine.

 

[patrickfarley]

I use the Ozark 10 inch battery operated portable fan sold at Walmart. It moves a lot of air on high and a very good amount on low. You can load it with batteries or hook it into your 12 volt system. They are only about $10 and use very little power. It will run for at least 24 hours on a load of batteries. I have not used up my first batch of alkaline batteries and it has run at least a total of 24 hours.

I also freeze gallon milk containers full of water. A frozen container will fit right behind the fan and it almost feels like air conditioning. This is only for short trips, a day or two, but it has worked out well for me.

This is what I have worked out so far. I plan a Florida trip from Tampa to Port Charlotte and back in early June. I will need some kind of cooling on my small boat.

 

[Mike Turner]

When we brought up the boat from Florida after buying her last year, we used Zeehag's solution: two $9.99 clip-on, 12V automotive fans from Wal-Mart. They run off lighter plugs in the cabin and cockpit, oscillate, move a fair amount of air and held up fairly well. One died early this year but we felt we got our money's worth, and the replacement price was right. We augmented this with a small 110V floor fan for use when in marinas (we don't have either air conditioning or a genset).

This past spring I bought four Caframo "Bora" 3-speed fans on sale at West Marine. I wired them into the cabin light circuits, one each at the foot of our forward berths, one in the main saloon and one in the galley. They don't oscillate, but they move a good amount of air, draw very little amperage and are quiet. I mounted a fifth, old Caframo that was already on board, in the head. We also have a 12V O2 box fan that we set up in the forward hatch to blow air down into the forward stateroom. And we're still using the Wal-Mart clip-ones, particularly in the cockpit.

We tend to use the saloon/galley fans early in the evening but shut them off when we go to bed. The two units in the forward stateroom and the O2 generally run on low/ medium settings through the night - we find we get better sleep if we have a small breeze blowing on us to cool down. If I wake up in the middle of the night I usually shut these down.

I have to admit, though, that down here on the Gulf Coast, we generally don't use the boat in July/August - it's just too bloomin' hot. I've thought about installing an a/c but don't want to give up storage space to do it, and then there'd be the need for a genset (maybe a portable Honda) to run it out on the hook. Haven't quite made that intellectual leap yet.

If you decide to go with installed fans, try to check out how noisy the various fans are before you make your choice. Some West stores have displays set up where you can run the fans to compare airflow, noise, etc. We chose the Boras based on moving a fair amount of air while being relatively quiet. Some of the other fans moved more air, but were a lot noisier.

Mike Turner
Lazyjack 32 schooner "Mary'Lis"
Mobile Bay, Alabama

 

[RichH]

Agree with the Caframos .... quite, move a lot of air, 3 speed ... and most importantly for long distance cruisers who monitor every watt of electrical energy, LOW energy consumption. Down side is they dont make an oscillating model. Ive now run my Caframos for several years (12 mos. a year) and without having the 'brushes' wear out ... so the extra expense for a quality fan seems to have paid off so far (knock on wood).
I also have a Hella ... about equal to a Caframo.

 

[Sumner]

Agree with the Caframos .... quite, move a lot of air, 3 speed ... and most importantly for long distance cruisers who monitor every watt of electrical energy, LOW energy consumption...

Another vote here for the...

.. Caframo Sirocco Model 807. We had a hard time parting with the money for the first one, but liked it so much we bought a second.

We have one permanently mounted in the V-berth in which ever boat we are using and the other is on a wood base and we can move it around where we want it. I put 12 volt plugs on each and we have 12 volt outlets all over the boat.

As mentioned they don't oscillate, but they point in ....

.... any direction you want and we like the auto timer feature. We will usually run it on the 2 hour one and go to sleep and it turns off after 2 hours. If we want longer just push to 2,4,6 or 8 hours. It also moves enough air that we hardly ever use it on anything but low.

We have a couple of the 'Walmart/auto type fans' and the one I tested used .6 amps on low and .8 to .9 amps on high. The Caframo only uses .21/low, .27/medium and .34 on high. We also try to be as energy efficient as possible as we don't like running the gen-set or engine.

I have more about it on our site here....

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/macgregor2/inside-31.html

Sum

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Our MacGregor S Pages

Mac-Venture Links

 

[sailaway78]

Wal Mart fans

the little cheapo wally world fans work pretty good, clip on almost anywhere, and don't need an inverter to run. only complaint I have is they are a little noisy. but I do use them.

 

[Maine Sail]

We have two Bora Caframo's and two Wal*Mart clip on fans. The Wal*Mart fans draw about 4 times the current that the Bora's do and don't really move any more air. Our Wal*Mart fans draw 1.1A and the Bora Caframo draws 0.25A. I do however prefer the louder white noise of the cheapo's when some obnoxious turd is running his "so quiet you can't hear it Honda generator" in the anchorage... If I am going to listen to something it might as well be blowing air in my face... The Bora's are a little too quiet for a good "white noise" factor...

 

[Ed A]

hotwire fans are the best, low low consumption, quietflexable mounts. small.
hotwire enterprises/

 

[Deadhead]

Ditto on the Caframo Bora's

I installed 2 in the aft cabin, 2 in the v-berth and 1 in the galley. The PO had a Hela installed in the salon. The Hela vibrates somewhat, makes a bit more noise and I don't care for the exposed blades in the rear. Current draw is very similar though.

I have another Caframo that I mounted on a short pole. This plugs into a socket in the cockpit table into which Beneteau fits a cockpit light. We use that fan at anchor way more than the light fixture.

 

[Merlin Clark]

the little cheapo wally world fans work pretty good, clip on almost anywhere, and don't need an inverter to run. only complaint I have is they are a little noisy. but I do use them.

If you were as deaf as I am.......

 

[Benny17441]

Consider having a 120V box fan for when you have access to shorepower. They can move large amounts of air compared to to those little 12V fans.

 

[Tim R.]

The Hela vibrates somewhat, makes a bit more noise and I don't care for the exposed blades in the rear.

Reading this makes my fingers hurt. I have about 8 Hellas on my boat and am constantly getting my fingers chopped in the blades on the rear of the fan because you have to reach behind it to adjust the angle and control the vibration. You would think I would learn to be more careful by now.

I guess I have to try out the Boras now.

 

[Sumner]

.. I have about 8 Hellas on my boat and am constantly getting my fingers chopped in the blades....I guess I have to try out the Boras now.

Believe me you can get your fingers into them also :cry:,

Sum

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Our MacGregor S Pages

Mac-Venture Links

 

[r. gallagher]

Fans

Thanks for all the information. Looks like the Boras and Caframos get the most thumbs ups when it comes to the 12v models. I appreciate the responses.

Sumner,
Any insight on the Endeavour craftmanship would be appreciated. We are looking at either a 38cc or 40cc for our livaboard Caribbean cruiser.

 

[Sumner]

Sumner,
Any insight on the Endeavour craftsmanship would be appreciated. We are looking at either a 38cc or 40cc for our livaboard Caribbean cruiser.

I am probably not the one to ask as we haven't been on other boats except for being on Joe's 27 Catalina, thanks Joe, and a Catalina 30 that was at a boat yard and gutted and being worked on and not for sale. So we don't have anything to compare our Endeavour to except for pictures of other boats we looked at.

We also considered buying an Endeavour 32 and did go look at one of those and didn't like it, but that was mainly due to the care it had received from the owner. It was a mess. I've seen pictures of Roger's and it looks very nice and if the one we looked at would of been like his we might be in a 32 now. We also felt it was a little smaller inside than what we wanted. We also went on another Endeavour 37 when we were on a ball at Marathon and didn't like it as it had a lot of water damage inside and the boat had also been neglected.

I'm impressed with the woodwork and overall construction on the one we bought. The woodwork is much better than anything I'm capable of. Not sure if you saw pictures of our boat...

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/endeavour-main/our-end-pics-index.html

...or not, but it looks almost as good as the pictures. The boat has been taken care of pretty well.

We bought one as it was one of the few larger boats in our price range that had fairly shallow draft, 4'-6", and appears to be a very safe, stable boat with a capsize ratio of 1.7 and a motion comfort of 36.4. These items were very important to me as I want Ruth to feel as safe as possible on this boat under any conditions we might encounter and I'll give up some performance for that.

I've never seen the 38cc in person, but have looked at them on the internet and they look very nice and have a lot more room down below vs. our 37 from the pictures. The 37 seems very solid in construction throughout the whole boat, not just the woodwork. I like the easy of getting to about any system on the boat for service, with the exception of the chain plates. If the 38 is similar and you find a nice one I'll bet it would make a very nice boat for what you want to do. They look to be a little more money than what we had to spend, but look to be a very good value compared to other boats of the same size. I think if we were going to do what you are planning we would definitely look at one. Good luck,

Sum

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Our MacGregor S Pages

Mac-Venture Links

 

[Joe Diver]

That Endeavour is gorgeous! I'd love to own such a vessel.....

 

[GACrockett]

Re: Ditto on the Caframo Bora's

Another vote for the Bora. We installed one at each bunk on our Concordia. Very quiet, low draw, unobtrusive, and they move a lot of air.