So hot!

[Tetepare]

Lol. Hate to tell you, this summer on Lake Ontario has not been hot.

A bimini really cools off the cockpit. Hosing down the deck at dusk will cool the interior significantly

One can always jump in the lake for 20 minutes, assured cool off down to the core. Actually great way to get to sleep.

[seandepagnier]

Anywhere < 10 degrees latitude is a different situation from the carribean which is quite cool by comparison. Very little wind and incredible humidity and temperature. I got used to it except for the skin rashes which I just wait until they are scabs then they turn black and fall off.

July 2021 was the hottest month ever recorded. So people talking about how they can handle the heat or they did "this" are talking about how they survived in a bit cooler weather than what you will likely experience. Another way is to jump in the water since you are on a boat, but I have been places where the water is also not very cool.

What you can do is sleep outside on the deck without any cover. This at least allows your body to cool off for a few hours so your organs do not melt. Between the hours of 10am and 4pm, dont try to do anything. Just focus on surviving, and pouring water on your head and if you can use an electric fan at the same time. That is how I remember Indonesia.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by thomm225

You'd learn to like AC pretty fast if you had to endure a few weeks on a boat at 95-102 degrees. (35-38 Plus C)

Well, we had 36 inside the boat for July

[RaymondR]

Boats, being built to keep water out, do an excellent job of also keeping warm and humid air in.

In some parts of Australia it gets a little hot during the summers.

I use two 12V auto radiator fans, installed in plywood which fit into the deck hatches, wired in series with a speed controller to bring fresh air into the boat. They can be a little loud if run on 12V and tend to blow a gale.

Keeping the decks shaded is important and I use shade cloth for this as it does not radiate heat as does the fabric made sun covers.

[LittleWing77]

Originally Posted by Emoyeni

Hello, I have been enjoying my first season on Lake Ontario with my C&C 30 sailboat. I had inclinations to take this boat down to the Carribean when I first bought it, but I am astounded just how hot and uncomfortable it can be to hang out on this boat in the summer, even in temps ranging from the 20's-30's Celsius, humidity in the 70's.

For those who spend much time in the Carribean, how do you deal with the heat? Is a Carribean winter even more unbearable vs what I'm experiencing here in Canada's summer?

First off, what colour did you end up painting your hull? You never updated your refit thread with finished pics...

If the colour was anything other than white, that will be part of it.

As someone else said, a bimini for the cockpit - and a windscoop.

Cheers,
LittleWing77

[hpeer]

We have spent 4 winters and 1 summer in the Caribbean. The Caribbean is different. It is dry air and the temperatures are very stable. 84°F day and 77°F at night. There is some variation but not much. Also, if you are anchored or on a mooring there is good air flow.

June/July are about the hottest months, I found them warm during the middle of the day. I acclimated quickly, as did my Wife - who whined incessantly about she would not be able to tolerate it. But also being fit, not over weight helps a lot. Adjust your day, siesta. If hot then sleep naked, no top sheets. Fans.

Mostly, especially in winter, it is very pleasant.

By comparison summers in NC were unbearable.

[JPA Cate]

One thing we did, we had a deck vent that had a water deflector in it, about 3 ft in from the chain locker on our 36 footer. Jim mounted a computer fan right under it to suck in cooler air from outside to then be blown over us by the Hella Turbo that was mounted in the fwd corner: one fan to bring in cooler air, the other to get it started moving through the forepeak.

Ann

[LauraleeG]

Yeah-I am with others that talk about how hot it is and how it sounds lovely but it can be stifling.
I have lived on a boat in Grenada for a winter it was freaking hot and stifling...not when we were sailing but every other moment of every other day.
He did not have an air conditioner ( and I am morally opposed to them on boats) and it was unpleasant. Fans are noisy and just made me clammy.
Time was spent off the boat as much as possible.
For me, it was a " thing" and that changed my mind about whether or not to move my boat down south.
I have done the BVI's for a week or two in winter...that was fine...but extended length of time? For me, too hot.
My retirement plans are now: Boat on the Great Lakes in the summer months ( its great in Canada in the summer) and traveling on land where its warm, in the winter.

[flightlead404]

I have found that on our boat (Hunter 38) if there's any current/tide the boat will align with that a lot more than with the wind.

So, opening hatches doesn't help unless there's a gale.

A windscoop that can be positioned to face the wind when its not blowing directly from the bow really helps as do a few small 12v fans.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by flightlead404

I have found that on our boat (Hunter 38) if there's any current/tide the boat will align with that a lot more than with the wind.

So, opening hatches doesn't help unless there's a gale.

A windscoop that can be positioned to face the wind when its not blowing directly from the bow really helps as do a few small 12v fans.

120 VAC fans also work quite nicely, and I have found seem to use about the same amount of battery power over night as the 12 volt fans (even though theoretically the 12 volt should use much less)

[argonauta1]

Yup, it can be uncomfortably hot: Lake Ontario in summer and in the Caribbean anytime but you do not want to be north of 10 degrees in the Caribbean from June to December {hurricane season). First off, you need a good suite of fans, Caframo are pretty good. One each at the head of a double berth and another couple in the salon and don't forget guest cabins. Then you need hatch covers and companion way doors with mosquito netting. Make sure your battery bank is big enough to support 8 hours plus of fan operation. In the Caribbean when in a marina, you can usually rent a portable air conditioner to run off shore power. In the trade winds at anchor, you will not need fans as the boat will be head to wind and air flow through hatches will be enough although some owners are equipped with wind scoops for over their hatches.

Don't even think about onboard AC in a sailing vessel less than 60 feet and even then you will have to listen to either the generator or diesel all night. Might as well stay on the beach in an AC equipped hotel!

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by argonauta1

Don't even think about onboard AC in a sailing vessel less than 60 feet and even then you will have to listen to either the generator or diesel all night. Might as well stay on the beach in an AC equipped hotel!

My boat is a powerboat, but even then, I almost never run the AC on generator power (and I've never done it overnight). In general, if it's so miserably hot / humid that we can't survive with fans, it's time to find a slip with shore power to run the AC overnight.

[CarlF]

Awnings when at anchor! That's how they've been doing it in the Caribbean since the tall ships. It not only keeps you cool in the cockpit but also keeps it cooler below because the sun is not on the deck. Rig one over the boom. Another over the bow.

Get a scoop for the bow hatch.

12v fans for at night. 120v 12" oscillating fan for the day in the salon and in the cockpit if there's no wind. https://www.amazon.com/Comfort-Zone-...-garden&sr=1-3

Be sure to have a Bimini for when underway for sun protection. You won't be hot except downwind in light air. Stay away from marinas - they are almost always hot

[redneckrob]

Originally Posted by argonauta1

Don't even think about onboard AC in a sailing vessel less than 60 feet and even then you will have to listen to either the generator or diesel all night. Might as well stay on the beach in an AC equipped hotel!

Not sure why AC works in a 60' vessel and not anything shorter? Most of the boats in the Chesapeake have AC, many have generators as well, and of course most of them are under 60'. The AC on my Mahe 36 is the difference between doing trips all summer and only using it a couple weeks in the fall and spring. Obviously getting AC or not is a personal decision, there's no right answer, and if you asked 20 cruisers you'd get 20 different answers. But there's no reason if you wanted AC that you couldn't put it on a boat smaller than 60', and in fact thousands of us have!

[lestersails]

Originally Posted by hpeer

We have spent 4 winters and 1 summer in the Caribbean. The Caribbean is different. It is dry air and the temperatures are very stable. 84°F day and 77°F at night. There is some variation but not much. Also, if you are anchored or on a mooring there is good air flow.

June/July are about the hottest months, I found them warm during the middle of the day. I acclimated quickly, as did my Wife - who whined incessantly about she would not be able to tolerate it. But also being fit, not over weight helps a lot. Adjust your day, siesta. If hot then sleep naked, no top sheets. Fans.

Mostly, especially in winter, it is very pleasant.

Second this, with one minor exception.
In the dry season in the Caribbean we NEVER want AC. Even when it is pretty hot, the trades are essentially always blowing and we get nice air through the cabin. Squalls blow through quickly and are not a problem. In the wet seasons, we are also fine nearly all the time. The one exception is longer duration storms during rainy season - we didn't have what we needed to preserve air flow in the rain. The cabin had essentially 100% humidity and temps in the upper 80's and was absolutely miserable. Again, prolonged storms. We are fine if a squall blows through for <1 hour - just button down and live with it for a short spell. But to be closed up all day in those conditions was unbearable.
Other posters have talked about engineering the boat to maintain the ability to have large ports open in spite of rain. If you are in the Caribbean in the wet season I would say you must have either this serious ventilation engineering or AC.
But again, in general, we avoid AC as much as we possibly can. For goodness sake, the reason that we are there in the first place is we want to breath that glorious sea air. If you don't want that, why not just stay holed up in the AC in Iowa?