jim rosenthal
08-04-2004, 11:58 PM
One of the problems with owning the same boat for 12 years or however long it's been is that you become blind to the kind of thing you might easily notice and correct on a new-to-you boat...here's a case in point:
The deck hatches on older Hatts are laminated fiberglass- in the center, they are translucent. So lots of light- and heat- come through them. When we painted my boat, we clearcoated the translucent center section, which made it look nice, but did nothing about the fact that the Vberth stateroom is hot as hell in the daytime.
Well, after staring at this for only slightly more than a decade, the other day I put a piece of cloth on top of the wooden screen that folds downward from the hatch. Lots cooler and darker in the Vberth. Imagine that.
Then the light-bulb lit up: I measured the inside of the hatch opening- roughly 16x20 inches. I went to my local canvas shop friends, and they made me up a rectangle of Sunbrella- white on the topside, navy blue underneath, stitched together, with snaps in the corners, and four snap studs. This cost twelve dollars, and took about 1/2 hour. I drove back to the boat, and put it in. This took about five minutes.
Well, guess what...it's a LOT cooler in there. And you can snooze during the day. That's the good news. The AC works a lot better, too, because it's not fighting all those BTUs pouring down through the hatch.
The bad news is it only took me twelve years to think of it. Better late than never, I guess. :lol
Now...what about all the heat coming through the Sunbrella cover of the cabin triple windshield. Maybe two more thicknesses of Sunbrella, and it would block the heat...hmmmm.
The deck hatches on older Hatts are laminated fiberglass- in the center, they are translucent. So lots of light- and heat- come through them. When we painted my boat, we clearcoated the translucent center section, which made it look nice, but did nothing about the fact that the Vberth stateroom is hot as hell in the daytime.
Well, after staring at this for only slightly more than a decade, the other day I put a piece of cloth on top of the wooden screen that folds downward from the hatch. Lots cooler and darker in the Vberth. Imagine that.
Then the light-bulb lit up: I measured the inside of the hatch opening- roughly 16x20 inches. I went to my local canvas shop friends, and they made me up a rectangle of Sunbrella- white on the topside, navy blue underneath, stitched together, with snaps in the corners, and four snap studs. This cost twelve dollars, and took about 1/2 hour. I drove back to the boat, and put it in. This took about five minutes.
Well, guess what...it's a LOT cooler in there. And you can snooze during the day. That's the good news. The AC works a lot better, too, because it's not fighting all those BTUs pouring down through the hatch.
The bad news is it only took me twelve years to think of it. Better late than never, I guess. :lol
Now...what about all the heat coming through the Sunbrella cover of the cabin triple windshield. Maybe two more thicknesses of Sunbrella, and it would block the heat...hmmmm.