Keeping us cool is only the tip of the iceberg, you also want to avoid the boat insides getting overheated. Too much heat is obviously no good for the food you’re carrying, for boat materials or crew comfort. The most important and first thing to do is create shade in order to block solar radiation. But before we get to that, let’s first tack to design.
Cool Boat Design
Multihull cruising boat design has evolved over the decades, with performance and safety at sea considerations balanced with better living comfort, as more and more of us switch land-life for full-time boat life. Above the waterline, coachhouse design is one area where this is most obvious.
Take a look at the spaceship-like design of the older Outremers, with their aerodynamic, rounded coachhouse, extremely slanted front panes screaming speed and visibility upwards.
And then the Lagoons, panes at 90 degrees from deck to coachhouse roof, undeniably offering more space in the saloon area but what when waves are crashing onto them in heavy seas?
Neel has adapted in this area too. Forward panes perpendicular in the Neel 45, slightly angled in the 51 and in the Neel 47, reverse-angled as in many professional vessel pilothouses.
Alright, but what’s all this got to do with the headline of this post? Keep cooool and bear with me.
That racy, futuristic Outremer – how much liveable space do you have in there when so much of the saloon ceiling is so sloped? (and don’t get me started on the bad feng shui!) But more to topic, have you ever thought about how hot it must get in there in summer sun? Pretty much whatever the solar altitude, zenith or azimuth is, it’s shining into the saloon/galley area! Alright, maybe a slight exaggeration but you get my slant.
On the Neel 51, pane angles are more or less in line with many builders and models of multihulls today. Visibility is good during the day, though cabin temperature is can be negatively affected by the longer duration of solar ray entry.
This is improved on Lagoon models and the Neel 45 – perpendicular panes with less surface-to-sun angle. So what with the Neel 47? The design of professional ship pilothouses – panes angled inwards – have merit:
- Better seaworthiness in heavy seas as wave-to-pane contact is reduced.
- Reduced ray entry, light and heat from the sun.
- Better visibility at night due to reduced reflection from interior light.
So if you’re concerned about heat reduction, the first place to start is boat design. Look out for:
- An insulated coachhouse ceiling
- Perpendicular or reverse-angled windows
- Anti-reflex window panes
- An overhang roof helps to shade around the window area too.
However, even on the Neel 47 where we have all those design elements, they won’t keep the boat cool enough on those long, hot, sunny summer days. That’s where sun shades become invaluable.
Solar Protection Panels for Boats
You’ll find solar protection panels on the boat option-list if you’re buying new. Before you tick that column, here are a couple of pointers:
Shade colour:
Most builders recommend white blinds based on the fact that white reflects about 59% of radiation from rays. Actually good. But thats only part of the picture. We looked at transmission and absorption of the full spectrum of radiation in white versus black or anthracite.
Absorption: white is 12%, anthracite is 76%.
Transmission: white is 29% versus 17% for anthracite.
Our main issue with white or light colours is the poor visibility from inside to outside during the day and at night. You’re staring at a screen that reflects on both sides and feels like you have your head in the clouds. Dark colours will always have better transparency due to the lower reflection. Some boat owners we know have gone for black blinds though these can make insides look a bit too dark and gloomy.
In our opinion, anthracite grey is the ideal colour to go for. It’s in keeping with the dark tinted boat panes and looks much better contrasted with white gelcoat.
Alright then, that’s colour sorted. But more importantly, you need the right material…
Shade Material:
Some builders manufacture blinds using inappropriate materials, suited for mosquito enclosures or yachting upholstery. Serge Ferrari has excellent products in their range and Soltis, their composite fabric is what you want for internal and external solar protection. We went with Soltis Horizon 86 which blocks out 72% of light whilst providing unrivalled outward visibility. Soltis claims their material will block up to 85% of heat.
If your boat builder won’t offer Soltis, then shrug them off and get it done yourself. For the full range visit: https://www.sergeferrari.com/products/soltis-range
Fastening The shades:
One of our principles on TALATA is to glue rather than drill wherever possible. So of course when it came to the fasteners, we put up a stop sign at anything needing to be screwed in.
The YKK SNAD adhesive‑backed studs are great. They fit various snap button fasteners and are secured to boat surfaces with a pad of 3M™ VHB™ acrylic conformable foam adhesive tape.
“For more than 20 years the VHB™ product line has proven to be tough in marine, automotive, medical, aerospace, and architectural applications”.
So good enough for TALATA me thinks.
https://www.sailrite.com/YKK-SNAD-40mm-Adhesive-Backed-Domed-Stud
Custom-made Solar Blinds
The benefits of going with a custom solution post-takeover of your new boat greatly outweigh the convenience of having the solar protection on day one. You can choose a better material (we’ll give you a tip here in a sec.), colour, how many blinds you want, where the blinds are mounted and the all-important fastenings. And normally all for a better price.
Most sailmakers also make sunshades so they’re a good place to start and can be located at most large marinas along the Med. We had our solar protection shades made by Hood in Cartagena, Spain. They visited us three times: to take measurements, create a template, recheck the measurements of the template. It was a three-week wait as the Soltis material and our desired fixings had to be ordered. When the blinds were mounted and fixtures on one blind didn’t fit well, they went away to redo it. Back two hours later. Done. More than satisfied with that. Thrilled actually.
“TALATA Edition” Solar Protection
Our fabric is Soltis Horizon 86 in anthracite with YKK Snad 40mm adhesive studs with snaps.
We decided on three panels, one covering the front two panes, open around the forward hatch. Then one each along the port and starboard sides. The thinking here is that when we’re on passage, we only need to remove the front panel for better visibility at night. We didn’t bother with a blind over the hatches as we have a mosquito net fitted inside which helps with shading too.
Our blinds are mounted directly onto the panes. Another option is to mount the blinds on the fibreglass of roof and deck, leaving a gap to the pane. While this would add a layer of air insulation it could impair transparency somewhat. With Soltis fabric we were confident not to need the extra insulation.
Result
Here in the shots below is the comparison with and without blinds. You can see the dark grey provides excellent transparency and indoors is still light. We’re continually amazed at how effective these shades are. There are days we go indoors because it’s much much cooler inside, even though the cockloon is opened up completely.
I’m talking AC cool!
This is just one of many things we’ve done to keep chilled on a boat in summer. For more ideas and some other tactics we’ve found effective, read our post on Top Ten Ways to Beat the Heat on a Boat.
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