FWIW: I must be one of those "soft and spoiled," individuals, but I have lived and cruised in Florida for the last 45 years, so I will share my experience with you. Before that, I sailed in New England and never needed AC on any vessel. For nearly 40 years, anchoring out was on a sailboat. If you have a vee berth forward, and use a windscoop (they are wonderful), you certainly are comfortable for about 8 months of the year, but can count on very hot, still nights during the summer months. That also depends on your cruising area. The lower east coast and Keys can have a lot of air movement, even during summer. The Gulf coast and panhandle are another story. At least to us, there seemed to be less air flow in the summer, and the temps are higher than in South Florida. For all these reasons, we do not cruise or anchor out during the summer. Now that we have a classic trawler, I haven't even tried to use a windscoop because of the logistics problems of keeping it up and in the airstream, with a cabin and fly bridge blocking air flow. However, let me make a suggestion, as you too may be "soft and spoiled" and this tip I pass on from Capt Sterling Kennedy. Although I have two large capacity AC's on my boat, I also cruise with a small 5,000 BTU AC that uses about 500 watts on high, and less on low. This is for the times when we are visiting friends or docking in places that only have 20 amp service, and can't run one of the larger AC's on this limited power. It takes only a few minutes to pop this little AC into the back escape hatch, and has saved us many hours of running our noisy generator. The benefit of cooling the aft cabin for sleeping only also reduces the humidity and leads to better sleep, dryer clothes, fresher smelling cabin, etc. Everyone with have a different opinion on the subject of AC, and there is no right answer. Personally, only "mad dogs and Englishmen" sleep in a hot cabin with high humidity. As long as there is a breeze, its fine without AC. Unfortunately, during our summers, the breeze seldom lasts through an entire night. YMMV. Martin Veiner _____________________________________________________________ Click to get freedom from your annoying glasses. Save on LASIK surgery. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2111/fc/Ioyw6iifdpK1J5AR6wAebB2anpL6c8W40 182rpbFMajcmX7dCUvk3i/

'Lo Martin and All, >..... That also depends on your cruising area. The lower east coast >and Keys can have a lot of air movement, even during summer. The >Gulf coast and panhandle are another story. At least to us, there >seemed to be less air flow in the summer, and the temps are higher >than in South >Florida. For all these reasons, we do not cruise or anchor out during the >summer. I just wanted to add to what Martin said; for those who have not lived on the Northern Gulf Coast, the humidity is much higher here than in lots of other places, even in other parts of Florida. In the summer, the "normal" weather pattern, not counting frontal passages and hurricanes, is for a sea breeze to come off the Gulf starting in mid to late morning and penetrate inland 5-25 miles or so by early evening, bringing with it all the hot, moist air off of the Gulf, which has been up to 98 degrees that I have experienced. By early afternoon, the moist air is further heated, resulting in a row of thunderstorms parallel to the Gulf shore from about 2-25 miles inland. Then the hot, moist air starts to return in mid to late evening towards the Gulf, albeit much more slowly as it does not have the energy of the sun (heating the land) to propel it. Early to mid evening there often is no wind, but we have a beautiful display of Mother Nature's power as the thunderstorms dissipate. By early morning, the winds are again calm. The net result is that we constantly have high humidity that significantly raises the heat index. A temperature that would be comfortable with low humidity can become virtually unbearable with high humidity and no wind - hence the need for air conditioning. It is not about being a wimp or something such, just about maintaining one's health. For an example of just how much humidity can come off the Gulf of Mexico, one only has to look at the devastating floods which eastern Texas, Louisiana, parts of Alabama and numerous other places farther north and east have had this year. As for us; well, I "prefer" not to have the generator running to provide air conditioning, but I will turn it on immediately if that is what makes my wife happy and comfortable to be on the boat. Once, on our old sailboat, we both had or came extremely close to having sun/heat stroke/sickness. My wife was much more affected by the heat that time than I, so her tolerance to high heat indexes is much less than mine. That single event drastically changed how well we tolerate high temperatures - we don't. In the heat of summer, we hibernate in the house. The ability to be in an air conditioned environment when needed was why we sold the sailboat and bought the Celestial. My advise - avoid sun/heat stroke/sickness at any cost! Also, be aware of the symptoms and steps to take to mitigate the situation. Declarations: I am neither a weather forecaster nor physician, just, hopefully, a good observer. Take care and be safe. Wayne Celestial Albin43 Sundeck Panama City, FL area