Chip & Debbie Willis on s\v Elegant'sea: Hot water heater installed working

We have finished installing our hot water heater and have tested it out. It is working with both 110 volt and 12v solar. The solar is not much but worming the water some now as it is in the low 50's at night and upper 70's 🌡 daytime here in La Paz.

February 2025 ⛵ Chip & Debbie 💑 curently in Marina de La Paz, La Paz BCS (Baja), Mexico

The 110 makes the water very hot.

We had to extend one of our engine heat exchanger hoses to the hot water heater and that is done.

Then we re-mounted the 12000 btu HVAC and will reconnect it later.

As a point interest to othe Islander Freeport 36 owners we had ducked in the HVAC unit but it turns out it works better with one duct. This is a good place to place the HVAC as we can cool/heat the salon by closing the door and we switch the vent and can cool/heat the whole boat. Here in the tropics this works good as in July, August and September it is too hot for the 12000 btu unit to cool the boat by it's self. Then we need to run our 5200 btu unit in our stateroom also. Having the choice saves electricity and we have backup, always can get a cool night's sleep. Also by having two units we can run either one at anchor on the Hond generator and in echo mode. That means the Honda generator will run at low idel ramping up only as needed. Not at high idel all the time. This is possible because we added EasyStarts to each unit. Other wise the Honda generator would run at high ideal all the time, noisy and eats up gas.

Our Islander Freeport is very sea kindly and sails great. By putting heavy items up on deck, like Jerry jugs on the rail and hatch ac units it takes that away making for a rolly and sometimes squarely handling boat. Our HVAC units are close to center and mounted below the waterline.

Also that is why we shayed away from an arch on our IF 36. Weight and in our case also esthetics. For instance we would have preferred a five blade wind generator but it took a 2" stainless steel pole and the unit weighs more also. The one we chose (Air Breeze) takes a 1 1/2 inch diam pole and a aluminum pole and the unit is lighter also, making a big difference in weight. Same choices for our dinghy, motor lift, solar, stern ancher etc.

We still do have a lot on the stern however by keeping the weight down our IF 36 is not squarely to steer, on all points of sail it handles nicely! The autopilot loves it also.

These choices are for us as our IF 36 is our only home and we are cruising, have been cruising for 12 years, liveaboards for 14 years.