Prepare Your Boat for Air Conditioning Installation
The short answer
Empty every locker the work touches, take out anything soft that will absorb fibreglass dust, and confirm in writing where the unit sits, where the grilles go and where the condensate drains. An hour of clearing saves an hour of yard labour at $110–140.
Prepare Your Boat for Air Conditioning Installation — Requirements and Limitations
Yard labour is the largest single line on most quotes, and clearing is the one part of it you can do for free. Most installers will tell you exactly what to move if you ask.
Confirming positions in writing is the more important half. A self-contained unit under the bunk you sleep in is a decision you cannot undo once the ducting is in.
Before the appointment, agree access times with the marina, identify which lockers must be empty and keep photographs of proposed grille and unit positions. Preparation reduces avoidable handling; it does not replace the installer’s survey or approve electrical and hull work.
Steps for Prepare Your Boat for Air Conditioning Installation
- Empty the lockers along the whole duct route, not only the one the unit goes in.
- Remove cushions, bedding and anything soft from the affected cabins.
- Confirm the unit position, grille positions and condensate route in writing.
- Agree what happens to any joinery that has to come out.
- Make sure the shore power and the seacocks are accessible and working.
- Photograph the spaces before work starts — useful if anything needs putting back.
Related Sizing, Installation and Service Guides
Each of these answers a different part of the same problem.
- what yard hours cost$110–140 an hour, and why clearing pays
- what to agree beforehandthe five questions worth asking
- deciding where it sitsthe decision you cannot undo
- what else you can do yourselfwhere owner labour genuinely saves money