Helm Air

T

timinfla2

New Member
Sep 22, 2008
578
My buddy from MI came down last week and we took a few cruises on my boat over the holidays.

Here in FL, it's manatee season and therefore it's no wake over much of the ICW over the weekends. Needless to say, it was HOT!

He's got a Tiara with helm air; this would have been a great option to have. He got his put in aftermarket and from what I understand, it's fairly straightforward.

You tap into one of the HVAC ducts in the cabin and route a hose and blower up to the helm with a switch. He said it only cost a couple hundred bucks and it's by far the favorite mod he did to his boat.

Has anybody else done something like this to their boat?

Thanks,
Tim
 
All newer Tiaras have "helm air". The system you describe brings cool air from the cabin to the helm. This is different from helm airconditioning where a separate 28,000 btu unit is dedicated to the helm. This unit holds a 68 degree set point on hot humid days with the drop curtain installed. I agree, it's a great option.
 
Last edited:
One other point to make about A/C at the helm. It really only works well if you have a hardtop and not a canvas top. Canvas allows way too much heat to radiate into the cockpit. You can not overcome this with even with 28,000 btu's of cooling.
 
Last edited:
Well, to be clear, the comfort is for the captain - damn the passengers ;-)

All I really want is some cool air blowing on my face during the slow periods - a system routing the cabin cool air up to the helm blower would be totally sufficient for me - I would not want a separate thermostat or condenser for that.

Tim
 
I'm not sure you would have cool air for long blowing on your face with this type of ventilation. You will draw all of the cool air out of the cabin and replace it with hot air from the cockpit plus whatever is drawn in from outside the boat. Maybe a helm fan would be cheaper and do the same thing?
 
Just because some air conditioning kludge works in michigan does not mean it is worth a damn in Florida.
 
I wouldn't consider the unit poorly matched for the boat or Florida. You have no knowlege of the climate we experience in Michigan in August. It's as hot and humid as Florida on some days and the air works fine. There are many Tiaras sold in Florida. If the company was getting complaints from FL customers, they would change the spec for the helm unit.
 
I believe Dometic has a slim line model that may work in a dash. I toured a 30MY that had it. Very nice indeed.
 
A bit sensitive. I refer to the diversion of air from the cabin unit.
 
That helps. The pulling of air from the cabin is not the best way to go.
 
I have a hard time with this switch thing. Tiara's are done right unlike searay. I have 16,000 btu's under the cockpit seating that does squat on a summer day. ZERO NOTHING .... lil 4" duct u can stick u know where ..... cockpit needs 2 x that capacity and LARGER ducts to the helm.... ITS A JOKE .. sadly since I purchased it its on me .

Rob
 
Robski97 said:
I have a hard time with this switch thing. Tiara's are done right unlike searay. I have 16,000 btu's under the cockpit seating that does squat on a summer day. ZERO NOTHING .... lil 4" duct u can stick u know where ..... cockpit needs 2 x that capacity and LARGER ducts to the helm.... ITS A JOKE .. sadly since I purchased it its on me . Rob
Click to expand...

To be honest, they do get it right eventually. I have one of the early hulls of the then new 3200 Open. The cabin air was not at all good initially and quite undersized for the volume of the cabin. It was simply a design spec error and I complained right away. They came to my house and installed a new unit under warranty with the same poor results. I started collecting temperature/humidity data and cabin temps and sent them a spread sheet with the data. Two weeks later, I got an email stating that the production spec for the a/c had been changed and they came to my house and installed yet another unit under warranty that has worked perfectly.
 
I would not want to have to make a "choice" between A/C in the cabin OR A/C at the helm. Honestly, the "either/or" concept sounds stupid to me. If I were gonna do it, I'd do it right with a dedicated helm unit large enough to get the job done.
 
I still don't think it has to be either/or. A small fan blowing diverted air from inside the cabin directly onto the captain would seem to work awful darned hard to suck out all the cool air in the cabin - I would think the cabin AC would make up for the loss. Maybe not, just my gut feeling.

That and seeing the retrofit of the same manner done to my buddy's Tiara leads me to that conclusion.

I'll have to see what my local dealer says about it and if they have done something like this before.
 
AC at the helm doesn't suck. I have two units on the bridge (don't know the sizes) that are tied to a single compressor in the bilge... keeps the bridge at 72 even on 100 degree days...
 
Four Suns said:
AC at the helm doesn't suck. I have two units on the bridge (don't know the sizes) that are tied to a single compressor in the bilge... keeps the bridge at 72 even on 100 degree days...
Click to expand...

SR spec sheet says you have 24,000 btu's. Do you have two 12s or two 24's? 24,000 seems kind of small given all the glass.
 
I would guess 2 x 12's... They do a great job... my wife likes everything to be in the "meat locker" range and they keep her happy.
 
Gary. I have single 16,000 btu unit it sux... they designed the a/c around the electrical needs of the boat not the needs of the space. LARGER vents at the helm instead of at the arch would have helped . No way diverting air from salon would work or be worth the effort . that being said from a guy in NY that has no way near the weather u guys do in FL.

Rob
 
The guys that run Tiaras with helm air and not a/c units in the helm do ok in Michigan 90% of the time (temps in low 80s for the high). Tiara installed bigger a unit in the cabin which will cool that area down to 55 degrees. With a white canvas drop curtain installed, and keeping the salon door open, you can cool the helm down to about 72 degrees for most of the day. By the heat of the day around 4 o'clock the unit will not keep up and you have to open up the canvas on the helm until the sun gets lower in the sky. Once the sun is down, you can make the helm very cool (68-70). Still, the dedicated unit is the way to go.
 
Yeah - just to be clear, I'm not looking to cool the entire cockpit down, just get some cold air on my face :) The passengers have the Margaritas to keep them cool - I abstain until we drop the hook or tie up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,193
Messages
1,428,284
Members
61,104
Latest member
Three Amigos
Back
Top