1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Remaking the Salon Settee III

I mentioned a few posts back that the reason the salon settee was a priority is because the intake duct for the salon HVAC unit will be integral to the settee. It’s summer time in the Mid-Atlantic region, so AC would be very nice to have. But the settee is pretty much the centerpiece of the salon, so this sofa-bed/air conditioning duct and housing also has to be pretty.

I made two more settee base panels out of Tricel

With the two lower panels and the end panel on the right set in place, you can see the shape of the settee pretty clearly.

Fitting mahogany cleats and framing for the AC duct top

The duct inlet and filter will be low in the right-side settee end panel. Air will cross right to left. The evaporator is on the outboard side of the salon HVAC unit, so the incoming air will waft over the unit, drawing away heat before being cooled in the evaporator.

Reusing old mahogany plywood for the salon AC duct

This is the 3/4″ mahogany plywood that made up the back panel of the original settee, on the back side of which was the big white box that was a closet and forward head (bathroom). After hitting the panel with 80 grit on my Makita sander to remove the white paint, the mahogany plywood was in surprisingly good shape.

Not perfect but good enough for an AC inlet duct

Next, I cut the panel to size with my track saw

I like it!

I want to have room to service the Flagship Marine AC unit. So I next made a removable lid section for the duct.

Reusing more leftover original marine plywood

For the duct lid, I don’t need 3/4″ plywood since there’s no chance of anybody ever standing on it. I had a usable-size remnant of 1/2″ Douglas fir marine plywood that I kept while we were dismantling the boat when the refit started back in 2008.

It was just big enough to make the lid

I made the final cuts with my Makita jigsaw

Mahogany cleats all around make a solid base for the lid

Since this will be an intake duct for filtered air, there can’t be any air gaps. Unfiltered air leaks could eventually lead to the evaporator being clogged with dust.