1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Wrapping Up the Aft Stateroom AC Installation

With the salon settee done for now, and with it the salon air conditioner is ready for commissioning, I next tackled the AC units in the aft cabin and V-berth. All of the AC units get raw water from one pump, so I want all of them to be fully hooked up before turning them on.

Waaaaay back in 2018, I installed the ducting for the aft stateroom HVAC system. Then life got complicated, and I wasn’t able to install the AC unit itself until the winter of 2022. The last step before this AC unit is ready to be tested involves building the enclosure cabinetry, installing the air filter, and plumbing the raw water outlet.

The AC unit is mostly installed…just need to finish the last details

I used 1/4″ mahogany plywood for the enclosure face

And 1/2″ plywood for the top of the enclosure

I next marked off the air filter frame opening

This mahogany fiddle molding will hide the plywood edge

Since it’s inevitable that horizonal surfaces end up being used as shelves, the fiddle will also keep things from falling off of the enclosure top.

That’s about what I had in mind

The lower panel is 1/2″ plywood

Looking good!

The fiddle molding on top looks great, but I need a molding to cover the joint between the two lower pieces of plywood.

A scrap of OEM solid mahogany will do the trick

The ugly gray primer will get sanded off after I cut the molding

That’s much better

Looking good!

After sanding the panels and moldings, it’s time for ICA clear coat

I rolled on three heavy coats, one after the other

Next day, I cut the filter frame hole

OOPS!

Turns out the filter frame isn’t square, and I oriented it so the filter slats are sideways rather than sloping down! Still, the panel and fiddle turned out very nice.

I repurposed the original toilet outlet as a raw water outlet

The washing machine, jet bath/shower, and AC raw water will all exit underwater

Thru-hulls above the waterline always end up with unsightly stains from whatever water flows out of them. By reusing the original toilet thru-hulls, which are welded to the bottom, this boat won’t have any hull stains.

I’ll hide that plumbing behind some mahogany plywood

That 6″ insulated duct takes up a lot of space

Another complication is that the hull narrows as it gets closer to the transom, so the duct moves inboard from the right closet wall to the left.

Lotsa goofy angles going on here, but it’ll all work out in the end

I cut a hatch for easy access to the thru-hull valve and hoses

Next I wetted out the back of each panel with epoxy and insulated it with 1″ thick Buffalo Batt fabric

With the panels insulated, next I applied ICA base clear

Nice!

Thermostat’s installed and the woodwork is 90% done

I’m covering all of the AC inlets with auxiliary filter material until the refit is done

The Flagship Marine HVAC filters are intended for use on a normal boat, not a dusty floating cabinet shop. So I tape this fiberglass filter material over the HVAC filters to help ensure the units don’t get loaded up with wood and sanding dust.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the V-Berth AC Unit