Staying Warm - And Cool

May 16th, 2021 James The Build

Whilst preparing the exterior paint, the yard is multitasking. On the inside of Scout’s hull, the insulation is going in. The top of this rectangular frame will be the raised dining table floor so you can also get a sense of how much storage there will be under the cabin - for water, fuel, food, and maybe wine!

As you’ve probably noticed by now, the hull will be aluminium. And aluminium will be a particularly good conductor of outbound interior heat - or if you prefer, a particularly good conductor of inbound arctic ocean cold.

So between the cabin walls and the exterior aluminium hull, the Exploration 45 has a thick layer of thermal insulation. Whilst this has a slight impact on the interior space - when we looked at other similar sized boats, their interiors seemed slightly more spacious - it means the boat is much more adaptable to deal with higher latitude climates.

And in more tropical parts of the world (where we might also find ourselves!), the insulation works the other way. Talking to the owners of other Exploration 45 yachts, none of them have needed to install air-conditioning because the interior naturally stays so cool.

Not having to power an air-conditioning unit means we’ll have a much lower power consumption profile. And, since we’ll be predominantly solar-powered, the increase in self-sufficiency is a trade-off well worth making.

Up top, the cockpit and lower part of the hull are still being prepared for their final paint. As far as we can tell, there is a lot of preparation of the metal surfaces, and several undercoats that need to be applied. But it looks like they are reaching the final stage:

It seems like things are moving fast, so we’ll post the next set of photos as soon as we get them.

See you then!

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