Tag Archives: cleigh ltd. matthew duckett

Brrr….The Air Con is On

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We have “managed” through the hot tropics of French Polynesia, Fiji, and Tonga.  However, we really struggled through the intense heat in the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, and Kiribati.  So, we decided it was time for air con (air conditioning).

Our friend, Dan on Sel Citron told us about some very reasonable aircon units made in China.  These units are the same units provided to Mabru sold by Hopewell.

We were originally going to order the units direct from Hopewell (via Fanny Zhu). 

However, in talking with our electrician Matthew Duckett at Cleigh Ltd. we discovered we could order the same (2) units, (3) pumps, vents, and ducting through him for the same price.  

We ordered (2) 12V DC Air Conditioners from Matthew at Cleigh who then ordered them from Hopewell in China (Mabru). 

One unit is 12,000BTU and will cool the main salon.  The other unit is 7,000BTU and will cool the starboard master cabin.

We also ordered a variety of grills and ducting (which we heard were hard to source in NZ)

I will break down the two units by location:

12k Unit (Salon)

125mm:  2 outlet vents at corners of the settee (where existing fans are).  The main unit will live under the settee and the return air will be at feet level. 

Grills: wood square outlets. However, we ordered a white round and black round as a backup (f the ‘squares’ don’t fit).  

Matt and Matthew putting the salon AC in place under the settee.

AC Pedestal (stand)

Matt built a pedestal for the salon AC unit.  The floor was a little uneven and we needed the unit to be stable.  So, he used his carpentry skills to make the bench, then he sealed it, painted it, and secured it to the floor and sides of the settee.  This unit will not move!

7k Unit (master bedroom)

100mm: 2 outlets over the bed.  Need 100mm splitter to 100 vents (most likely ABS, but also ordered wood just in case install location has to change).

The return air most likely ABS (but ordered wood and aluminum). 

The actual unit will need to be mounted behind the ceiling false panels.  This requires a holding bracket.  

Holding Bracket in the Master Cabin

Matt created a mock up of the smaller aircon unit, true to size, to help design the holding bracket. 

We brought in Premik (from Norsand) to create the brackets out of fiberglass.

Everything was removed from the cabin so it could be properly protected.

Premik now has full access to sanding and fiber glassing in a contained space. 

We were kicked out of our bedroom for over a month as we finished this project.

Accessories for the Aircon

Matt spent the better part of the holiday break running hoses and cables for both units. 

Matt drilled three thru holes (holes in the boat)  for each unit for water intake, outtake, and exhaust.

Matthew Duckett helped Matt add a new “bus”, move our existing “bus” and run a lot of wires and cables. 

He did some excellent boat yoga to get into these very tight places.

Final Installation

Once the brackets were made the units were installed. 

Then we ran the wires and hoses and made the thru hulls.  The last part was connecting it all and adding freon. 

We had to wait until we splashed and were in the water to add the freon.

We hired Jock from Big Fridge to help us with the freon.  Jock added freon while we were berthed at Port Nikau. And we are up and running.

Now we are ready for the heat and humidity of Indonesia and Malaysia. 

Contacts:

  • Cleigh Ltd: Matthew Duckett, matthew.duckett@cleagh.com
  • Hopewell: http://hopewellchina.en.alibaba.com/, Fanny Zhu: hehebiz@163.com
  • Lusty Blundell: https://www.lusty-blundell.co.nz/ 

Pricing

As of November 2025 the pricing was as follows (USD):

  • 12V DC 12K BTU (Z12DC12) $1,380
  • Pump $95
  • 12V DC 7K BTU  (Z07DC12) $1,280
  • Pump $95
  • Various Grills/Vents in wood, metal, black, white ranges from $5-$20 each
  • 7m of air ducting ranges from $10.50-$12
  • Various hoses, connectors, clamps, elbows were purchased from Cleigh Ltd (Lusty Blundell)
  • Shipping for 2 units $895

Our blogs run 8-10 weeks behind actual live events.  We worked on the Air Con from Nov. 2025-Jan.2026.

We will power our air con units with our new solar panels – check out the blog post.

Power Up: New Solar Panels

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After living on the boat, full time, for the past 9 years we have decided we “need” (aka “want”) more solar power.  Currently we have 1200 watts of solar panels coming from (8) Solara Ultra 150 panels.  This solar power gets us through perfectly well on sunny days. 

However, if we have a 3+ cloudy days we end up having to run our portable Honda EU32IU Generator.

Our goal is to have enough solar to get us through 6-7 cloudy days.  In addition, more solar will allow us to run our additional Engle (portable freezer), Starlink 24/7, and our new aircon.

Extra solar will allow us to have a lot more electrical and power freedom.

New Solar Panels

We ordered (4) Sun Power P7 – 455W bifacial panels from Hubands Energy.  These 4 new panels will provide us with an additional 1800 wats (total of 3,000 wats combined with our original panels). Technically, the new solar panels could potentially generate 2,184 as they are bifacial capturing the sun from the water’s reflection.

We paid about $150 USD per panel including GST and delivery.

The problem is that we have nowhere to put additional panels without building a solar arch. 

The only place for this arch is on the aft of the boat over the davits.

Be sure to read our next blog post on the building of our solar arch.

Install

We had to drill holes into the solar panel frames to fit them onto their custom designed brackets.  Always nerve racking when you put a drill close to your glass panels.

No issues with the drilling so we moved on to the wiring.

We run “mouse lines” through the arch to make it easier to run the thicker cables once the arch is up.

Next up we install each panel while it is on the ground and easier to access.

The new panels are embedded between the bars so there is no overhang.  We wanted it to look super clean from all sides.

We are very happy with the final look.

Contacts

  • Stainless Fabricator: Phil Waddell hardout98@icloud.com and his wife Joy Waddell joyw2@icloud.com
  • Hopewell: http://hopewellchina.en.alibaba.com/, Fanny Zhu: hehebiz@163.com
  • Cleigh Ltd Matthew Duckett, New Zealand, +64 21 890 697, matthew.duckett@cleagh.com 
  • Hubands, https://hubands.co.nz, Travis travis@hubands.co.nz 

Our blog posts run 6-8 weeks behind actual live events. 

We worked on these upgrades at Norsand Boatyard in Whangarei, New Zealand.

Be sure to check out our post on the new solar arch installation.

Beastly Boat Projects Part II

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We conquer lots of boat projects while we are in the yard at Norsand Boat yard.  Some we hire contractors and some we do ourselves.  Be sure to read Beastly Boat Projects Part I.   Since we had so many boat projects to complete we had to break it up into two blog posts.  Here is Part II.

Heaters

Did you know that Sugar Shack came equipped with heaters?  We don’t have a generator or AC, but we do have heaters.  The problem is that they stopped working. Starboard never really worked and port gave out last season while we were in NZ.  This is our old heating component inside the engine room.  

We had (2) new heating systems sent to us while we were in Fiji and they needed to be installed now that we are in chilly NZ (even though it is summer time we are cold).

We purchased (2) Eberspacher Hydronic M-II systems that are 12voilt, D10W, 86W from Heatso in the US.  Matt installed them and they are a thing of beauty!  Wow what a difference they make inside.  Warm and dry.  Our new heating component and dehumidifier!  We will be going to some countries with high humidity and these units will come in very handy!

The Boat projects continue and both Matt and I are working hard along side our contractors.

The Beastly Anchor Chain

I love our 10mm stainless steel anchor chain.  It is long, shiny, self folding and really strong!  We mark our chain every 10m with a coated webbing from strapworks.com.  The straps that were in the chain were old, ratty looking, and difficult to see from the deck so I wanted to replace them.  I drop all 100m (over 300′) onto the ground and prepare it for cleaning and new straps.

It took several tools to extract the old webbing from each link and a good set of needle nose pliers to help me pull the new stiff webbing through each link.  Then I used ospho to clean up the chain and she looked like new!

Dinghy Repair

We loved our Avon dinghy, but the pontoons were dead and needed to be replaced.  We decided to buy a Highfield 3.6 CL which we regretted. In retrospect, we should have just replaced our pontoons and kept our last dinghy as they just don’t make them that good anymore.

Our dinghy was used for a month before the non-skid (EVA) started coming up.  We were so mad.  We had lots of communications with All Marine the company that sold us the dinghy and the manufacturer.  In the end, after much negotiating and me being a brat, the manufacturer agreed to replace the non-skid at no charge.  New Zealand has a Consumer Guarantee Act which guarantees products have to be replaced or repaired within one year of purchase. I love it!  This is regardless of the actual manufacturer guarantee.  So, they repaired it at no cost to us after I reminded them of this act!

Inverter Charger 12v

Being in New Zealand made us realize that we needed a 220 inverter charger.  We have a 110v inverter charger and we have a 220 charger but it does not invert.  So, we bring our friend Matthew Duckett from Cleigh Ltd. to help Matt install it.

New Mirrors 

This is not one of the “beastly” boat projects but it drove me to beastly states every morning I looked into the mirror.  Our medicine cabinet has pretty damaged mirrors and old rusty hinges.  They are double sided which is super cool but evidently really expensive to replace. So we decide to go with single sided mirrors with a mirror vinyl finish for the inside.

I know it is a small thing but I just love the new mirrors.  We hope to find the hinges in stainless steel as I am not a fan of the mat black, but other than that they are much better.

 

After weeks of being on the hard and working on dozens of beastly boat projects, here are a few photos of sunset on the hard.

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  This blog post occured during our stay a Norsand Boatyard, 7 Nov-22 Dec. Stay tuned out if we are getting kicked out of New Zealand.  Coming up next we share our visa issues.