Shooting the Breeze

The Breeze Bandit attached to a boom over a hatch on our boat. Roger Hughes

The picture of a beautiful boat anchored in an idyllic tropical bay often evokes thoughts of warm breezes wafting across tranquil blue waters. What the image doesn’t show is how that same warm breeze can cause the interior temperature of a boat to soar past 100°F.

While portholes and hatches can be opened to let air drift into the cabins, they are often too small or poorly positioned to make a significant difference. One common solution is a wind scoop—a canvas bag fitted over hatches to direct airflow. However, wind scoops require adjustment when the wind shifts, which can be inconvenient, especially at night in a marina or dock.

Enter the Breeze Bandit, an innovative product from Cruising Solutions of Charleston, South Carolina, USA. Specializing in practical solutions for boaters, they’ve designed a simple yet effective tool. The Breeze Bandit is a four-sided nylon pyramid that attaches around a hatch using included press-studs. Unlike traditional wind scoops, it doesn’t rely on a single large opening to face the wind. Instead, wind hits the cone and is deflected through a pocket into the cabin, adjusting automatically to shifts in direction. If it rains, the cone can be quickly removed, and the hatch closed.

This concept is so straightforward that I wonder why I didn’t think of it myself during sweltering Florida summers in a marina. Instead, I installed two AC units—a solution far more expensive than the Breeze Bandit’s $65 price tag. A clever marina strategy would be to loan these out to incoming boats; once people experience the comfort, they’d never want to leave.

Watch a video of installing the Breeze Bandit below:

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