Royal Yacht Squadron

Conditioning the Wine Cellars of Cowes Castle

The project required Heronhill to specify and supply cellar cooling equipment to meet the exacting demands of maintaining optimum storage for the Royal Yacht Squadron`s fine wine collection. This is housed in the cellars of Cowes Castle, which was commissioned by Henry VIII and completed in 1539.

Working together with air conditioning installer C-Air (IW) Ltd, local builders G J Banks (IW) Ltd and the Squadron`s own in-house team, a Marstair Cellarator CX40E/CKC30 system was installed, whilst complying with the most stringent planning regulations.

This required that any installed equipment cannot be visible to Members or the public from any angle, inside or out and the installation cannot compromise the structural or aesthetic integrity of the building.

Compliance with the regulations required a custom-built enclosure allowing the outdoor unit to blend unobtrusively with the castle walls and creating suitable pipework apertures through cellar walls up to 1.5m thick.

Now that the system has been in operation for some weeks, the Squadron`s management have confirmed that they are, “delighted with the equipment and its performance, with its ability to meet and maintain our specific storage condition requirement and the sympathetic and non-intrusive manner in which the work was carried out.”

Image credit: Rolex