Diesel

[jan]

I recently purchased a 1987 catalina. What a wonderful boat! I live in the Great NW and will need heat when motoring during our long rainy winters. Any suggestions??? (Would like to have heater run off engine) Thankyou, all replies will be appreciated.

 

[LaDonna Bubak - Planet Catalina]

OOOH & you'll need it too!

Hi Jan!Great boat - congratulations! I live in Portland so I know what you're talking about!Anyway, there are several options for you depending on how much work you want to do & how much you want to spend. You can look at used chandleries (Admiralty Marine in Seattle is a great one) for different systems. You could get a Force10 propane heater, for example, that you can use while underway or at anchor. A drawback for me would be that it really only heats the place it's installed. I mean, the heat does permeate but the farther from the source, the colder you are (V-berth or Quarter berth for example). I, personally, like forced air heaters, such as Webasto. BUT they're expensive to buy & install. They also can run your batteries down pretty quick, whereas passive ones such as a Force10 don't use any batteries. The nice thing is that you have several outlets throughout the boat & heats it up pretty uniformly. And since it is forced air, you get nice ventilation. One more really nice thing about this kind of system is that you can sleep with it turned on with no fears of asphyxiation or fire. I'd be concerned (and maybe technically it isn't a valid concern but I'd be wary nonetheless) about any heater that's in the cabin that has a flame while sleeping. You can also look at Red Dot heaters but they don't heat while you're at anchor unless the engine's running. They use the heat generated by the engine to heat the interior. Very nice for motoring cuz it doesn't use extra fuel, battery power or anything. That might be a good one to look at for supplementing your main system. There are many different systems out there. Talk to lots of people in your area to see what they use & research each company thoroughly. Good luck & keep warm!LaDonna

 

[Joe]

How about wood?

I have the same boat you have, an '87 Catalina. Your're right, what a great boat. Mine has the U shaped area to port. I mounted a Dickenson wood stove on the bulk head on the starboard setee. I burn presto logs when on the hook or when out winter cruising for that matter. The stove throws lots of heat. Enough to where when I sit up behind my dodger with the heat coming out the compaion way it makes it nice and toasty. The only downside is that the firebox is small and it takes regular additions of wood to keep the heat going. The pluses are that you don't get the diesel smell from a diesel heater and you don't have the noise of a propane heater's blower. This always was annoying to me when on the hook and trying to get to sleep. Since both of these were negatives in my book, I went with wood. Also, the cost of the wood burning heater is about 1/2 the price of diesel or propane. If I was living aboard my boat this obviously wouldn't be the best choice, but for the occasional winter cruise and for spring thru fall cruising, it works great for me. Also, since I put in a thru deck fitting with a detachable Charlie Noble stack, it stays neat on deck and I could always convert the wood unit to a diesel unit later using the same stove pipe and stack arrangement if I wanted to. I had some custom stainless sheet metal shields made with ceramic fiber blanket insulation to keep the radiant heat off my ceiling and teak on the bulkhead behind the stove pipe. There are lots of trade offs depending on your preferences and the kind of sailing you do. Good luck!