Winter Heat!

[Bryan]

As the fall temps dip into the 40's and 30's, what is a good safe way to heat our boat while away from dock?

 

[joe phibbs]

Read that ole disclaimer first

Read that ole disclaimer at the bottom, exonerating us from suit, should something ugly happen. I have found that cool weather sailing (it will be 40 over the weekend and i plan to solo up the James River a ways to stay on the hook), inverting an old iron stewpot over the alcohol stove set to the smallest idle flame I can will keep the temp in a closed boat at 60 or so. Remember that lots of your boat is under the waterline, so it will assume the water temp (for us on the lower Chesapeake Bay) still in the 60's). I am afraid of using lit candles overnight, but if you stay alert while awake, candles can take the edge off a biting freezing breeze. I don't skimp on fabrics either: goretex or 100% wool is great. My (now 25 year old) daughter and I endured several overnighters when she was in junior high. Radio reception, food, stars and conversation all seemed better without the jetski's and tourists. Go for it! joe

 

[dan]

similar to what

Joe suggested, I read in Good Ole Boats or somewhere that you can get clay flower pots just slightly larger than the burner on your stove and set them upside down over a real low flame and they wiil heat the cabin nicely.

 

[Ken Cobb]

a/c-heat

When a boat has a/c installed, does that also act as a heater when called upon to do so? If so, I assume that it takes a lot of electricity to run.

 

[Mark Swart]

Flower pots on stove?

If you have a gimballed stove that runs on something that won't asphyxiate you, take a ceramic flower pot, put it upside down over the burner, and leave it on low. It will trap and distribute enough of the heat to knock the chill off the inside of the boat. We do this all the time when frostbiting with a force-10 single burner bulkhead mount propane stove. Companionway is open, but it's nice to duck down below for a few minutes at a time just to warm up a little. We sailed last winter like this on several afternoons with temps in the 40s. For an overnight, I guess you'd need a better solution, but it worked good for our day sails.

 

[Gord]

Ken Cobb

Air-Conditioning is a heat pump system, which might be 'reverse-cycled'. Most A-C units are not capable of reverse cycle heating, and those that are are usually clearly identified as such.Yep, it's energy hungry in both heating & cooling modes.Gord