PNW winterizing

[Stu Jackson]

Hi Stu, a little off topic but what do you use for heating when at anchor?

Jon,

All I have is a catalytic heater run off green propane canisters.  It serves to "take the edge off" but doesn't truly heat the boat in these waters (literally as well as figuratively ).

What this means is that my shoulder seasons are shorter.  When I first moved here in 2016, two of the first three Catalina Rendezvous at Roche Harbor in the San Juans were delightful as far as the weather was concerned: early May high 60s.

Other years it was nice in June, a couple of years it continued to rain and stay cold until July.

One year I had a wonderful Indian Summer cruise the last week in October.  One year it started raining on October 1st and didn't stop until June 30th.

In order to use a boat here comfortably outside of July, August & September the solution is diesel heat.  Whether one chooses hydronic or air is up to the individual skipper.  If I was to do so, I'd go for hydronic because I could get hot water, too.  I'm a glutton for  a good comfy shower.      My friend with a boat similar in size and engine as ours reports his fuel consumption goes from 0.5 gph to 0.79 in heating season, with a mix of heat on when motoring and for only at anchor.  They usually start their seasons in late April and run through mid-October.

I'm an HVAC engineer and I've read all about the pros for air heat and inside humidity, but I've been on lots of boats with hydronic systems.  It turns out that in reality a reasonably sized hydronic heating system gives off more than enough heat to overcome that potential issue.  Why?  It turns out that even the smallest hydronic system (unless deliberately and woefully undersized) turns out to have both enough heat in the central heater core as well as the smallest fan&coil individual space heaters to overcome the heat losses with enough to "spare" to get enough heat to overcome any potential condensation issues on uninsulated surfaces.  (This is true for our "Mediterranean Climate" in this area, not at all true of Alaska.)  Another way to say it is that even the smallest hardware available is more than equal to the task.  Without oversizing any of the components, friends report they can heat up their boats quickly and then turn the individual heaters down to low to stay comfortable.

[Ron Hill]

Jon : I've used a "Black Cat" cyclitic propane heater for many years.  Got it from a camping store - they sell them to be used inside tents!!  Perfectly safe indoors.  I set our in a small square metal cake pan - that's for a just incase it were to tip over while sitting on the salon floor.  Does a great job of "taking the edge off".

We also light up the oven and have muffins or corn bread for breakfast!!   

A few thoughts

[Jeff Tancock]

I actually take all my cushions home for the winter. It's great to dry and air them out. It also makes any projects down below so much easier.
For heat I have a Wabasto diesel forced air furnace that is fantastic. Dries and heat the boat fast when aboard on those cool nights.