View Single Post
Old 10-16-2015, 03:00 PM   #4
Marin
Scraping Paint
 
City: -
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 13,745
Our 1973 boat was ordered by a customer in SFO Bay and it spent it's whole life there until we bought it and trucked it north in 1998. So it has no heating system on it at all. It's something we plan to add when we get more time to do this project, and we know what kind of diesel heater we're going to install.

We use the boat year round so for winter heat away from the dock we use a portable propane heater from Mr. Heater called the "Portable Buddy." It does a sufficiently good job to make boating in the winter relatively comfortable.

A propane heater like this has several downsides. It puts a LOT of moisture in the air so the windows tend to fog up pretty bad.

You have to be VERY mindful of propane safety with this heater. So we never use it when we are not inside the boat with it. If we go outside we turn off the heater and set it on the deck outside the cabin. If we are going to leave the boat for shore we turn off the heater, remove the propane cannister, and set it on the deck outside. Same thing when we go to bed.

The propane canisters are stored in the sailing dinghy we keep in a cradle on the aft cabin top. We never keep one inside the boat other than the one that is on the heater. If we think we might run out of propane while we're using the heater we put a spare canister outside on the deck by the door and when we change canisters we put the empty one outside.

We thought originally about using a kerosene heater but friends we boat with use one and we don''t like the smell and "taste" it puts in the air. So we went with propane.

However, the proper solution is a diesel heater or a properly vented propane heater like a Dickinson wall unit. We've decided to go with a diesel heater when we get around to it.
Marin is offline   Reply With Quote