How cold does it get?

Hi,

Vessels are normally very well insulated, it is how hot it gets normally not how cold it gets in my experiences.

I like my cabin around 18/20 degs C.

I see it's been awhile since you rolled over in your sleep and laid your back against a steel hull on a winter's night K1W1.

We left Halifax NS for the VI in the first week of January this year. It was snowing and below freezing dockside at 9pm when we left. Were no issues with to much heat that I recall. Even the ever running Detroit seemed only adequate as a space heater for the area it occupied.

even stuck in the ice it still stays warm in the boat unless you go dead ship and the ice this year was REAL bad

cheer's travler

Depends on the boat and how fancy. I've worked some steel boats with insulation only in the house, but not in the hull where the crew bunks are. You can crank the heat and keep things toasty, but roll against that hull in sub-freezing weather and you're waking up fast and cranky.

was in the gulf of Maine in March in a fiberglass SF.

turned the generator and electric heat off, 2 hours later the boat was freezing.

water temps were in the high 30's-low 40's. air temps in the mid 30's.

I use a propane heater on the bridge to stay warm. a well vented flybridge.
It works great.

Old time heat

Spent lots of time sailing a traditional schooner in Maine and Nova Scotia... sole source of heat was a Shipmate wood stove. Crank that baby up and it would be comfortable in just about anything, 40's at night and not a worry. And on a rainy, wet, day it would dry out everything, although the cabin also looked like a laundromat... However, motor to windward with the stove burning and whoever's at the helm is gasping for fresh air...

But as others have said... every craft is a unique situation... that schooner would be downright uncomfortable in southern climates!

Nothing that a little cardboard stuffed against it, wouldn't cure.

(nothing like the serious guys above), but it was pretty freezing one night, heater not doing much, until I cracked the door on the engineroom, 2 hot cat C18s and a generator for a heater

Good topic.
I don't get around space heaters since I've left Europe anymore.
I used an Eberspacher diesel heater that just managed to keep the quarterberth in my uninsulated steel 28' sloop warm.

Are there central heating systems running via engine cooling water used?
Would the exchange of heat from a 150hp engine be sufficient to heat the waterheater and central heating system.

I haven't got a clue when it comes to this.

Hi,

There are plenty that use engine heat to provide hot water sometimes as a stand alone unit and other times for when othe rheat sources are not available.

If you have you 150 hp engine working hard there will be lots of waste heat you can recover particularly if you don't need it for a particle filter etc.

The best arrangement will of course depend upon the exact situation/operational profile of the boat.

On my last atlantic (westbound, November) crossing in an fiber glass sail boat the I liked my sleeping bag during the first days after we left canary islands, temp was between 15 and 18 C. After a week it got much much warmer!

Don't know, my boat will never sail Norht of 26N...

On previous vessels North of the Artic Circle, in the winter, yes it can get cold in the crew quarters, but not freezing. Not a big deal if you are sleeping with plenty of blankets or a hot blonde.

Even with air temps in the 30s, our diesel hydronic heater has no problem keeping the boat warm when anchored. When cruising, the engine coolant via an external HX supplies enough heat to the hydronic system so the diesel boiler is not needed.

I have lived onboard in the North East for several years.

I used electric heat but that pretty keeps me tied to the dock or requires me to run the generator when away from the dock.

The best way to heat a live aboard seems to be with a hot water burner.

Without heat and insulation the boat will get quite cold and cold enough to freeze pipes.

However, you do seem to benefit from the temp of the water the boat is in.

Once the air temp and water temp start to drop you have to worry about freezing inside of the boat.

Just a side note, my reverse cycle heat/AC starts to loose efficency below 40 degrees sea temp.