wrote:
Interested in a discussion oriented towards people who are looking to
live aboard, of ways to safely heat a cruising sailboat at dockside.

SH

At dockside, absolutely no question, electric heaters, with hot
water tank and a wood stove for back up in the event of power
failure. I would burn commercial firelogs in the stove when
neccessary, and keep my rear wheel drive cargo van back end full of
them for ballast on slippery roads. I would want a tiny woodstove,
and would cut up the firelogs to suit it's capacity using a coping saw.

Hot water in a well insulated tank could provide a little heat while
the wood stove got roaring, and you always want lots of electric hot
water for almost all of life's little luxuries, like showers, tea,
soup, clean clothes, etc.

The option to use engine heat for hot water and heating is not the
best use for the engine unless at sea and in need of motive power.

Besides, the noise of an engine rumbling all winter would cause
trouble with the locals, including me.

Terry K

On Thu, 06 Oct 2005 08:42:21 -0300, Terry Spragg wrote:


At dockside, absolutely no question, electric heaters, with hot water tank
and a wood stove for back up in the event of power failure. I would burn
commercial firelogs in the stove when neccessary, and keep my rear wheel
drive cargo van back end full of them for ballast on slippery roads. I
would want a tiny woodstove, and would cut up the firelogs to suit it's
capacity using a coping saw.

Be careful on which fire logs. Some, ones with wax for instance, are not
suitable for woodstoves.

We have a small heater that works off of our propane tank. Don't have
heated water. This is our second year living aboard. The litttle
heater works great. And as a bonus people say that it and it's little
chimney look cute as hell