The Cold of Winter

Way down south, Scott on s/v Valkier has some ideas to make the inside warmer when it is "cold" outside.  These ideas will work equally well when it is below freezing...

So after a great post title like that I have to admit anyone north of us is going to hate me when I tell how cold it is. mid 40′s to 70ish.

So we don’t have it that bad but it has been getting pretty cold on the boat. In an effort to fix it we have been looking at heaters/stoves etc.. The propane one that we have works great but providing it with propane is a bit of a pain as well as expensive.

We have been using a little resistive electric floor heater. One of the little ones and it has been doing ok and surprisingly not costing a huge amount to run. Our top power bill so far has been 50 dollars. After finding that just about anything in the way of buying and installing a diesel/wood/anything stove/heater is going to start at a base of a grand and go up I decided to postpone that project and trying something a lot simpler. One 10 dollar window shrink kit from Home Depot.

I have to say after doing each of the 6 port lights, both the forward hatch and salon skylight as well as the 4 big windows in the salon that we have noticed a large difference. It is much warmer. The second thing we have done is cut out inserts using reflectix insulating material and putting it outside the port lights, between them and the screens. On the one hand this definitely helps keep it warm but it also stops all light through the port lights.

The double sided tape goes on the vinyl trim

vberth hatch

galley curtain rods are a great place to store sippy cups

Tape, Scissors, knife, shrink wrap film and reflectix.
The only think missing is the hair dryer.
Have to do that later when we bring one from the house.

Icebox

You probably thought this was going to be a galley-related post.

Not so.  This is the medicine cabinet in the aft head on Eolian.  You can't see it, but the door is not ventilated - it has a mirror on it.  And you may not be able to tell, but the space shares two surfaces with the outside world:

• The back wall is the hull
• The top surface is the bottom of the side deck

With no ventilation and these two outside surfaces, it gets mighty cold in there when it is cold outside.  Cold enough that squeezing toothpaste out of the tube is quite difficult.  And putting on deodorant?  Boy howdy!

So, this is not a project, but rather a project *need*.  This time I am soliciting advice from you, the readers of this blog, looking for ideas for insulating material which could be applied to the two outside surfaces.    I have some criteria:

• The installation cannot be permanent - there is wiring running up there, and I don't want to permanently cover it.
• The wiring running on the underside of the deck makes an installation tight against the upper deck difficult
• I don't want to cover the bottom end of the chainplate that is on the back wall.
• It would be nice if I could finish the insulation somehow (paint?)
• Whatever the material is, it has to go into the space thru the small door with the mirror

I am looking forward to seeing your ideas in the comments.

bob

Storm Windows

This project is an excerpt from a larger article at Sail Delmarva, originally published on March 7, 2010. You may think that this is off season for this subject, but

• It isn't off season here in Seattle
• You need to get ready for next winter sometime
• It'll help with air conditioning too.

It was COLD this winter and I slept on the boat a good number of nights. You need to look closely at the picture to see the reflection, the only clear evidence. They are simple: 1/8-inch acrylic cut with a plastic cutter, trimmed to size on a bench grinder, and some are fitted with fabric loops to facilitate removal (the larger ones in the cabins and next to the salon door). They fit in the bug screen groove and help just a little with the cold. Cost - $8.00 for a handful of ugly thrift store posters - I threw the posters away.

I especially like the source of the acrylic that Drew used. And I am impressed with the idea of replacing bug screens with a piece of acrylic - this is an idea that will work with the Beckson ports on Eolian too.

Shelving It

Project from s/v Estrellita 5.10b, April, 2010.

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We had three sets of hanging lockers in our boat: one in the v-berth (master bedroom), a big one in the main living area across from the head, and one in the aft cabin.

For us, they are a waste of space. This is the large hanging locker in the main living area which I painstakingly lined with rFoil using double-sided contractor-strength rug taped with insulating tape on top to the hull.



The rFoil has helped with condensation a little - not enough for me to recommend it to anyone. Thankfully we only have one more (planned) winter up here and the condensation will go away when we get South...until we end up somewhere with chilly water again.

But I digress.

I measured, cut and installed shelves for two of the hanging lockers before running out of good weather. Over two other good weather windows, Carol cut the remaining shelves and I painted everything.

Then we realized we needed to cut finger/ventilation holes in them which we did and I repainted the holes.





We bought a bunch of Mountainsmith Travel Cubes which we use to organize our clothing and to keep it from getting "boat smell".



We can fit 6 cubes on the two shelves with room for a big bag of less regularly needed goods beneath the bottom shelf. Right now we have a big bag of paper goods in there but that will probably be changed to spares because it is a good, low center of gravity and central storage place.



This creature comfort addition has made a big change in our daily lives, removing one more layer of stress from living on a boat. I can find my clothes. I have room for plenty. They don't get damp and they smell like laundry detergent when they come out of the cube. When we need to access the items below, the cubes are much easier to unload and reload than stacks of clothing.

I (heart) our cubes.

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This post originally appeared at s/v Estrellita 5.10b. This post copyright s/v Estrellita 5.10b.