Options for Heating a Boat -Why we Chose a Cubic Mini Wood Stove

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We will be cruising in some cold weather destinations next year, and we need to stay warm on Brick House!

So hot…we are in T shirts…🥵

So we started researching options for how to heat a boat last year. Here are the options we looked at, and why we ruled out each one systematically, for heating the boat for cruising in cold weather, full time.

Here is the video…information below is supplementary to the video…

1. Espar diesel – electric heater Details Here

A. Brick House used to have a forced hot air system…Webasto, Wallis, Espar, or a Chinese diesel heater…all the same principal with different qualities and options.My memory of this system is one of strong diesel fumes, and dry air you didn’t want to be near.

B. Though friends rave about this easy push button system… but when I ask them to demonstrate the system…”well…it’s broken right now…I need to send it in for repair”. This wasn’t just once…but every system I asked to see on each cruising boat that had one. These systems are NOT something you can repair on your boat…they usually require sending them in for servicing. This Is NOT something we can do where we will be sailing!

C. Installation requires Routing diesel around the boat, electric pumps, exhaust systems out the side of the boat, big air duct pipes…and other things we were not fond of doing to have heat for 6 months or a year.

D. The last reason we chose not to use this system was the consumption of not just diesel, but also of electricity. Brick House has a great battery system, but not a huge capacity. We did not want to be reliant on electricity to run our heat. The electrical consumption of a forced hot air heating system is not insignificant.

2.Propane Heater…like a Dickinson Marine Propane Heater. More Details

A. We immediately dismissed a propane heater for the boat. We very well know the pain of moist heat. Moisture is a byproduct of burning propane. Condensation will be everywhere, even worse than with a quartz heater. Dampness on a boat is not a good recipe for staying warm aboard. We needed a dry heat.

B. Consumption. To heat a boat for 6 months, would require a minimum of 12 big bottles of propane on deck. This is not practical. And if you add the electricity assist for better heat dispersion…more electricity consumed too.

C

We did consider the P12000 propane heater that Dickinson Marine makes, because that particular design has a sealed combustion in it, and hence would not be a wet heat. To get the capacity I felt we needed for heating the boat, we would have had to do the bigger model, the P12000, which comfortably heats a 12 x 12 foot area…which is really only about half the area we would like to have heated. The main problem I have with this unit, is the propane we would need to carry onboard to run it, even if just at night. It’s says you get about 80-100 hours out of one 20 pound bottle. If we ran it just 1/3 of the day…and that’s darn conservative, we would get about 10-12 days out of each bottle. Half that if we ran it much of the day, and just let it go off at night. ..would lead to using one bottle per week. Plus it needs electricity for the fan…
If we cruised in remote areas for 6 months, assuming we found one place to fill our propane bottles exactly halfway through , we would have to carry 12 20 pound bottles of propane. We just couldn’t see carrying that much weight and bulk onboard Brick House.

3. Pellet Stove. Tempting…but…One on Amazon

A. Monthly maintenance required involving a vacuum cleaner. We don’t have this capability to vacuum a stove monthly.

B. Most importantly, a pellet stove requires electricity. We just don’t want to depend on electricity to stay warm.

C. Storage of wood pellets. We would need many big bags of pellets. It’s very possible to buy them in major population areas, and they are cheap, but we will only be in a very major population center once or twice in 6 months…so we would need to stock up on many bags, and keep the bags dry.

4. A Drip Diesel/Alcohol stove heater, like a Refleks heater. At least this doesn’t need electricity so it was a strong consideration. But…

A. Diesel Routing…diesel dependance again. We don’t want to store or route diesel all over the boat. We don’t want a diesel tank inside. We will have all we can do to carry enough diesel to motor around the fjords of Chile..we don’t want to also have to be carrying 100 gallons of fuel for a stove to stay warm, never mind alcohol for the lighting of the Refleks.

B Difficulty of Use. I’m sure we could get the hang of it, but people do report difficulty getting this kind of unit to start, and heat properly.

5.Hydronic heater. Basically baseboard heaters filled with hot water…similar to the waste when your engine runs, but a unit to make the water heat in tubes that run to critical spaces on your boat. We liked this compact unit, but…

A. We did not have space to run hot water pipes all over the boat.

B. Very expensive system. We aren’t even sure we will be in this area for 6 months yet. We may just go through as fast as we can depending on how we are feeling. We didn’t want to spend thousands for this adventure.

6. A small woodstove. Some economical models, some very expensive unit too though, and not dependent on Electricity at all. Endless supply of easy and even free fuel. But… (Video comes out today: The Video)

https://youtu.be/PuUYSUITc_A

A. Most are too big for our space. Luckily, Cubic Mini had 2 versions that would fit easily though. Information, Installation instructions, and Videos

Grizzly Model

Cub Model

B. Gathering of wood, and keeping it dry will prove to be challenging. But other fuels may be found in one or two areas hundreds upon hundreds of miles apart, often to windward, and must be carried in bulk. Wood on the other hand can be found everywhere, in small doses. It will give us something to do together on the beaches and wooded anchorages we anchor at along the way, as well as a bit of exercise and purpose to our walks.

C. We will still have to do some maintenance…cleaning the flue periodically. But at least we are capable of doing this and it requires no power to do so…just a strong arm and a brush.

D.Tending of the Fire presents hot ashes and embers. We will need to be careful to not let anything come out of stove while opening the door. We purposely got an oversized platform to put it on, with a drawer that extends outwards for this very reason. We will still need to be very careful while using the stove.

7.Electric Heater

We do not have enough power to run a quart heater full time on Brick House. But until we leave the dock in Uruguay we will have and use one!

UPDATE: Our Coppercoat Application…Disaster or Success?

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Coppercoat antifouling…or even conventional antifouling…short term, should work at least to some extent to prevent marine growth on a sailboat hull, right? After 6 or 7 weeks, there should be no barnacles or build up of marine growth, no matter what kind of nutrient rich water your boat is sitting in, and no matter how little movement the boat makes, right? Well, we have been in the water for 7 weeks now…this should give us some idea if our Coppercoat application has failed or succeeded. 7 Years will tell us even more!

Patrick was feeling confident that although we strayed from the Coppercoat application instructions, that the hull would be in good shape, free from hard growth. I was a little concerned that we might have a failed Coppercoat application story for you. At the very least we would be able to tell you why the Coppercoat failed. Everything you read about Coppercoat says do NOT stray at all from the instructions. We certainly DID stray from the instructions, mostly out of necessity to get the results we knew were required to make the Coppercoat application successful in the end. Patrick isn’t one to follow directions blindly just because his wife tells him to…he uses sense and knowledge when he strays.

What brown water to go look at a hull in…what lurks below?

So despite being in very brown mucky water here in Richards Bay, South Africa, with bull sharks, crocodiles and hippos not too far away, Patrick decided that before we sail this boat around the Cape of Good Hope starting this weekend, he should take a look, or at least a feel of the bottom of our sailboat to make sure it’s not encrusted with barnacles or other serious marine growth. This which would make for a a slow and potentially dangerous rounding, not to mention, put a lot of strain on the engine if we had to motor. While he was down under the boat, he’d give it a wipe. Better to have crocodiles, hippos, a sinus infection, and a not so friendly bull shark, than a hull encrusted with barnacles for an already risky passage like this one!

Patrick going in to the water in SriLanka to do our monthly scrubbing of the hull

We were both nervous as he got in to the water to clean the bottom of Brick House. I kept thinking, what if the Coppercoat has failed!?! What a nightmare that would be! We would probably have to haul her out and choose another kind of antifouling paint to put on her hull. And what if a Bull shark visits Patrick…will he know who the boss is? I think Patrick’s main worry though, was the sinus infection.

As he slipped in to the water that was nearly as warm as the hot African air, I prayed, please…do NOT be a failed Coppercoat application. SV Britican’s hull was growing serious barnacles in less time that this. And this water grows barnacles in a week on many boats here.

So in he went. He did have scrapers, and wire brushes at the ready…just in case of bad news, ready for the typical disappointment that bottom paints usually present, even in this early stage.

After 15 or 20 minutes at the end of the Seabreathe hookah unit, he surfaced for the report. I was ready to hand him the scraper, and watch him dissapear back under the water for round 2 of many, per usual.

He handed me the sponge, and jumped out of the water with a giant smile on his face! First time ever…he didn’t need these harsh tools…the soft sponge was all he needed!

Here is his report for weeks 7, word for word:

“We have been sitting in this very nutrient rich estuary water for 7 weeks now. Part of the prep for departing in a few days for East London, then onto Cape Town, was to go into this mucky estuary water, with 4 inches of visibility, and give the hull a wipe with a large, flat, soft sponge. I worked more by feel. What little I could see and what I could feel, Coppercoat is appearing to be working as it should. There were 3 little barnacles on the hull, at the tight junction where the drive shaft enters the hull and I wasn’t able to really apply the Coppercoat very well. Actually I was happy to see and feel those barnacles as it shows what could have happened if the Coppercoat was a failure on the rest of the hull. The wipe with the sponge took a fraction of the time it would have taken to clean traditional antifouling free of sediments“.

What a relief that we possibly have a Coppercoat success, as opposed to the Coppercoat failure that I was a bit nervous about. The 3 barnacles on the area that he had a more difficult time treating, was a good comparison of what could have been a universal problem. He described to me under later questioning that from what he could see from 4 inches away, the hull looked to be in various shades of blue and green which indicates a successful Coppercoat application to me!

We could not be happier, to see that we are at least off to a good start. Perhaps the extra sanding will shorten its life span…but if it works for 2 years we will be thrilled. If it works for 5 or 10, we will be ecstatic!

Be sure to subscribe here to get updates on our Coppercoat Application Failure or Success as time goes by. We promise not to give a Coppercoat review every 6 weeks 😉 We are just excited to report all is well so far. Please feel free to write to us and ask us how it’s going if we forget to report the results over time!

Here is the Original Application Video in case you haven’t seen it yet. Only time will tell how the Coppercoat works longterm.

How we strayed from the Coppercoat Instructions

Cleaning a Sailboat Hull Underwater; How do the Pros do it so Fast?!?

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Cleaning a sailboat Hull, underwater, and the tools that you need:

Cruisers around the world have different ways of cleaning their hull. Different tools, different process, and techniques. But how do the professionals do it? The ones who are paid to do it and want to do it quickly and thoroughly, with as little setup time as possible, so they can clean many boats in one day.

Guest speaker Hank Schmitt from Offshore Passage Opportunities, a professional diver and sailboat captain for decades, demonstrates how he cleans the bottom of his Swan Sailboat “Avocation”. He shows what kind of tools to use, and how abrasive they should be. He shows how he uses a scuba tank, but leaves it on deck and uses it more like a hookah, but without any time consuming setup. He shows how he freedives, in a simple methodical way to get the whole hull done quickly.

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Patrick Childress then shows a short excerpt from a video he did a year ago demonstrating how we use a Sea Breathe Hookah/underwater breathing Apparatus to clean our cruising sailboat as we sail around the world. To clean our bottom. It’s remarkably similar…but different too! Be sure to watch both videos. The link to Patrick’s older video is in the video below.

No matter what kind of antifouling paint you put on, including the most expensive antifouling paint, to Coppercoat epoxy, scrubbing the bottom of your sailboat is something you have to get used to doing, unless you want to be paying someone to clean your hull every month or so.  Boat owners, you can save money by cleaning your sailboats bottom yourself!

Learn some new tricks in the video below!

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