Princess 54: Winter Preparation

[Momac]

Boat in or out of the water? In the UK the water keeps your boat warm enough. I don’t do any of that it makes it too hard to use my boat.

That's with the boat in the water .
The South coast is milder than up here so you probable feel more inclined to take the lower risk of frost damage.

 

[Scubaboy79]

desiccant dehumidifier in the galley so it drains out of the sink. I leave it on 24/7 and it provides background heat. I even leave the beds made up and it all stays fresh. Ideally get a device that alerts you if you lose shore power.

turn left out of OV and there is fuel just the other side of the Itchen bridge. Don’t cut the corner when turning left its shallow.

No need to be paranoid about it being full. The top of the tank won’t have diesel touching it anyway. As you get more empty the metal sides of the tank come into play as well. So don’t be less that 3/4 I’d say.

That’s all I do. The only thing that’s ever suffered is the external shower head. I’ve had a few split. I should find a way to isolate and drain that but have never been bothered.

Thank you. On the basis of the advice in here (invaluable stuff) I bought the Meaco Dessicant DDL8 dehumidifier and tried it out this weekend. Works a treat! Just need to get a hose so it can drain into the galley sink as you say, and the warm air it produces should keep the boast sufficiently warm too…..

 

[Scubaboy79]

You may well have the place to yourself in Winter. Heating on, mist rising off the water first thing, wildlife all around you.

Marvelous.

Well if we see you I shall pootle over to say hello. Our boat is called Danger Mouse.

 

[CUE99T]

Good points fellas, I'm currently looking at something 45ft> in this year or early next year to West Coast of Scotland and have some experience of heating a boat over the winter, and I used to use oil heaters inside the cabin with lots of damp pods dotted around the cabins, and personally leave them on perm from Nov as low consumption costs.

I also used in the engine bay ceramic garden heaters as the boat was just a smaller 5.0L Merc 25ft modern single engine but assume for a larger engine I'll have to have a heating system of some form? Do they tend to come with it?

I also used thermostatic plugs so they would kick in for heating the tubes.....what does anyone use for larger engines in the engine bay?


Looking at boats 2001 right upto 2018 boats if the spec is right. (65ft stuff if older and 45-50ft if younger)

Might do a thread for a "what should I make sure I have?" Or is there a good one everyone gets pointed to?

 

[Elessar]

I don’t see the point of heaters in the engine bay if the boat is in the water. Where I am anyway - water temp doesn’t drop below about 8.

 

[CUE99T]

It's more about air temp..... well it always has for me... at -5 to -8 your block will crack up here in Scotland with an Inboard not sure about larger Volvo/Man/MUT/Cat engines.....

 

[Elessar]

The boat is in the water which is acting like a radiator. Measure the temperature of your block in winter if you’re worried. If the wind is whistling through your engine bay a little tube heater isn’t going to help.

 

[CUE99T]

The boat is in the water which is acting like a radiator. Measure the temperature of your block in winter if you’re worried. If the wind is whistling through your engine bay a little tube heater isn’t going to help.

I never thought about the radiator type effect, interesting.

What I thought was pretty good was that I bought a wifi connected plug that is also thermostatic in a way so I could see air temp drop and it would kick in. Tbh it always worked well, Ceramic heaters were always good enough for cold winters. I don't think there was much air loss, I mean not super tight but it kept a decent constants temp.

Plug was interesting as it had a hot and cold socket option so it can cool and heat.

 

[Shifty]

I don’t see the point of heaters in the engine bay if the boat is in the water. Where I am anyway - water temp doesn’t drop below about 8.

I’ve always put a bar heater under each engine as much as anything to keep the condensation away, I had the boat 20years and the 74ps look as good as new when we sold her last year.

 

[rudijay]

desiccant dehumidifier in the galley so it drains out of the sink. I leave it on 24/7 and it provides background heat. I even leave the beds made up and it all stays fresh. Ideally get a device that alerts you if you lose shore power.

turn left out of OV and there is fuel just the other side of the Itchen bridge. Don’t cut the corner when turning left its shallow.

No need to be paranoid about it being full. The top of the tank won’t have diesel touching it anyway. As you get more empty the metal sides of the tank come into play as well. So don’t be less that 3/4 I’d say.

That’s all I do. The only thing that’s ever suffered is the external shower head. I’ve had a few split. I should find a way to isolate and drain that but have never been bothered.

Yep I agree, desiccant dehumidifier is a good way to. They won't ice over in cold weather as a compressor unit can.

 

[petem]

Is there a danger of over doing it with the de-humidifier and making the boat so dry that the woodwork suffers?

 

[Bandit]

Is there a danger of over doing it with the de-humidifier and making the boat so dry that the woodwork suffers?

Yes you can over dry woodwork and it will split. Most good dehumidifiers have a humidity stat to set a minimum.

In Guernsey a 45 ft baot engine room door to accommodation open, two oil filled delonghi rads on shore power one by er door plus one in galley forward and a dehumidifier draining to galley sink. No probs with mould or condensation.

 

[Scubaboy79]

Thanks to the advice on here, I went for the Meaco desiccant dehumidifier which switches itself off once it gets to a certain level. So far it’s working really well. I have rigged up some Blink Wi-Fi cameras so I can keep an eye on the boat, the dehumidifier, and a little temperature and humidity gauge. So far the humidity is staying around 50 per cent. No need for heaters yet, but I’m sure that will change as the weather gets colder, but the dehumidifier chucks out warm air so that seems to be doing the trick for now. Haven’t put anything in the engine room yet.