First winter aboard...

[nickrj]

I managed to skip out on the utter cold by flying to Australia. That plan has kind of backfired now, because we're experiencing one of the coldest summers so far. Mind you, it is predicted to be 37deg (celsius) on Tuesday. I remember living onboard on the river hamble for a week at Christmas, and then from early spring onwards - Icy decks and grey skies...

Anyway, enough about the warmth, let's get back on topic. So, I fly back to the cold of my little boat on the 6th of Feb - I managed to skirt winter from Nov to Feb, however winters now seem to start later, so maybe I'll experience the thick of it - Boat is out of the water too, so I'll be climbing an icy ladder, onto an icy deck. I have power, but can't use any water from the tanks, and obviously no heads... Toilets are mostly shut down in the marina, so it's a long walk... Needless to say, I'll be on this forum from Feb 6 onwards complaining better than a Brit about it all... I just got a chill thinking about it.

nick.. !

 

[nathanlee]

[ QUOTE ]
A little bird told me that that you were up at your Mums tucking into turkey roast and snuggling under a warm duvet /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
The boat was all boarded up when I popped around for a NY Noggin /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

haha. Not quite. I went to my parents' for Christmas, but they went south to Dorset so I had their house to myself for a week. Was quite enjoyable.

As for NYE - I was on a fishing boat heading up and down the Thames with 30 people on board dressed as pirates. The HF antenna didn't quite make it under tower bridge unscathed but it gave the tourists something to look at /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[LadyInBed]

Ah! I saw the boat off loading you all. Looked like good fun.

 

[Anonymous]

Install the Eber VERY CAREFULLY, get all the bits out, understand the instructions and ask any questions however silly here before making a mistake. A well installed Eber works. A badly installed one doesn't. We have been using ours almost round the clock since November. Fine so far but I suppose I will need to decoke it. It looks as though it was installed by very skilled people -- everything about the installation looks 'just so'.

 

[Plomong]

I'm in "sunny" Spain, 3 km from the coast, at 120m altitude. Midday temperature: 3 degrees C. Heavy frost forecast for tonight, with more cold weather next week.

Hang in there, Spring is just round the corner !!!

 

[charles_reed]

was 2000 in Marans.

Hit daytime -8C and -12 at night. The marais froze.

Had two shore-power leads leads onto the boat to run two fan-heaters. Warm as toast, but getting off boat for the morning dash to the supermarché 200m away was truly hazardous from the ice build up on decks.
The big problem was condensation INSIDE lockers, finally licked by using aluminium foil/polystyrene composite to line the deckheads.
Finally did all deckheads which made the boat better in the sun as well.

Hot-air blower Eberspachers won't stand continuous use, their literature clearly states they're only designed for intermittent use (and, from memory) boats are specifically verboten. I found out the hard way when the fan-motor seized and I tried to get some satisfaction from them. When they quoted £500 (in 1994), I bought a 2nd hand one for £250, but never got round to fitting it.
Since then I've found electric fan-heaters more than adequate.

However I remember several liveaboards up the canal at Fiumicino who were having to PAY extra for their power (this was the 2004-5 cold winter) and were using solid-fuel stoves, surrounded with a dioxin-laden atmosphere.

The Eberspacher hot-water system, fitted in Freya, next door to me was the best boat-heating system I've ever come across.
Being a Lloyds inspector, Eric had installed it immaculately, with 5 tiny heat-exchangers (some with fan-boost) around the boat. The only comment he had was about the fuel consumption, which was working out at about 1.5l for every 24 hours' use.

Coming back from Roma to Ostia in the ferrovaria, I remember one headline "Snow in the Colosseum: Swedes exporting unwanted weather". Whilst I thought this highly amusing Freya were less entertained - they considered themselves sun-exiles from their native Sweden and didn't want any Swedish weather, thank-you.

 

[Anonymous]

[ QUOTE ]
Hot-air blower Eberspachers won't stand continuous use, their literature clearly states they're only designed for intermittent use (and, from memory) boats are specifically verboten.

[/ QUOTE ]
That's not what the DL5 Manual says....

[ QUOTE ]
<span style="color:blue">Range of application of the heater
The air heater operating independently of an engine is
intended for installation in the following vehicles, depending
on its heating output:
• Vehicles of all kinds
• Construction machinery
• Agricultural machinery
• Boats, ships and yachts
• The heater is not certified for installation in vehicle
compartments used by passengers (more than 8
seats). Exception see page 5: statutory regulations,
arrangement of the heater.
• Heater D 5 L C – 24 volt is allowed to be installed
in vehicles used for the transport of dangerous
goods as per ADR / ADR99.
Purpose of the heater
• Pre-heating, de-misting windows
• heating and keeping the following warm:
– Driver and working cabs
– Freight compartments
– Ship’s cabins
– Passenger and crew compartments
On account of its functional purpose, the heater is
not permitted for the following applications:
• Long-term continuous operation, e.g. for preheating
and heating of:
– Residential rooms
– Garages
– Work huts, weekend homes and hunting huts
– House boots, etc.
• Heating or drying
– living creatures (people or animals) by blowing hot
air directly at the subject
– objects
– blowing hot air into containers</span>

[/ QUOTE ]

Make of that as you will, but it suggests that short term continuous operation is acceptable. The real issue there is whether some parts of the equipment get too hot after a number of hours. For example, equipment can be rated as 'no more than 12 hours in every 24 hours or 5 hour continuous'. The Eberspacher seems to be rated continuous. How long it will actually LAST for is a different matter!

[ QUOTE ]
However I remember several liveaboards up the canal at Fiumicino who were having to PAY extra for their power (this was the 2004-5 cold winter) and were using solid-fuel stoves, surrounded with a dioxin-laden atmosphere.

[/ QUOTE ] We are paying €0.25 per kWh at Constellation. Diesel with the Eber should be costing us around half that with diesel just over €1 per litre. That is a big saving (but not if we end up with a £500 repair bill at the end of the season). Hans, on the yacht in front of me, is now heating with a combination of bottled gas and electricity as his Eber has gone down. He said it lasted several years but now it seems that his pump has gone. Locally, paraffin costs around €2.50 per litre which makes is far too expensive.

It will be interesting to see how long our Eber lasts. One downside is that I have to trundle down to the petrol station to buy diesel. I have bought a sack trolley and pick up 30 litres at a time.