Roaring Forties insulation

[Brc45]

A question for those who have made several intercontinental passages through subjects latitudes in GRP boats: did you wish you boat were better insulated?

If money were not a consideration, how would you have your boat insulated and heated for such regions?

 

[Trident]

Heating really has to be diesel - drip feed or blown air but nothing else would really work

There is a good You Tube channel called Alluring Arctic sailing around the northern high latitudes that has discussed a lot of design features for cold climes - might be worth a look for you

 

[elenya]

Hi. We live on our vessel in the middle of the forties in South Island Nz. Our cruises take us south to 52 south including in winter. Our vessel is a saltram 40. Heating is via a drip feed Dickinson heater. We use small computer fans and two thermal “stove top” fans on the chimney to get air moving around the boat.
Insulation we added is 1 inch to the hull behind 1/2 inch paneling. Deck head also has 1 inch between deck beams and I am adding another inch as it is easy and cheap.
Over winter the heater sits best at its lowest setting and running 24 hours per day. This keeps us at about 20 degrees down to freezing outside, then we lose a degree per degree drop in outside temperature. We ventilate all the time with 5 good 4 inch dorades and a deck hatch cracked open in the fore peak locker.
Fuel consumption is 4 lt per day ( we carry 900 lts so we can do what we do.

Insulation can be as easy as flame resistant polystyrene which is easy to fit and very cheap so can be roughly fitted for the voyage and removed on completion. There are lots of other foams that are easy to use too. We did one year with no insulation and no heating and I have no desire to go back. I did feel my toes for three months...

Hope this helps

 

[14K478]

Hi. We live on our vessel in the middle of the forties in South Island Nz. Our cruises take us south to 52 south including in winter. Our vessel is a saltram 40. Heating is via a drip feed Dickinson heater. We use small computer fans and two thermal “stove top” fans on the chimney to get air moving around the boat.
Insulation we added is 1 inch to the hull behind 1/2 inch paneling. Deck head also has 1 inch between deck beams and I am adding another inch as it is easy and cheap.
Over winter the heater sits best at its lowest setting and running 24 hours per day. This keeps us at about 20 degrees down to freezing outside, then we lose a degree per degree drop in outside temperature. We ventilate all the time with 5 good 4 inch dorades and a deck hatch cracked open in the fore peak locker.
Fuel consumption is 4 lt per day ( we carry 900 lts so we can do what we do.

Insulation can be as easy as flame resistant polystyrene which is easy to fit and very cheap so can be roughly fitted for the voyage and removed on completion. There are lots of other foams that are easy to use too. We did one year with no insulation and no heating and I have no desire to go back. I did feel my toes for three months...

Hope this helps

Extremely helpful post - thanks.

My boat has a 2" think balsa core deck so that's insulated already. Am thinking of putting the Eberspaecher back as a second string and adding a Dickinson drip feed. One question - how critical is the location of the flue vis a vis the mast (cutter rig) ? The ideal spot for the Dickinson is at the forward saloon bulkhead but that puts it about a foot aft of the mast. I can angle the flue to go clear of the reefing gear, kicker, etc., but is that enough? I have memories of a rather bracing cruise in the Arctic in which the Perkins drip feed was consistently back winded...

 

[elenya]

Hi

Our heater is mounted on the main bulkhead that supports the mast. This means the chimney exits through the deck about 2.5 feet to one side of the mast and about 0.5 feet astern. This is good as the chimney does not come in contact with the boom at any point.
We started with a small flue pipe onn deck but found we got frequent back drafts and smoke in the cabin. Now we have a 6 foot flue on deck and have no issues at anchor. When sailing we do have some issues when the flue is on the windward side as that side of the sail does have a slightly higher air pressure. The flue is permanently in place although we did rig it to be easily removeable.

We also have plenty of vents and hatches to try to make sure air pressure in the cabin remains the same or slightly higher than outside, i.e. we funnel a good draft below.

hope this helps

 

[14K478]

Hi

Our heater is mounted on the main bulkhead that supports the mast. This means the chimney exits through the deck about 2.5 feet to one side of the mast and about 0.5 feet astern. This is good as the chimney does not come in contact with the boom at any point.
We started with a small flue pipe onn deck but found we got frequent back drafts and smoke in the cabin. Now we have a 6 foot flue on deck and have no issues at anchor. When sailing we do have some issues when the flue is on the windward side as that side of the sail does have a slightly higher air pressure. The flue is permanently in place although we did rig it to be easily removeable.

We also have plenty of vents and hatches to try to make sure air pressure in the cabin remains the same or slightly higher than outside, i.e. we funnel a good draft below.

hope this helps

That’s exactly what I wanted to know. Thank you.

X marks the spot where the now-probably-a-Refleks will go.