Sorry..a winter question!

[dog]

I was sitting here looking at the rain, and it got me thinking about the gloom of winter. How many of you guys fully winterise your engines when ashore, or do you use heaters. I was thinking of buying one of those oil filled jobbies to keep the engine bay above freezing point.

Any experience welcome.

Brian.

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[Moose]

Why not use the boat all through the winter?

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L' Moose

 

[TwoStroke]

That's what I'm hoping to do - but what if you can't get to the boat for a couple of weeks and it starts to get really cold? /forums/images/icons/wink.gif

<hr width=100% size=1>How much to fill'er up!

 

[martynwhiteley]

What I did last year was buy two small 'tube' or greenhouse' low watt heaters from Index.

One's about 2ft long an 220 watts (£14), the other about 4ft long and 400 watts (£20).

I also bought a twin pack of timers from Makro for about £6.

I put the small one in the engine room and the large one in the cabin (to protect domestics and stop damp). I set the timers to be on from 10pm to 8 am.

It worked fine, the boat was always ready to use, and fired up first time.

I was a bit concerned about 240v switching on and off in the engine room (then petrol powered) so I posted a query under the title of 'How do you Heat Yours'. I got a few replies, but none that put me off, and I managed to get through the winter without an explosion!



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[tripleace]

Tube heaters and if you want to keep boat fresh a de humidifier from B&Q. or payless.

should be about £100.00 or less

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[tico]

2 green house heaters, 1 in engine room, 1 in saloon on thermostats.
Dehumidifier on a timer.
Result .. all dry and fresh all winter, well worth the cost.

BTW dont leave the dehumidifier on all the time if you have woodwork, it dries it out and can cause it to crack.

<hr width=100% size=1>Been there, done that, got the oily T shirt

 

[milltech]

The year I kept my boat on a trot on the Hamble I worried about this, but I figured it would have to get pretty cold on the salt before the engine froze, and indeed it didn't. I guess if we have a real winter ever then it would become a problem.

I do remember firing up Pegasina (elderly Nelson 40) at Poole Harbour Yacht Club one winter in the 80's, there was a hint of ice in the marina and it was bitter. No heating on board, diesels cranked and banged and cranked and banged until eventually the first one lit up with the kind of smoke that would have done justice to the Battle of the River Plate. But still nothing froze.



<hr width=100% size=1>John
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[dog]

Thanks for all the advice, looks like Ill be giving heaters a try. I was only planning on having her out for a short period, maybe between Jan-March.

B

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[gjgm]

may not tie in with your service, but otherwise ask the engineer to reconnect all the (winterized)hoses and plugs, as they are now empty of water anyway, when he does the service andn winterize. Then you can just start her up when you next use her. Cant see why they think you should get him back out 3 months later to connect them for you..and pay twice.

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