Cabin heater?

[John D. 26x]

We use a portable propane radiant heater. I think the name is Mr. Heater Buddy. Uses the small propane bottle that you screw on. It has an oxygen sensor that will shut it off if there is a drop in oxygen. This can be a problem at altitudes over 9,500 ft. Our boat is close to this altitude on a Colorado lake, and we've had no problems. It also has a shut off if it is tipped over. Cost is around $85. The heater works great.

It regularly gets into the 30's at night with 20 being the lowest we've had while on board. That's the morning we decided we needed a heater. It was 20 inside the boat. There was ice and frost on all the fiberglass and windows. We had an indoor rain shower when it started warming up.

We spend about 12 weekends per season on the boat. Sleep in the extended V berth. The heater goes on the table. We use it to warm up the cabin before getting into our sleeping bags and shut it off. Around 5:30am I turn it on again. Never had a bottle leak after it had sealed properly. Did have one bottle not seal properly from the get go. I always install and remove the propane bottle in the cockpit.

[Graham Carr]

You might want to check out this message board C-Dory Owners Group (see link below) I dont think you have to be a member to check out the messages. But if you have any problems let me know and I can copy the info. Anyway most C-dorys come with the Wallas stove/heater. This group has some great info on fuels and related stove info. I would love to have Wallas, but it would only work for me when I get to sea level. The lakes I sail on for part of the summer are between 5000 to 10,000. Air is to thin! Some days we wake up with frost on the deck. My biggest challenge is not selling the mods to my wife but moving back to the San Juan Islands area. http://groups.msn.com/CDoryOwnersGroup/ ... toves.msnw.

Graham Carr
Pauka2
Longmont, CO

[Graham Carr]

PS: When you get to the site look to the left and you will see the link heat/stove

Graham Carr

[Max]

David,
Mine is the 125 Wallas as in your link - the surface mounted model. The previous owner fitted it and did a bit of cutting to fit it.
However, it's the kerosene model not diesel.
I'll take a photo of it when I'm down on the Mac this weekend and post it on the thread.
Here in GB, if you sail on inland waterways, you need a boat safety certificate - and they're very hot (no pun intended!) on LPG fuelled cookers (LPG being propane). In fact the examiners do their best to dissuade the use of LPG.
Kerosene is FAR SAFER BY A MILLION MILES.
Regards
Max

PS how DO you post a photo on the thread??????

[Graham Carr]

Hi Max, I am not sure how to post a photo. Most of the regulars know how to do that. You might post the question as a new message, that way it will get their attention. By the way I am from Cranham, Essex. We moved to the USA Oct 64. I came over on the Queen Mary. Talk about rough seas. Five days of it. Anyway I like to keep an eye on Mac-X activity and general sailing info in the UK. Have you checked out Rogers sailing page yet? http://www.roger.reading.dsl.pipex.com/ ... iling.html

Graham

[Terry Chiccino]

I would recommend the Wallas stove/heater combination for heating the cabin in any small boat! In our Mac we've got the Wallas 800 model, it's quite popular in the pacific northwest. We don't worry too much about air conditioning along the northwest coast but the Wallas takes the morning chill off the cabin in nothing flat. You can raise the blower unit off the burner and it's already hot for the coffe/tea pot! Highly recommended!

[Terry Chiccino]

Our Mac was set up by BWY in Seattle for the original owner to travel the intercostal waterway in southern Alaska. The original owner had two of his offspring living up there. One son lived on Prince Wales Island and his daughter lived on Wrangell Island. He had two other sons in the Portland area. He bought the boat and he and is two sons (from Portland) trailered the boat to Prince Rupert B.C. about 1100 miles north and put in. They sailed and motored for about a month to the other islands, had a great family reunion trailered home and he sold the boat!
He raved about the heater in the mornings to take the chill off the cabin. He bought the boat with the doger and wide curtain option, and that worked perfectly so that he never closed the hatch cover and with the zippered curtains closed it kept the cabin toasty.
I fuel the stove with 100% mineral spirits, you can buy it at any hardware store. The owners manual recommends mineral spirits, the stove is miserly with fuel.