Com-Pac Yacht Owners Association

I've purchased CP25 - hull # 5 with diesel and thinking of installing a heater when I get her this spring.
What have others done for Cabin heat in their wonderful vessels (CP23's and above)?

Steve
Vermont CP25 (soon)

On a 35' sailboat I owned years ago, I occasionally used small portable propane gas heaters with disposable bottles when cruising. In addition to heat, they produced a lot of interior condensation that was a PITA sometimes. Also had to ensure adequate ventilation.

While working on my covered boats in wintertime (up north) I've used both electric and kerosene heaters at times.

IF I were ever to consider heating a Diesel powered sailboat again (highly unlikely in SW Florida), I would definitely investigate various Diesel Heaters for their ability to produce DRY HEAT efficiently.

Just some food for thought.

P.S. Had a friend with a CP25 - nice cruising boat.

capt_nemo

Steve,

I have a Dickinson solid fuel heater in my 23. It dries out the cabin and will make it nice and toasty in there. Great for occasional heating but if you were looking for long term heating a diesel heater would be easier. They might be almost too much heat for a small boat though.

(http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2547/5822361567_dcbba7a5e8.jpg)
(http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5234/5822362015_ae0e1a29e5.jpg)
(http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5306/5822361671_446a45424b.jpg)
(http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2713/5822361727_5bf74305af.jpg)
(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8162/7653526652_1ccbc00bb6.jpg)

Shawn

I installed a Webasto diesel heater on Pooka, a CP27. In fact have used it all winter! works very well!

AHA! The new owner of Pooka finally emerges from hiding! Welcome...I always enjoyed Bill's posts and was sorry for him when he sold his beloved 27.
Shawn:  I might have asked you this before but what do you  burn in that heater?
Bob23

Bob,

Charcoal briquets and small pieces of firewood from hardwood branches I cut and split.

Shawn

Welcome Bobbar!  We like to keep track of whom our boats select next in their sailing life.  Bill still hangs out here from time to time, it seems once a Com-Pac hook gets you, you always need a little bit of a fix.

TG

OBTW  Bob23 needs a little earnest money....

Those Dickinson heaters appear to be huge for the small size of the Com Pak Yacht interiors.
But still a good safe and ventilated way to go. This heater uses interior air. Does the interior leak enough air?
Maybe this manufacture could be persuaded to produce a smaller design for those white fuel tablets?

There is a company in Manitowoc, Wisconsin that makes these non vented solid fuel tablet fireplaces for apartment buildings.

Dickinson heaters are just folded up stainless steel sheet steel with K-Fiber insulating board, Tinnerman nuts and a hot roof stack.
A small hand brake and vola` somebody's in business. 'Yes you did build that.'

Webasto diesel fuel heaters? I have no idea. Need a fuel pump?
Didn't I have one of these firing on gasoline in a Vee Wee van? I think so. Humm don't these have an electric requirement? A fan?

I use my single burner butane hot plate unit to take the chill off then shut her down. Not a lot of oxygen to share inside a closed up boat.

Be mindful of condensation from breathing. Also from burning fuel. For ever 1,000,000 btu's burned we make 100 lb of water vapor and since water won't burn we see this water vapor dripping out of the tailpipes on cars and condensing on the fiberglass overheads in Com Pac's.

I forgot about IR ... Brackish has it all. I like his Brinkman Catalytic below.

skip.

Vermont huh. ???  Well I'm in Mississippi and I can't effectively relate, however this winter might move me in that direction.  :o  I don't have a permanently installed heater on my 23, but use this brinkman catalytic on a temp basis but never when sleeping.  It is very effective, and because of the three point stance it works very well in the cabin or cockpit without danger of tipping over.  When docked I have shore power and I plug a little electric in that has all the prerequisite safety devices

(http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af200/brackish_photos/41vYey8S9JL.jpg)

I had a bulkhead mounted kerosene lantern on my Columbia 8.7, and it was surprising the amount of heat it put out along with the soft cabin lighting.

Someone I knew tested a catalytic heater with a sensor of some kind, and there was enough air leakage for it not to be dangerous. Yeah, that's not a real citation to go on, but I was just thinking about that heater, and wondering if the guy still has it. I think I'd turn it off for sleeping as well. Maybe just use it to take the cold edge off the evening.

The Brinkman looks like a neat design.  Hold onto it!  A quick check at Brinkman and Amazon appears to indicate it's out of production.  The way this winter's been in Virginia, though, we've been wondering the same thing as Steve, i.e., which heater to get before next winter.  Stay warm.

Quote from: tigersailor on February 14, 2014, 10:39:23 AM
Someone I knew tested a catalytic heater with a sensor of some kind, and there was enough air leakage for it not to be dangerous. Yeah, that's not a real citation to go on, but I was just thinking about that heater, and wondering if the guy still has it. I think I'd turn it off for sleeping as well. Maybe just use it to take the cold edge off the evening.

If you think about it, there is plenty of make up air supply on a 23.  The gap between the top drop board and the sliding hatch should be plenty and in addition there is the route through the cockpit seats over the main settee aft bulkheads and through the lower companionway area.  I usually keep a piece of pipe insulation foam to close that drop board gap because it can be drafty with certain winds. 

That said, I still don't ever sleep with heat on and I've cruised overnight with temps down in the mid thirties.  But the catalytic is great for sitting in the cockpit at night, then moving it to the cabin to take the chill off before turning in, then cranking it up in the morning to take the chill off.  I chose this one over several others that use the propane bottle as the stand because they seemed too tippy.  The three point stance model is very stable.  I also have one of those little buddy heaters, but it is a little to large for the boat.

If they've taken it out of production, I'll have to put a sentry on it.  ;)

Just thought about it.

You guys using fuel fired heaters can and should go buy a battery powered CO2 monitor from Ace for little money. Why not? Cheap insurance.

Cool? skip.

Coleman makes a few catalytic heaters that have the three point stance as well. I had one of them on Serenity before I put in the vented solid fuel stove. The thing to watch for with the catalytic is if the O2 supply gets lower they start producing much greater amounts of CO which will poison you.

Shawn

"This heater uses interior air. Does the interior leak enough air?"

That is what the cowl vent is for. I am also going to add another mushroom vent on the port side cabin top for additional air. Some of propane/diesel units use outside air for combustion.

Good call on the CO sensor, I have one installed on the port side bunk.

Shawn

"If you think about it, there is plenty of make up air supply on a 23.  The gap between the top drop board and the sliding hatch should be plenty and in addition there is the route through the cockpit seats over the main settee aft bulkheads and through the lower companionway area. "

Possibly, but if you are anchored into the wind the gap between the drop board will likely be leaking air out of the cabin, not in. Per Bernoulli the moving air (outside air) will be at a lower pressure than the static air (cabin air) so the flow would be inside->out, not outside in... at least till equalized. Having a cowl vent will help to replenish the air leaking out the back. On the Dickinson they require a 3" supply feed for the stove alone. As it is vented that will also help to draw in fresh air.

Shawn

On a Rawson 30 in the San Juan Islands I installed an Espar diesel heater. It is very small and compact, has ducting to put the heat where you want it. It does draw some power, but not much. It has a small fuel pump and fan, the exhaust is vented to the outside and the unit is electronically controlled and has a little dial thermostat - works just like a house thermostat - turn it on, set it, and things get warm. I built a custom exhaust for it out of ss tubing and a ss bowl and plate that I found in a second-hand store. These are mounted to my cabin top.  I got the heater off ebay several years ago. It seems very reliable, still heats my Rawson. My wife loves it.

On a 25 foot boat it would only run for a few minutes at a time. I could take some pics for anyone interested in going this route.

Fair winds,

MM in Wonder

Quote from: Shawn on February 14, 2014, 08:30:58 PM
"If you think about it, there is plenty of make up air supply on a 23.  The gap between the top drop board and the sliding hatch should be plenty and in addition there is the route through the cockpit seats over the main settee aft bulkheads and through the lower companionway area. "

Possibly, but if you are anchored into the wind the gap between the drop board will likely be leaking air out of the cabin, not in. Per Bernoulli the moving air (outside air) will be at a lower pressure than the static air (cabin air) so the flow would be inside->out, not outside in... at least till equalized. Having a cowl vent will help to replenish the air leaking out the back. On the Dickinson they require a 3" supply feed for the stove alone. As it is vented that will also help to draw in fresh air.

Shawn

That's a good point, I guess I've never used it in that condition.  On my lake, when it gets that cold and I'm out overnight, it is usually dead calm, or I'm nosed up to a high bank with full wind protection.  Certainly you could crack the forward hatch to provide some supply air under those conditions. Regardless, I won't use it while sleeping, just a little afraid of it, and a good sleeping bag will keep me warm enough.  For where you live, however, I think your stove is just the ticket.

Skip: Capeche! Good call on the CO detector. I thought of that last fall while drying out in my 23 while the kerocene latern was burning. Looking at it's nice warm glow, I wondered if I dozed off if I was gonna wake up again...I promptly blew it out. Probably a bit of paranoa mixed in there but CO poisoning is no joke. I almost lost a friend to it while he drove his old Corvair.
Thanks,
Bob23

Agreed on the oxygen sensor; or CO detector, or whatever the heck it is. This is the process I recall my friend following:

It was one of the Coleman catalytic heaters. He shut up his CP 19 with it going and a friend's sensor; the sensor never went off.

Frankly, I think I'd turn the thing off like Brack does his, as soon as I get into the sleeping bag. No sense tempting fate, eh?

CO2 poisoning ... your in a fire and your dragged out and 'saved'.
The EMT's toss an oxygen mask over your face and they dump you in a hospital.
Not being out of the woods yet ... you die. Why?
It's because the body 'takes so much more time to rid it' self of CO2 and replace that blood gas with oxygenated blood.

Simply put the exchange of blood gases is S-L-O-W.
Don't be gasses.

Shawn--> Thanks I never really had co and co2 squared away in my mind ... I guess it's kind-of, sort-of understood here. The '2' is what we blow on ambers to make fire. Since un like birds with two air sacs we humans are not very efficient. [the first air sac extrapolates oxygen and then this discharged air is sent to the second air sac to grab the last little bit of oxygen before being exhaled.]

skip.

Quote from: Tim Gardner on February 13, 2014, 09:18:22 PM
Welcome Bobbar!  We like to keep track of whom our boats select next in their sailing life.  Bill still hangs out here from time to time, it seems once a Com-Pac hook gets you, you always need a little bit of a fix.

TG

OBTW  Bob23 needs a little earnest money....

:)
Thanks Tim and Bob! Yes I purchased "Pooka" and it was one of the best decisions I've ever made! I sometimes feel bad for Bill. I love this boat!
I'm currently at the Severn River Marina outside of Hayes Va. I had the boat shipped to oriental, nc and then came up the ICW to explorer the Chesapeake!

Skip,
Almost... it is CO (carbon monoxide) that binds to your blood displacing the ability to carry O2 and is so hard to shed.

CO2 (carbon di-oxide) your body gets rid of easily. It us what you exhale. 

Shawn