Hot Stuff!

We've had a great summer of sailing on warm weekends and a one-week jaunt down to Boston and back. But fall is coming. After all, this is New England. It'll be getting cold. We'd like to make use of Eclipse in the shoulder seasons, but sleeping on a cold boat elicits a less than enthusiastic response. Sometimes we sleep on board when she's parked in the yard, but then we use a small electric heater.

Lying on the floor of the laz looking up.

View from the open lazaret hatch, showing the diesel tank (red), and
heat shield below it, and heat pipe going to the right. 

So Kristen purchased and I installed a Webasto diesel fueled hot air heater. It took a full month to install it and all its parts. The location is in the lazaret, port side, sandwiched between the motor well and the bulkhead of the lazaret. Most of the installation was done while lying on my back on the floor of the laz, with the heater about eight inches above my face. Every time I needed to procure another tool, or trim some material off whatever I was trying to fit, I had to climb out and back in again.

Vents on port side of motor well. Laz vent, combustion air, air intake for heating.

So many connections to make. The heater takes in diesel (I fashioned a tank from a gallon gas can) and intake air (1” pvc pipe to the port side of the motor well) and outputs exhaust (added a very small muffler, and a through-hull high on the transom.) It also takes in cold air (another PVC pipe drawing in air next to the combustion intake) and puts out hot air (too hot for PVC. I used steel). There are also electrical connections, fortunately these are plug-in, but wires have to be routed forward to the main panel and a controller knob/thermostat.

Looking to port at bottom of heater. What a spaghetti bowl!

Also, with the space being smaller than required, I added a steel heat shield to protect the fiberglass. To avoid loosing heat to the laz, the first four feet of heat vent pipe were insulated inside of a section of metal ducting. At that point the vent turns and enters the salon. Our first firing revealed a piece of foam lodged inside the heat vent, but once that was cleared (no easy task) the heat came pouring out!

Heat pipe in salon, looking aft. 

But winter has settled into New England and there's ice in the bays, so we'll wait for warmer weather and try some early season sailing next spring.

The photos are rather disorienting, as there is little for reference. I hope they make sense for you.