Heat

When I rebuilt Snow goose back in Michigan, one of the things that I removed was the fireplace. Yes, the boat had a working fireplace. But, there is a considerable difference between a "working fireplace" and one that "actually works" and put out enough heat to warm up the boat. After a lot of thought I went with a small hot water boiler fired by diesel fuel. It's made by Wabasto and is used in big trucks to keep their cabs and engines warm when sitting at rest stops for the night.

The worlds smallest boiler

For the last 8 years it has preformed very well keeping us warm even when its in the low 20’s outside. All good things come to an end though and this year, it began to have trouble starting up so I removed it from it’s little nook in the engine compartment and took it apart. I found that the burner had sooted up and this carbon was obstructing the air/fuel mixture.  After a thorough cleaning, it was reinstalled and we happily have heat again.

This small cube can put out about 20% of the heat that your large furnace does in your house!

The carbon and soot from 8 years of operation.

Which brings up a point in general about cruising that I heard 20 years ago from an older sailor, “if you can’t fix it, don’t have it”. Good advice then and still good advice now.