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Leaving the boat in this weather


Tuscan

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Depends how reliable your electricity and bubble stove is i would think. 

 

Marina supplies tend to trip more often this time of year in my experience. 

 

Assuming your stove is installed properly and well maintained with a plentiful supply of fuel, i would go with that option.

 

Total safety would be drain everything down, winterise the boat and turn everything off. 

 

 

Edited by rusty69
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7 minutes ago, Tuscan said:

We need to leave the boat for a few days. We are in a marina. What’s safer leaving the bubble stove on low linked to radiators or leaving a fan heater (with thermostat) on low

What's your aim?  Is it to be able to leave the boat without winterising? If you normally leave your bubble (diesel version I'm assuming) on 24/7 when you're aboard in winter, you'll have better knowledge of how safe it is than most.  The risk of a power cut rather rules out the fan heater for me if you're taking no winterisation measures.

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17 minutes ago, Tuscan said:

We need to leave the boat for a few days. We are in a marina. What’s safer leaving the bubble stove on low linked to radiators or leaving a fan heater (with thermostat) on low

Never leave a fan heater unattended.

Use a tube heater or something like this 

https://www.fastlec.co.uk/mph500-dimplex-mph500-500w-coldwatcher-multi-purpose-heater.html

 

 

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When living aboard, our diesel bubble was on 24/7 during cold spells - always on its lowest setting. However it did blow out occasionally, so that’s what I would be concerned about.

 Do you have any neighbours you trust with a key? That would work for both methods you ask about. Otherwise, at the least, water pump off and drain as much as possible.

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Our boat is currently ashore so will be cold without the water around the hull to insulate it. 

 

We have not winterised it in the slightest and have just left it with a big tube heater in the engine bay, a smaller tube heater in the shower room and a 600w oil filled rad in the saloon. We have also left the Webasto on it usual timer settings so it will be getting properly heated through from Friday evening to Monday morning.

 

We have not been down to the boat for a good four weeks now but we have every confidence that when we go down next weekend, not this one coming, that everything will be fine on board. The yard has a very reliable power source. 

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I have two large greenhouse-tube-heaters in the engine room.

These are on a timer so one or the other is on all the time, and both on during late night (say 9-12pm) and early morning (say 3-6am)

Cost is around £1 per day and well worth it to avoid draining down (properly) and then re-filling when we go back out. (We do go out for cruises in 'this weather')

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All I did for many years when leaving the boat (even during the hardest Northern winters) was turn the water off at the stop tap, open all taps including the shower, then switch the pump off when no more water ran. Perhaps I was lucky, but this never resulted in any problems. 

Despite this, I have become a little more cautious nowadays and leave a couple of mini oil-filled radiators on thermostat. 

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3 hours ago, Tuscan said:

We need to leave the boat for a few days. We are in a marina. What’s safer leaving the bubble stove on low linked to radiators or leaving a fan heater (with thermostat) on low

We were away for a week earlier in the month. we leave two oil fired rads on at about ten degree setting. One in kitchen one in bathroom. We have the webasto come on each morning for two hours to put heat into the boat as the hot water pipes for the rads run both sides of the boat full length through cupboards etc. The leccy supply here is first class so never trips. Everything depends on leccy supply realy. I always say dont try to save a few quid and have plenty of heat in there. Saving a couple or three quid a day on a several thousand pounds investment is barmy. Only thing we do differently to when we are onboard is the stove is out and we switch off the immersion as that would make the batteries extremely unhappy if the power went off.

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5 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

We were away for a week earlier in the month. we leave two oil fired rads on at about ten degree setting. One in kitchen one in bathroom. 

You mean oil fired or oil filled radiators? 

 

All I do is turn off the water pump and isolate the tank, relieve the water pressure from the system by opening a couple of taps and leave an oil filled electric radiator on with the thermostat set at about 5 or 6C.

 

If you can find one with an analog interface rather than a digital one, then if the marina supply trips it will come back on after the problem is fixed or it's reset from outside. The digital ones tend to stay off if the power trips outside and is then reset. The analog ones are a bit more basic and on mine the thermostat is less accurate than the digital one. It comes on at about 8C even on the lowest setting but at least I know it will come back on after a power trip is reset, and that seems to happen quite a lot here, although it's never off for more than an hour or so.

 

I live aboard but travel for work and I'm certainly not going to drain down the system every week.

 

IMG_20190131_155228_5.jpg

IMG_20190131_155247_6.jpg

Edited by blackrose
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6 hours ago, rgreg said:

All I did for many years when leaving the boat (even during the hardest Northern winters) was turn the water off at the stop tap, open all taps including the shower, then switch the pump off when no more water ran. Perhaps I was lucky, but this never resulted in any problems. 

Despite this, I have become a little more cautious nowadays and leave a couple of mini oil-filled radiators on thermostat. 

This is all I used to do and in a couple of very chilly winter's, although I used to be back for the weekends.

 

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5 hours ago, alan_fincher said:

Please don't have a senior moment and put an old duvet over the Kabola!

No chance, the Eco Fan on top of the Kabola would chop it to bits.........................................................hope all well.

  • Haha 1
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14 hours ago, rgreg said:

All I did for many years when leaving the boat (even during the hardest Northern winters) was turn the water off at the stop tap, open all taps including the shower, then switch the pump off when no more water ran. Perhaps I was lucky, but this never resulted in any problems. 

 

 

This is exactly what I do.  The only extra and VERY IMPORTANT precaution I take is to put the beer supply in the sink in case it freezes and pushes the tops off.

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13 hours ago, Mac of Cygnet said:

 

This is exactly what I do.  The only extra and VERY IMPORTANT precaution I take is to put the beer supply in the sink in case it freezes and pushes the tops off.

 

I drink the beer before leaving the boat rather than risk it freezing, pushing the tops off and WASTING it.

 

Reminds me of when I was a teenager. I bought a six pack in the local off licence and put one can in the freezer to cool it ready for drinking quicker.

 

Got distracted, forgot about it but remembered it the next day. I should have realised all was not well when I picked the can up and felt something move inside it.

 

Undeterred I pulled the ring -pull off and the damn thing went off like a fire extinguisher, soaking the kitchen and even the ceiling! I learned thevhard way that alcohol has a much lower freezing point than water and how much pressure an aluminium can will hold.

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44 minutes ago, cuthound said:

 

I drink the beer before leaving the boat rather than risk it freezing, pushing the tops off and WASTING it.

 

Reminds me of when I was a teenager. I bought a six pack in the local off licence and put one can in the freezer to cool it ready for drinking quicker.

 

Got distracted, forgot about it but remembered it the next day. I should have realised all was not well when I picked the can up and felt something move inside it.

 

Undeterred I pulled the ring -pull off and the damn thing went off like a fire extinguisher, soaking the kitchen and even the ceiling! I learned thevhard way that alcohol has a much lower freezing point than water and how much pressure an aluminium can will hold.

 

Did the same with a bottle of wine once, and it just eased the cork out. Perhaps less advisable now wine comes in screw top bottles.

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On 31/01/2019 at 09:38, rgreg said:

All I did for many years when leaving the boat (even during the hardest Northern winters) was turn the water off at the stop tap, open all taps including the shower, then switch the pump off when no more water ran. Perhaps I was lucky, but this never resulted in any problems. 

Despite this, I have become a little more cautious nowadays and leave a couple of mini oil-filled radiators on thermostat. 

^^ Wot he said.

The oil-filled radiators, of course, need a mains electricity supply. 

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3 minutes ago, David Mack said:

 

Did the same with a bottle of wine once, and it just eased the cork out. Perhaps less advisable now wine comes in screw top bottles.

 

Hmm, could be a handy trick to open the botgle forbthose rare occassions when the corkscrew mangles up the cork ?

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Just to add a little. I got my monthly leccy bill today ont mooring. Whilst plugged in immersion is on 24/7 fridge on and freezer on. leccy kettle and many leccy cooking gadgets. Oil filled rad in utility room at arse end of boat on six hours a day, telly fones etc etc etc and its still less than 2 quid a day. If leaving the boat and on shore supply this weather a couple of oil fired rads are going to cost a few bags of peanuts.

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