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Saturday, May 30, 2009

Let there be heat....

Now we live in the semi-frozen north, a heater is a necessity. Even on some summer days, if the weather turns it's cold enough to be uncomfortable so we decided to get the job done here and now. We bought a highly recommended and popular heater called the Dickinson Newport, which is made right here in BC and runs on a slow drip feed of diesel. No pumps, no electricity, very simple and safe.



There are four challenges to be overcome.

1) Where to put it - boats seldom have a spare corner for this and that. Fortunately we've seen photos of another Young Sun boat that had this heater installed and it was right behind the mast support, so that was easy. To the left, the 'before' photo, and the 'after' photo is below on the right.

2) Making a hole for the chimney. The three inch piping that forms the chimney needs a five inch hole in the deck, to give space for heat to dissipate. That's no easy task, but luckily I asked around the anchorage and there's a shipwright living on his boat here who had the right tools and came to cut the hole for a few bucks. He's also familiar with the heater and gave me a few useful pointers. The photo there is of Max looking through the hole in the roof.

3) Mounting and heat shield. The heater needs a secure mounting and something to protect the surrounding woodwork. I designed a simple stainless steel bracket to do both jobs but it's not always easy to get these made. Luckily there's a heating engineering company in Nanaimo who do it, within walking distance of the docks. I went in on Monday lunchtime, got a call at 8:30am on Tuesday to say it was done. And they only charged me an hour of labour, the materials were free as it was a small job. Great service and a nice job too. The bracket fits perfectly and leaves space underneath for the carbon monoxide alarm.

4) Fuel supply. It's not easy to find space for an extra diesel tank either, but fortunately our shipwright friend suggested using a standard outboard tank from the locker in front of the mast, which then feeds by a drip-siphon effect to the heater. Perfect.

So installation went really well and, despite a few hiccups in getting the fuel flow running smoothly, it's now all nice and toasty warm. Of course, this is the cue for the sun to come out and we've had a glorious few days but I'm sure that won't last all summer....

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1 Comments:

Blogger ~Yan said...

Also a good investment for future Alaskan adventures!

12:48 am  

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