Staying warm in winter

W

Waterhorse

Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2019
Messages
15
Fluid Motion Model
C-30 CB
Vessel Name
M/V Waterhorse
Hello fellow Tugnutters, We take delivery of out new Ranger Tug 29, Mid March. We Plan to spend two weeks living aboard and generally moving in to our new digs. One concern that we have is, how do you stay warm during the winter weather. We know we have an onboard heater, but what other things do you stock to keep it warm and cozy while on shore power. Basically, what tips and trick do you all recommend. We are newbies, so any any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you! :roll:
 
We took delivery of our new 29s last July and lived on it, while our new home was being built, through mid-November. We used a single small electric space heater to stay warm, and relied infrequently on the Webasto diesel heater primarily to heat up the cabin on a particularly cold morning. We would move the space heater from the main cabin to the V-berth each night when we went to bed, and positioned it on the small table on the starboard side of the forward berth. Make sure to get one that is relatively quiet as you will be sleeping with its fan running intermittently. It should have a thermostat to allow temperature control, a couple of fan speeds, and an automatic shutoff switch should it fall over. I have seen others use an oil-filled radiator-type heater, but it would be hard to place in the V-berth without it getting in the way. We never left the space heater on when we were not on the boat.

We also used a thick down comforter.

We learned a number of other live aboard lessons. Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions or concerns.
 
We rely solely on the Webasto diesel furnace when staying onboard. It does an amazing job heating the boat, and is reasonably quiet.
 
Agreed that the Webasto diesel heater is great and keeps us toasty when moored. Beyond that our cockpit enclosure (C30, enclosure from King's) adds a lot of warmth and surprisingly often possible to be in the cockpit on sunny winter days. A YachtBedding set is great at night and very cozy.

The main issues we have with warmth are (1) it takes a long time to heat up from ambient (1-2 hours) when we go to the boat cold; (2) condensation drips from the hatches (need to fashion some catchers or something inside the screens?) (3) the head stays cold regardless. Those are very manageable and our C30 is very nice in the winter.
 
Irish Mist- I can’t get to that Amazon detail page since I am in the US (without changing the country code on my Amazon account). I want to add some heat to the head. Is the model you are using rated for 250 W?

Thanks
 
I 2nd the Webasto diesel furnace heater that is on the R29. It's a wonderful heater, and has 3 heat/air outlets: Fwd stateroom, cabin, and cockpit. It's easy to set a temperature and air velocity and then forget about it. It will warm the fwd stateroom and cabin up nicely and quite quickly if on a high temp setting. The only noise is from the furnace itself (pretty quiet IMO), and the outside heat exhaust outlet that can at time be annoying because it sounds like a high-speed wind tunnel running. This noise is most noticeable when outside of the boat but is tolerable and reasonably quiet from the inside of the boat.

The big benefit of the Webasto is that it does heat the whole boat (fwd stateroom and cabin) with ease and is temp control and air velocity controlled with the push of a button, tweaking the fan, and temp settings.
 
I second, third or perhaps fourth the webasto heater as the solution as a 2020 R29 owner. The interface can be challenging if you're stubborn like me and won't simply Read The Fine Manual but it just works. Our dogs have discovered the location of the vents and designated them 'favorite sitting spots'.
 
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