Its been my experience (lived aboard in
Lake Ontario one winter) that
water in the
bilge will not freeze as long as the impellor is working. No ice outside is no ice inside. I had so much
condensation in my
boat that I had to bail it out about once a week. The watercoming up from the harbour bottom was about 34 degrees, so the
hull at that point was also 34. I did have ice forming on the inside skin above the waterline from
condensation a couple of times when my heaters fried.
Now as to
living aboard. Heaters are important but to my mind
Insulation is even more important due to the absolutely unbelievable amount of condensation two people will put out in a
cabin. The
Grampian I was living on was a
single skin fiberglas
boat with no
insulation in the
hull or
cabin sides. The
deck and coach roof had the obligatory half inch of balsa coring but that was all. I had no green house built either as I wanted to sail on good days. My lady used to come down, we'd cook dinner on the alcohol
stove and watch the
water run down the cabin sides. My biggest expense that
winter was A) burned out
electric heaters (7 of them fried to a crisp) and B) paper towels to mop up the neverending waterfall.
After that winters experience, I was planning on making up a "boat blanket" by taking some heavy mil plastic, laying out a piece as long as the boats hull curvature required, twice as wide as the toerail to waterline plus a bit, and then laying fiberglas insulation batts on it. Fold the plastic up and seal with an Iron or perhaps 5200. Install grommets and tie it to the
lifelines so it hangs down to the waterline or a bit below and snug up the drawstrings. The green house is easy, but for sure you do need one. It give a bit of warmth and lots of on
deck dry
storage.
Sabre
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