Catalina 27 stove and heating

[Chinook92]

hey guys, first post to the official liveaboard thread here, but, not the first time ive lived on a boat.

a bit a bout me, 12 years professional boat yard mechanic, builder, and marine diesel tech, intermixed with 5 years of commercial fishing experience in Alaska, ranging from bering sea crab fishing to salmon trolling in southeast, to seining and being a deckhand and watch helmsman on a 100+ foot crab boat, along with highschool sailing team, yacht club racing, and occasional short term cruising... ive been around my fair share of boats, in various situations...

with that in mind,

I just picked up a 1979 catalina 27 tall rig for 1000$, with new sails, new rigging, new cushions... the guy got it, refitted it, sailed it, and the wife hated it, so it sat in the harbor til the lower unit rotted off the outboard, so, it got hauled, and has been sitting in the boatyard for the last 3 years... just needs a new outboard, bottom paint, and new lines on the halyards, other than that, its in great shape.


I'm considering living aboard, part time. I am also going to be building a tiny house on my property about 130 miles away, so, it will be a work week residence if that makes sense. most likely one and a dog, but, I would still like to have it habitable.

agm batterys, solar controller, decent battery bank, inverter, shore power, refer for the icebox, pressure pump, water heater... those basic systems I have a handle on... I get boat parts at cost through work, I'm more or less wondering what my options are for a stove and heater.

as far as a stove I want an oven, two burner is fine, ive never used an alcohol burner stove on a boat, only diesel and propane, how would you set up a small boat like the catalina with a cook top with oven, and heater? something for winter nights and no worries

ive had diesel stoves smolder and smoke out a cabin, and its scary as hell waking up to a cabin full of smoke in the middle of the night, I lived on a gillnetter in Alaska for 6 months that would do that in any high winds....

thnks guys

[JohnHutchins]

Backdraft is a potential problem with any stove or heater that burns fuel and is vented to the outside. Because every stove or heater that burns fuel should be vented to the outside your goal here should not be to find some magic fuel but to make sure you create the conditions in which you don't have to worry about backdraft. Part of that is a properly sized chimney with a well designed cap and a barometric damper. The other part is ensuring that you have a well thought out ventilation system to ensure that there is positive pressure inside the boat. Nigel Calder's Boatowner's Mechanical and Electric Manual has lots of valuable ideas here.

But as long as you're on shore power you can use electric space heaters and an electric burner. These both draw substantial current and you want to be sure your wiring is adequate and you may have to do some juggling (heater off when you cook) but there are at least no CO or other exhaust issues.