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tager · 12-11-2010, 15:00

I am converting my head compartment into a sauna to facilitate year-round swimming fun!

Any considerations? Will repeated heat cycles to 230F damage my cabin?

Any sauna-boat stories?

**Dockhead** · 12-11-2010, 15:40

I sailed on a Swan which had a sauna built into the after heads compartment. It had been in use for 20 years and no apparent damage to anything.

tager · 13-11-2010, 15:05

Sweet! Then it is a total go. I will post pictures when it is complete. I imagine it will soften the headliner glue, but I have been waiting for a reason to replace it with a cedar ceiling.

Palarran · 13-11-2010, 15:46

My sauna only goes up to 170 degrees F. 230 would boil your skin. Just a consideration.

sabray · 13-11-2010, 16:07

My grandfather threw steaming hot bricks into a tub of water. actually he spent hours making hot bricks then he threw them. He spent many more hours building the shed near the lake with a small seat so he could have a place to throw hot bricks and watch the steam. Once he had seen enough steam he would jump into the near frozen lake. If the lake was frozen he would roll in the snow. recovery would be made by throwing more hot bricks into the tub of water. I don't have a sauna aboard.

tager · 13-11-2010, 16:36

I guess 194F is about as hot as you would want to go. I blame wikipedia for that 230F number.

**hummingway** · 13-11-2010, 16:46

How about a sweat lodge in the cockpit. Heat some rocks on the bbq, places the rocks in a pot on the cockpit floor, zip up the bimini and a little sea water on the rocks makes Bob your uncle!

tager · 13-11-2010, 18:10

Nah that is a lot of work. I was thinking something that you can just switch on with 110 shore power. Plus the porta-potti is leaving the head compartment anyway, so I will have an empty room, and sauna/storage seem to work okay together.

Vasco · 13-11-2010, 18:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by tager

I am converting my head compartment into a sauna to facilitate year-round swimming fun!

Any considerations? Will repeated heat cycles to 230F damage my cabin?

Any sauna-boat stories?

Just keep the boat in Florida in the summer.

LakeSuperior · 13-11-2010, 20:01

We routinely take saunas in the 200 to 230 deg F range up here in the UP heh. I prefer about 190 deg F though.

Bash · 13-11-2010, 21:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by tager

Any considerations? Will repeated heat cycles to 230F damage my cabin?

230? !!! I don't know what it will do to your cabin, but it will certainly endanger your health.

In the USA, the UL code mandates that an electric sauna heater not be capable of exceeding 195F.

You might want to do a bit more research.

Ben M-P · 13-11-2010, 21:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by LakeSuperior

We routinely take saunas in the 200 to 230 deg F range up here in the UP heh. I prefer about 190 deg F though.

I have yet to take a sauna (though I like the idea) so please pardon my ignorance.
Is the 230F the temp of the air in or the rocks or something else? and if it is the air temp how long does one stay in it?
Last I checked water boiled at 212F.
I'm afraid I'm lost.

bljones · 13-11-2010, 22:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by tager

Nah that is a lot of work. I was thinking something that you can just switch on with 110 shore power. Plus the porta-potti is leaving the head compartment anyway, so I will have an empty room, and sauna/storage seem to work okay together.

Uh... does this mean you are going to a direct leerail sanitation discharge system?

LakeSuperior · 14-11-2010, 03:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ben M-P

I have yet to take a sauna (though I like the idea) so please pardon my ignorance.
Is the 230F the temp of the air in or the rocks or something else? and if it is the air temp how long does one stay in it?
Last I checked water boiled at 212F.
I'm afraid I'm lost.

It's the temperature measured by the thermometer on the wall about 12 inches down from the ceiling in the sauna I use. The air temperature is stratified in a sauna, warmer on the upper bench and cooler on the lower bench. The newbies will sometimes sit on the lower bench.

On occasion if the stove is hot the thermal radiation tends to burn your legs. The exterior of the stove can exceed many 100s of degrees F. If heavily fired the hot parts of the stove may glow dull red.

In short temperature measuring is complicated when there is very hot and cool objects in the same room. The temperature measuring device measures some combination of air temperature and radiation temperature. It depending on how it is constructed, how much of the direct radiation from the stove it sees, and the actual air temperature.

Water boils at 212 deg F but your bodies complex temperature regulating controls cause you to sweat. The water evaporating from your skin helps to keep you cooler and cleans your skin from the inside out so they say. You could not survive indefinitely at these temperatures but it works for short periods of time.