Sunday, February 19, 2017

Keeping warm in a cold winter


It has been quite a lousy winter here. Rain, snow, sleet and a damp bitter cold. That's the coast for you but I will take dry sunny -20C any day over this. So getting the heater finally running was on the top of the to-do list. I had the 5Gallon/20L aluminum tank made by Straight Metal and installed it on the bulkhead in the starboard lazarette locker. The kerosene is gravity fed to the heater. There is an inline filter below the shut off valve. 


The fill for the kerosene is in the lazarette propane locker. Made a small bronze L bracket for the fill.


The heater on it's first run. Have it pretty dialed in now and can run it on a low even blue flame. Pre-heat with alcohol and introduce the kerosene shortly after lighting. No fans or pumps, runs quiet and clean and warms up the boat really well. 


Managed to do a bit of sewing. Made the cockpit awning. Next jobs to finish are the dodger and dinghy. Time is tight right now with work but hopefully as spring gets here I can spend a bit of time getting to some of the unfinished jobs.