Heat for Sunshine

Here in the Pacific Northwest, we only need heat in our boats from November through October.  Mark Twain said it first, when he told of the coldest Winter he ever spent was a summer on Puget Sound.

We are gunkholers, so it's not like we're plugged into shorepower - ever!  The bus heater off the engine is great while underway, but it's those chilly mornings that you really need to cozy things up, and running the engine for heat just doesn't cut it.

Ok, but then where do you install a heater?  On a 30-footer, there aren't a lot of options.  The biggest challenge is the exhaust line, and pretty much any auxiliary heat system is going to need an exhaust run of some kind.  (I know some who routinely use propane catalytic heaters inside their boats, with just a window cracked to stave off carbon monoxide poisoning, but that's not a risk I want anything to do with.)

I've had good experience with Hurricane diesel hydronic heat systems on larger boats, and I have had an almost new unit ready to install in Sunshine for the last two years, but just can't get the time and inclination to get the project going.  There's quite a lot to it, you know.  Electrical, plumbing, exhaust, air intake, water heater heat exchanger, circulating pump, thermostat control, fuel supply (and return), etc.  Not to mention sound attenuation -- those things are not silent.

Anyway, I vowed after a very cold Spring last year to get on it and have a warm boat by this spring, so hopefully I'll get going on it now, and I'll try to document it here with photos and cursing.  Stay tuned . . .