Winter Sailing

The cold weather is creeping upon us slowly. I've been living aboard the Mariner for a few months now, and have made it a home. I've used Reflectix brand insulation wrap and duct tape on the hull to try and insulate from the cold somewhat, and got a small space heater that warms up the boat in no time at all.

This boat is only 19' long, and the cabin is about 10' long by 6' wide at its' widest. It's not a lot of room to store everything I need, but somehow I've been able to find little caches to put everything I need. When buying things at the store, I carry a tape measure to compare sizes with what would fit in different places. If it's off by even an inch, the product can't work for me.

I also managed to continue upgrading the boat's systems. There's two 85 amp hour batteries at the stern attached to a solar charger and the rest of the system. A smart car charger powers everything via the batteries when at dock (with the exception of the heater, which draws more energy than my inverter can provide.) There's also a 50lb thrust Minn Kota Riptide trolling motor which pushes the boat along at a meager 3 knots -- enough to get on and off the dock and motor for about 5 hours if I had to. Lighting has been a recent innovation as I've discovered that the cabin bulkhead is extremely strong and dense and most traditional screws won't go into it. Duct tape has been essential.

I've read a few other boat blogs about winter conditions and noted that they mentioned the condensation issue. I've noticed some condensation on the inside of the boat, but it's generally not too bad. The dockmates at my marina have asked me if I plan on shrinkwrapping the boat in the winter. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do, or how cold this winter is going to get. I'd love to go sailing on some warm winter's day!