Baby, It's Cold Outside!
How do we stay warm on Avemar?
It is November 9, 2024, and April and I are sailing Avemar in the southern part of Chesapeake Bay. April is a Florida girl, and the late summer temperatures feel like winter to her.
Currently, Avemar is docked at the Mathews Yacht Club near the mouth of the Rappahannock River. We’re waiting for friends sailing down the Potomac River in an Island Packet 43 to arrive, and we’ll continue heading south together.
It’s getting cooler by the day! How do we stay warm?
We installed a wood stove!
Now, a Cubic Mini Cub wood stove keeps us warm.
It’s mounted on a bulkhead near the mast. It can burn many types of fuel.
We mainly use hardwood, including driftwood, which we find on the beach. The challenge is cutting wood into small 5” pieces that fit inside the stove.
I’ve learned that using a reciprocating saw is challenging when cutting logs with one hand and holding the saw with the other. With that being said, we can find driftwood just about anywhere.
The wood stove heats the boat quickly and, with a bit of care, keeps it cozy for as long as we keep the fuel going into the fire.
I need to emphasize this. The Cubic Mini is a legit wood stove. It’s just like my papa's full-sized wood stove in his house, except this one has been shrunk down to only fit a 5’ 1/2” piece of wood!
Hardwoods are best. Campfire wood, often found in bundles at the door of gas stations, burns well after they are sized to fit. Smoker chunks from Home Depot burn great, except they make a ton of soot. Driftwood is excellent and abundant, but the likelihood of cutting a finger off rises when chopping the pieces to the proper size.
April says, “It is so cozy and comforting and one of the best things on the boat.”
We don’t use the stove when underway.
When we need to heat the boat quickly, we’ll make a pot or two of coffee on the stove, and the steam will warm up the space nicely. As a backup, Avemar has a Little Buddy propane heater approved for indoor use to quickly put some warmth in the cabin.
But for those cool evenings hanging out down below, the Cubic Mini does the trick!
There is nothing like a woodstove on a boat. It dries the boat as nothing else can, and the heat is somehow different to electric or LPG or diesel heating. I have slots in the floor so it draws air from the bilges and keeps them dry too.
Mine is a little larger and so takes 18" long logs. And has an oven to cook pizzas! But it chucks out so much heat that unless it is zero outside I have to leave the cabin door open. So for the rest of the winter, like now when it is still 14*C daytime and 8*C overnight, I've just installed a two part aircon and heat pump that heats or cools, for when I'm on shore power or generator. Works great.
Enjoy your cosy winter!
Ecological wood logs work well. Just keep moisture away. https://www.greenmountainfirewood.com/