Winter and boating is not a match made in heaven, but for many people that live the dream of Liveaboard Life, it is something necessary. I hope you will find these Tips For Living On a Boat In The Winter useful. Here’s a brief guide for prospective winter liveaboards in cold climates:

Marinas

Not all marinas accept liveaboards on the docks. Your first step when thinking about living on your boat for the winter is to call nearby marinas and check with them. When you locate a marina that does, you should ask about the cost of docking, electricity, freshwater, amenities like showers and laundry, and if they provide de-icers.

De-Icers

You’ll be just fine with two 3/4 hp “Ice Eaters” suspended on lines under the boat. Sometimes on smaller boats, one will do the trick, but you better be safe than sorry. The purpose of de-icers/ice eaters is to prevent the formation of ice by providing a continuous flow of warmer bottom water to the colder water on the surface.

They will maintain relatively clear water around the boat and keep the thick ice from freezing against your hull. In my experience, they should be run continuously from the first freeze up until the water warms in March. Putting them on timers doesn’t really work because they drift down into the weeds when switched off. Weeds and plastic bag debris near the bottom can stall the de-icers’ motor upon startup, blowing a fuse or twisting the AC cord, often causing the de-icers’ blades to cut the (expensive) waterproof cord. 

You might also want to get this mesh to make sure that debris will not damage the motor. 

Heating

Purchase two 1400W electric/oil style heaters for the saloon, plus one 400W electric/oil heater which will heat the aft area near the bottom of the companionway. Alternatively, you can get a couple of Indoor-Safe portable propane/gas radiant heater.

Winterize the engine (I didn’t) and place a 1300W fan-forced air heater alongside it. It should have a frost-watch setting which will keep the whole engine and cockpit lockers around 15C all winter. If there ever was a long-ish AC power failure in the marina or general neighborhood, we just started the engine and put it into reverse to prevent ice buildup and to help keep the boat warmer.

You’ll need two parallel 30A shore power connections to the dock. One cord feeds the usual boat system’s AC connection while the second one supplies a “pony panel” which you can probably build yourself. It’s a piece of plywood in the cockpit locker with a double pole main switch with 30A cartridge fuses protecting both the hot and neutral (switching and fusing both the hot and neutral wires is a recognized ABYC marine standard practice.) It feeds into a second box containing three circuit breakers, 15A each, outputting three cables to three duplex outdoor GFCI receptacles. It’ll supply two 4.7 amp de-icers, the fan-forced heater inside the engine compartment as well as the 400W electric/oil heater at the companionway. 

At Christmas, you can illuminate the inside of your plastic enclosure with colorful strings of low-power LED lights. In addition, we have a magnetically attached block heater on the engine.

The regular house AC system will run your DC battery charger, two 1400w heaters, the microwave, toaster, and coffee maker. Of course, you will need to do a circuit breaker “dance” when making toast or microwaving; temporarily reducing or switching off various heating loads when cooking.

I recommend the electric/oil/gas radiator type heaters because they are quiet, have manual low/med/hi settings and an adjustable thermostat. These heaters will come on by themselves after a power interruption, while those fancier digital LED-controlled heaters come back dead after a power interruption, a real hassle in the middle of the night or while you’re at work! With winter systems, simple is best. 

Multiple fan-forced heaters are drafty, have fewer power settings, are dangerous, and the sound of three fans will drive you crazy. The fan-forced heater next to the engine won’t be heard. You need fan-forced heat there to push the hot air around inside the engine compartment and cockpit lockers.

Make a wooden framework from 1×1 lumber, connected together with plastic brackets from a building center. It’s a sound system that is made for temporary shelters, carports, etc. Some folks use electrical conduit, but it’s heavier and harder to store in summer.

Buy some semi-clear heat-shrink plastic from a marine supplier or just buy some “Dr. Shrink” from Amazon. Do not use white or blue tape, get the clear one. You’ll really appreciate the bright daylight and the solar heating effect under semi-clear shrink. Some folks have a heavy cloth or plastic tarp sewn up, usually silver in color. It’s an easy job to cover the boat with a ready sewn cover in fall, but it’ll make your life miserable living underground with zero natural light available. Use semi-clear for better results.

You can shrink it with a purpose-built propane heat gun, you can rent one from a marina or boatyard. Alternatively, buy an electric one because they are used in multiple repairs. If you decide to buy one, get a good one from either Makita or DeWalt. Generally, when you buy your own tools, you better go for quality, I promise they will pay for themselves in the long run. I use a 2000W electric heat gun instead. This takes a little longer, but it is easier than finding someone to rent you a propane gun.

You can do this work yourself. You have to buy a 100ft roll of shrink 30ft wide. Only 50 ft each season should be enough, so one roll will last two winters.

Having this done professionally will cost you anywhere from $900 to $2,200!

You can also install a rigid plywood door on the enclosure, right forward of the jib sheet winch. Zippered doors in the shrink wrap will frustrate you and ultimately fail by New Year’s!

Some winter marinas offer bi-weekly pump-out. If you disconnect your electric pressure water pump, you can go up to four weeks on your water tanks! We boil a kettle or use the microwave to heat water for washing dishes. On sunny weekends folks get together and fill their water tanks with a garden hose supplied from an inside faucet in the marina’s laundry room or washroom facility. If possible, shower at work on weekdays to avoid the morning rush at the marina. I do not recommend showering in the boat. The humidity created will kill your interior teak and frost up the enclosure. Also, the propane demand water heater is dangerous in any season. You’ll be forever filling your water tanks. It’s not the best work on a cold winter night!

Docking

Strong dock lines with rubber snubbers and leather or plastic chafing protection will keep your boat from going sailing without you when those 45kt northwest winter winds swoop down on your marina. Double bow lines, two or three long spring lines and two stern lines are necessary. Our double-braided dock lines are 3/4 inch thick! A 100ft stretchy nylon laid line extended across the water to the opposite finger dock spine will hold the hull off the dock and help prevent your boat from chafing against the finger dock. 

We learned to secure our three large fenders to the dock, rather than to our boat. This means that only in the strongest winds will your hull ever touch the fenders, reducing hull chafe and those annoying fender squeaks when you’re trying to sleep at night.

Clothes

Make sure you have enough warm clothes. Thick socks and fleeces are a must-have when you are living on a boat during winter. You might also want to consider a heated vest. They are pretty cheap, remove moisture from the rest of the clothes on you and will keep you nice and toasty no matter the temperature. 

You should keep your clothes in large Zip-lock bags inside cabinets and insulate the interior with bubble wrap sheets to keep things away from moisture that inevitably collects inside the hull.

To save space, our five large zippered pillows on the settees in our saloon each contain, not stuffing, but t-shirts, shorts, spare blankets, sweaters, and other bundle-able clothing. Winter parkas and boots are hung up in the shrink-protected cockpit.

Sleeping

You can never go to bed angry in your narrow-ish berth, and that’s one of the few upsides of having a small “bedroom”. You can also use an electric blanket to keep the bed nice and toasty. They require little power, and because the heat source is very close to your body, they are very effective in keeping you warm.

It’s quite warm and cozy when those icy winter blasts swirl around your boat. You’ll most certainly feel much warmer than your friends who live in houses since you’ll have plenty of flexible heating choices in a relatively small space. We never get tired of the coziness. 

Some boaters augment their electric heaters with diesel-fueled forced-air truck heaters or a diesel-burning fireplace. Others install metal propane or solid-fueled furnaces to help make the saloon even more cheerful. 

Safety

Other critical gear includes a Carbon monoxide detectors and propane detector/shut off system controlling the flow from your outboard-mounted propane tanks. An automatic bilge pump will rid your bilges of the water collected from accumulated condensation inside the hull.

Problems

Please note that I’ve been commenting on living aboard in winter. You need to be on your boat full-time to monitor water systems and most importantly, electric and heating systems. In my opinion, docking your boat in the water for the winter and retreating to a house is discouraged. In fact, frequent absences are dangerous, both for your own boat and especially for your liveaboard neighbors. 

Bilge water levels, propane systems, and especially electrical cords and connections require frequent inspections to keep you and your neighbors safer. Hi-tech on-board computers which e-mail boat environmental parameters straight to your phone is just that; Hi-tech! See “Simple is Best” in paragraph four above.

Power cords can overheat in continuous duty such as de-icing or electric heaters. One needs to be super-vigilant with electricity and fuel on a boat during winter.

Great care must be taken to make sure that exhaust and fresh air vents for fuel-burning appliances are frost-free and unobstructed. Exhausts must be well vented outside the hull and plastic enclosure. The only interior venting exception is your galley hatch, which must be opened up fully when cooking on a propane stove. A smoke alarm, or as I call it “toaster detector” is mandatory. 

Tips For Living On a Boat In The Winter – Conclusion

Living aboard over a cold winter is not very difficult after all. We’re not crazy! It just takes some planning and time in late October and early November to prepare for the three coldest months ahead. 

Your winter neighbors will be in “the same boat,” and there’s quite a co-operative atmosphere on the dock. We all look after one another. You should be detail-oriented, and have a flexible outlook on life and enjoy being close to nature.

Lessons learned over-wintering in your boat while maintaining a reasonable level of self-sufficiency in a cold northern climate are priceless.

The close friendships that you’ll make while wintering aboard will be long-lasting.