4207 owners I need some opinions

Are you planning on keeping her at River City? There are a number of liveaboards there and I actually did it one year as well. They are keep an eye out for each other.

Being a gas powered boat like mine I was reluctant to use any kind of heater besides an oil filled one which made it "interesting" to say the least. I would look into installing a more permanent solution that has no risk of spark or fire and will be sure to keep you warm.

Your 3 Reverse Cycle units should work well into December if it is a mild winter and clear wrapping the inside of the windows in the salon as well as shrink wrapping the boat will make a huge difference. Be sure to keep lots of salt and melt away near by at the dock.... You're going to need it!

Another

I have lived aboard both gas and diesel boats from 35-50 feet in the winter in New England.

The gas boat I never winterized the engines or generator and was lucky not to ever have a problem. I left the water heater in the ER on and that seemed to keep things ok even in the coldest temps.

The salon and cabin had two built in electric heaters that kept the boat warm.
I did put some plastic up on the salon windows which helped to keep the heat in the boat.

I recommend that you only use ignition protected marine heaters in a gas boat ER.

On the larger diesel boats i left the block heaters on and closed off the vents to the ER. The ER always stays nice and tosty even on the coldest days and the mains start right up without the slighest puff of smoke.

The larger boats also had electric heat that i would use after the reverse air is nolonger working. The reverse air seems to work until the water temps dip around 38 degrees. The disadvantage of the reverse air is the dry heat and the air seems to blow cold as soon as the compressor kicks off. I have heard that some people wire the fan into the compressor so the fan shuts off when the tstat shuts off the compressor.

I am not sure how much electric cost in Chicago but I have paid as much as $400-500 during the cold monts to run the electric heat.

I have a friend who has the westbasto #2 oil fired hot water furnace.
That cost around 5k for everything and that system is very nice.
He has radiators all over the boat and engine room.
The furnace is probablly the cheapest long term to run but may not be worth the investment is you are only going to live aboard for a year or two.

I also know a few people who have had wood burining stoves. everyone hated them because it would put ash all over the near by boats. not to mention the danger of a hot ember lighthing up the whole marina. Wood stove = not good!


Also, it is important to be in a marina where you can rely on some old salts to keep an eye out for you and help you through your first winter.
Make frineds with your dock mates, some of my best freinds were fellow live aboards.

Get a plactic shovel and shovel the boat as soon as you can, you dont want snow and iced building up on the boat.
I use one of those white plastic ice shovels that sportfisherman and commercial fisherman use to shovel crushed ice.

Oh yea, fresh whater, i was at one marina that had heated hoses right to the boat and we always had running water. We just had to be careful to remember to turn off the water each time we left the boat.
I was at another marina that the nearest running water was over 100 feet from the boat. Another place would top off your tanks every few days for a few dollars tip and a bottle of wiskey a few times a year.
Another marina would just leave the water constantly running.

One final thing, be very cautious on those docks on the winter, it is very easy to slip in the ice and go into freezing water and die. You should make sure you have laddar access where you can easilly get out in extreme cold while fully clothed. That is not easy.....

Living aboard can be a great experience, and a great way to enjoy your boat.
Be careful though, non-boaters will come by unannounced because they think you are living like Jimmy Buffet and always want you to run the blender....


good luck...

You're seriously going to remove the swim platform?? There was a guy there in a 55 Ocean who stuck way out and they never hassled him.

Running water was a challenge at River City, usually once a week on the weekend everybody would pull out their hoses and connect them together to be able to fill up their tanks. I became a member at the golds gym inside the river city tower and worked out in the morning and took a shower there before work.

The best money you can buy for your boat would to get a few boatsafe heaters and place them in the bilge. I would get 3, one for the forward, one for the engine room and one for the aft bilge. Cover the engine room vents like stated above. The main reason is to keep all your water lines warm but it also makes the floor warm instead of trying to heat the air space with a cold floor. That alone will make a huge difference. Otherwise a couple ignition proof heaters well placed in the salon and aft stateroom will be great. I shrink wrapped over my swim platform to make a small area to store things, I kept an air compressor back there to blow out my water system if I had to leave for more than a day or two.

I even took a further step to ensure I had heat when I shut down the Reverse Cycle units for the winter. I unplugged the cord from the air conditioning side of the boat and ran all my heaters to the main 30 AMP plug on the dock to not overload the boats circuits when the electric heaters kicked on.

When wrapping the boat I would use clear if possible. If not go with white and take note of how I wrapped the bow, bridge and aft deck in my pics. This still let in natural light and only let snow accumulate on the side decks. You will have a built in door with your 42 to access the aft deck which is a lot nicer than the canvas I have. I even cut out a window in the aft part of the shrink wrap and taped in clear shrink wrap for more natural light. You will be surprised at how many don't wrap at all!

You will have a great view every morning!

You can see that Ocean Yacht there in the picture with the dinghy on the bow. He keeps the boat in Burnham all summer and moves it there each winter.

I actually figured out my water system with a fellow in the marina with a quick disconnect to bypass my boats freshwater pump since in the winter you always are running off the tank.

I took all my canvas down and wrapped the whole boat with the exception of both side windows, I have no regrets doing it this way. The only thing like I said above is make sure to get some of that real thin patio door insulator plastic you can shrink with a blow dryer to seal up the windows in the salon real nice. They are very drafty.

Its not nuts, I did it for a year when I was at the board of trade building..... that was my last year doing the whole winter thing in the water.

It was very cool to be on the boat for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years! I did a Thanksgiving cruise out to the lake and around navy pier and shrink wrapped the boat the second week of December.

To blow out the water in the lines,
i hook my air compressor into the city/dock water hook inlet (with some adapters from 1/4 pipe to 3/4 in hose).

i then open the faucets one at a time starting with the one farthest from the hook up. You can either drain your water heater or leave it on and/or put in a bypass. Also You will need to run the air or the pink stuff through your water pumps also.

I also use the city water hook up to pump the pink stuff through the system to wiinterize the water system. You will still have to blow out the lines from the tank to the pump(s) (if you have two, some boats had a DC and AC water pump) and/or pump pink through the pumps.

If you just run off your freshwater pumps you should be able to add a T fitting with a shut off valve after the pump to blow out the system. Just thread a fitting for the compressor hose in the end of the other side of the T and you should be good to go.

That is exactly what I did, but when I was done for the winter I went right back to the straight shot to the hoses from the freshwater pump so I didn't have a new spot to leak someday.

Reverse cycle heat isn't going to work at all in the winter there, the water temp is too cold. Once the water temp gets below around 55 degrees, reverse cycle won't work anymore.......

Mine works perfect all the way down to about 36-38 degrees. Early spring the water is usually right at 40 and I have no problem getting the boat to 75 degrees quickly.

somewhere in the high 30's is where my reverse air stops working.

as long as the water is wamer it will heat the boat even when is is really really cold out.

Some people use heat lamps?

I'd install another bilge heater there.

close off the engine room vents. I use some cut pieces of foam pipe insulation to wedge in the vents. you could cover with plastic weather stripping.
Cold wind blowing in the vents does a great job of cooling off the ER (not good in winter)

make sure you have a sniffer and a way to vent the ER if you need to.

Winterize engines and generator to be safe if power goes out.

close all through hulls.

If you do use a Westbasto or heater in the bilge or ER make sure it is ignition protected. You cannot use anything that is not ignition protected in the the same sapce as Gas engines or Gas tanks or Gas lines.

You will be surprised how warm the boat can be during the winter.

Ron,

You still looking for a Hard Top? I may buy another 4207 and remove all the parts to sell--I am going to look at the boat tomorrow--it is a big secret where it is....they guy tells me nothing so I need to place eyes on it first.

I think with a hardtop on the AFT area with new glass your boat will be twice as big for living area.


Randy