[Anonymous]

G’day to you all,

I have a Bav Ocean 40 built in 2001. There are only two or three of type of Bavaria in Australia and mine is way South in Tasmania.

I’d like to use this forum to get ideas, hint and tips etc, and mybe contribute to other’s problems.

Is it possible to post pictures?

The boat is pretty well fitted out with a Volvo 50 HP MD22L driving a Sail drive – as standard. I have a Mastervolt 3.5 genset, 2 x 200 AH gel cels and a 80A starting gel cell, uprated alternator (120A), Xantrix 3 stage charger and controler, 2 x 80 w solar panels – yes we do get some sun down here! extra FW tanks 500 ltrs, a pumpable poo tank – compulsory in many marinas in Aus, a covered in cockpit with clears and a bimini, 3m rib with a 9.9 HP Yamaha on S/S davits. Boom furling, vang and boom brake. Winches have been upgraded, and an electric winch fitted for the boom furler.

Next thing on the list to fit is some form of heating – gets little chilly down here in the winter. Does anyone have any ideas on heating???

Best,

Graham.

[Anonymous]

Hi Graham

Welcome!

Thanks for posting details – I’ve copied this into the general forum and left a ghost copy in the Bav 40 Ocean forum also.

I’m afraid it is not possible to post images directly on the forum, however, if you have images that would be useful to others, or for help in diagnosing any problems, please email them to me at webmaster@bavariaowners.co.uk and I shall put them into the BOA webspace and link them into your message.

All the best,

Nick

[Anonymous]

Hi Graham

I have a B38 Ocean which is very similar to the 40.

I fitted an Eberspacher warm air heater back in 2000 when the boat was new. It was quite straightforward to fit but takes a good 10 hours.

The heater unit itself fits in the central space under the bunk in the rear cabin. This was the most difficult part of the installation as there is not much room but it is where the professionals fit the unit (I checked on someone else’s boat).

Fitting the ducting is easy as the holes through the bulkheads and lockers are already there. You need a good sized hole cutter for the vents into the cabins. I have 4 outlets – rear cabin, saloon, forepeak and heads using the old DL3 unit. There is now a newer (and higher rated) 4KW unit that would suit your boat.

One item that I would thoroughly recommend is fitting the control unit near the bed so you can turn the heat on in the morning without getting up.

Once installed the unit works very well. It sounds a bit like a jumbo jet taking off when it starts up but you soon get used to it.

In the UK if you specify heating to be fitted to your new boat, they are now using Volvo Ardic (I think) and not Eberspacher. I understand that works very well too and I guess installation would be similar to the Eberspacher.

A further alternative is to use a ‘wet’ system with blown air ‘radiators’. It is a bit more expensive and difficult to fit but more versatile and you get hot water as well.

Hope that helps. If you do decide on the Eberspacher and need any further advise on fitting – just ask.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Roger,

Thank you for the information. I think I will looking at a Webasto heating system. Same as the Eberspacher, but better represented down here in Aus. I don’t think I can fit the unit under the aft bunk as I already have a fuel tank and FW tank under there and don’t there is much room left. However there is a space in ER just forward of where my genset is placed, which might lend itself to suitable position. It’s a project for research over summer and fitting next winter – that is if summer ever arrives. The weather has beed dreadful this past couple of months – more like the UK – lol.

Regards,

Graham.

[Anonymous]

Playtime has the same diesel tank and freshwater tanks but there is a space, about 25cm wide, between the tanks down the centre of the bunk – this is where the units are normally fitted and it is easy to route the ducts from there (and the control unit by the bed!).

If you use the ER, I’m not sure how you get the duct to the forward cabin (maybe you don’t?). You may also have to route a ‘clean air’ inlet for the unit if you don’t want ER smells distributed around the boat!

Sorry to hear you’re having bad weather down there. We had the hottest summer on record this year (global warming?). However, it’s getting towards winter now – only 18C today!

Good luck

[Anonymous]

Roger,

I was thinking of siting the unit in ER which would shorten the ducts required. I can get to the shower / toilet, the aft cabin and the saloon from ER. The forward cabin would have to remain chilly – only guests up there and there are plenty of doonas (duvets) on board. I would duct the fresh air supply from the cockpit area somewhere and exhaust aft maybe transom area. Early days yet.
Complete mixed bag of weather here, a couple of week ago we have temps of 35 deg C and bush fires, last weekend the temps plumeted to zero with highland snow, hail and gale force winds. They say the summer is going to be long an hot but how would one know?

Pip Pip

Graham.

[Anonymous]

Hi Guys

seen this a bit late but for future viewers my eberspacher heating unit is fitted in the lazarette behind the master cabin.

it fits under the steering quadrant.

Those familair with the Ocean layout will understand.

Cheers

Martin
Filbuster
Bav 40 Ocean

[Anonymous]

Hi Graham,

I fitted the Eberspatcher on our B34 back in 2002 and used a D4 but with 5 outlets. Forward cabin, aft cabin, heads and two in the main saloon. may seem like overkill but at the time we did a lot of winter sailing. The guy I bought from was a fellow sailer with a Sigma 38 and the best bit of advice he gave me was to set the air intake in a position so that it pulls its air from inside of the boat. We have our inlet pipe terminating behind the electrics cupboard by the chart table with the heater sited at the aft end of the starboard cockpit locker. The effect is that instead of trying to force air into the boat from an outside source you end up sucking out the same amount as you are blowing in and the incoming air is warmer than that from outside. it appears to make our unit perform very well and also creates airflow throughout the areas of the boat below the saloon berths on the starboard side and the electrics cupboard, which as a result has always remained dry and never suffered any corrosion problems.

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the group Nashira!

I can not really help with your heating question apart from saying that I have a Webasto system on my 32 Cruiser and it works a real treat!!

All the best

[Anonymous]

Hi Graham,

I had an Eberspacher D4 fitted to my 2001 Bavaria 40 (not Ocean) a couple of years ago. It is fitted in the lazarette. The unit struggled to get hot air to the forward cabin, probably due to the long run of ducting from stern to bow, so I only have two outlets in use now – one in the saloon and one in a stern cabin. The air ouput is now very hot, so I could probably use another outlet or two in the saloon and/or the other stern cabin.

For my/our size of boat, I think the Eberspacher website recommends a D5. However that takes quite a bit more power than the D4, which I wasn’t keen on.

For the air inlet, the fitter originally used one of the air vents below the helmsmans seat at the stern, but this wasn’t adequate. He had to drill a larger inlet hole beside it. Alan’s idea of an internal air inlet sounds like a good idea, if that would give sufficient air input.

I have a couple of tips:
1. I wrapped all my ducting in Thermawrap insulation. This was partly to reduce heat loss, but also partly because the ducting gets really hot.
2. My exhaust outlet is on the transom. With my dinghy on the stern, I was getting splashback into this when heeled over in a big sea, causing the exhaust pipe to become blocked. If you have a good size loop on your exhaust pipe you’ll be ok, but mine wasn’t fitted with a big enough loop to stop water getting past it. I fitted a stainless steel clam shell vent/cowl over the exhaust outlet and all has been fine since. Your Ocean transom is probably higher than mine of course.

Alastair

[Anonymous]

Hi Graham & Alastair,

Having read Alasters post i realise that mine sounds as if the guy i bought my D4 from was just a fellow sailor, but he was also the main agent for Eberspatcher in the North West of England and his advice to set the inlet to draw from inside of the boat was founded on a great deal of experience. We are about to fit a smaller unit on our other boat, a Westerly Merlin 29 and the inlet will again be sited to draw air from inside of the boat.
It seems to work a treat.

[Anonymous]

Hi Alan,

It makes sense when you think about it. It’ll be fairly easy for me to remove the inlet hose from the external inlet vent and use the internal air from the stern cabin. I just need to squeeze into the lazarette – maybe the many xmas mince pies and christmas puddings with brandy sauce werent such a good idea after all!

I wasn’t terribly impressed with the fitting of my system. Although the fitter was an approved agent, I don’t think he’d done many before. I used him because he’s based where I overwinter the boat, and I didn’t have time to install it myself.

Alastair

[Author]

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