Coal Stove on a House Boat

Excellent!
Will the boat eventually make it into water?

Great to see you surface again John. We met back in 2007 at one of the gatherings in Pottsville I believe. Sometime after that you fell off the radar. Sorry to hear about your health challenges. A house boat sounds cool, what a great plan.
Be well.

Thank you all for your kind words. It is truly a pleasure to be back in the coal burning business and here on NEPA Crossroads with all you wonderful folks.

First of all, let me say this: I have been truly blessed! After raising my children alone since infancy, they are healthy and doing well. Both graduated from universities, debt-free. My son is making (but not saving) money. My daughter is now married to a great fellow and in law school. The only thing I want in life is their happiness; so far, so good.

At this point in my life, my health has never been worse, and my finances have never been more dismal. Yet, I have never been more happy and content!

When I had money, I worried about losing it. When I had an office building and a house, I worried about paying for them. When I had a law practice and a CPA practice, I worried about liability in case of an error. Being a widower, I was like a kid in a candy store; I probably had too much fun and, it came with a price: drama. Lots of worrying going on. Too bad they didn’t have medical marijuana back then!

Simplicity is now the watchword of my life. In the process of downsizing, I have gotten rid of much of the stuff I accumulated over the years. How liberating! Now that I am living on a boat, there is less room than ever to keep the junk. If I think I need something new, something else has got to go.

As I stated earlier, I have never before been more happy and content but, for the last 6 winters, I have never been more cold and uncomfortable! No more. The icing on this cake is the coal stove.
I now bask in the red glow of the burning coals and watch with delight the dance of the blue ladies. All this while the sub-freezing winds howl outside my little house boat.

My life couldn’t get any better!

I agree. Debt, stress, and all this crap we accumulate really don't mean anything. Its about being happy with little things. It doesnt matter what we accumulate cuz we cant take it with us anyway.

Ive known people that live in boats along the Mississippi River in the winter, raised off the water of course. Its a challenge but sounds like you have it figured out well.

Meaningful post JC " He who dies with the most toys, just dies, like the rest of us"

JerseyCoal wrote:When I had a law practice and a CPA practice, I worried about liability in case of an error.

"Errors and Omission liability" worries or sometimes just called E &O will wake you up from a dead sleep or keep you from getting any. It is a form of stress that is unlike any other. Even if you know you have done nothing wrong certian clients can give you that "vibe". I am glad I don't have that monkey on my back anymore!

Congrats on the houseboat! I have seen some very nice units for well under $50g's. Some for as low as $5000. I have often thought of retiring to one myself. But not on the water. Park that sucker on 50 acres next to a good size koi pond and ENJOY! Glad your back with us!

Seems I recall another NEPA member that has a small Morso coal burner on his boat..

ONEDOLLAR wrote:
Seems I recall another NEPA member that has a small Morso coal burner on his boat..

I seem to recall it was DCrane who posted about one of those small stoves.

Randy

Randy

Doug did , but there is a fellow member here who has a Morso on his houseboat. He lives here in the US but pretty sure he was from the UK. It may have been NEPA member "Morso"......

In response to comments and questions:

1. Lightning: The boat is still under construction. Hope to be floating this summer. I should have done a test-float when I finished the hull and flipped it over but, I didn’t want to spend the money to haul it to and from the water. I may have to change the post title to : “Coal Stove on a SUBMARINE”!

2. Hambden Bob: I was first inspired by Harlan Hubbard’s book, “Shanty Boat: A River Way of Life”. Shantyboatliving.com is also a great source of information and inspiration. Googling Tumbleweed Homes and Tiny Homes- lots of great ideas there.

3. DavidMcBeth3: Actually, I have thought about putting gun ports on every side of the boat. I’ll be living alone and seem to be an easy target.

4. Franco B: I did take a lot of pictures as the project developed; a book could be in the future. I do wish I had the resources to film it all. Perhaps I’ll film the initial launch/submergence!

5. Buck47: You are too kind. Every event in life is a blessing, especially the difficult ones. Buried within every tragedy, illness, death, etc. is an opportunity to learn and grow. The one thing that still troubles me greatly is what I’m supposed to learn from going bald. Ideas, anyone??

6. DLJ: After looking at the Navigator stoves and the Ship Mate stoves, I purchased the Ship Mate Skippy stove for cooking. I am very happy with it. They are all quite expensive.

7. CoalFan: Yes, the stove is on wheels. The install is only temporary. In the Spring I will run 12 volt and 110 volt wiring, and insulate the walls. Then I will do the permanent install with the stove bolted to the floor.

8. Oliver Power: I had been thinking about the house boat thing for years. Economic necessity provided the motivation. I asked my landlady if I could build a boat in the backyard while I lived over the garage. She looked at my canoe (assuming, perhaps, that new boat would be of a similar size) and said “OK”. She is now the picture of regret!

9. Freetown Fred: I lived in Lewes for a year or so. The canal and the bay are beautiful. The Chesapeake Bay is outstanding but the Maryland gun laws will keep me away. I recently scouted Wilmington, NC, Cape Fear River, and Intracoastal Waterway. Lots of potential there.

10. Unhippy: You are correct. I have already installed the cast iron cook stove on the opposite side and I plan to mount the water tanks there as well to offset the weight of my Franco-Belge. Before the installation, I seriously considered dating a plus-sized gal for warmth in the winter and ballast in the warmer months. Now, not necessary! Yes, I still have to “feed” the coal stove but I don’t have to “listen” to it!

11. Coalkirk: In my younger days, I wooed a few ladies with picnics on my canoe. I’ll have to start looking for a bikini-clad hood ornament!

12. Wood’nCoal: Al Gore promised me that the Delaware Bay waters would be here and I’d be floating by now. He lied! I hope to finish the interior by the summer and be on the water by the fall.

13. Gaw: Good to see you here. I remember that outing; I had a great time meeting you all and roaming the coal mine. I hope you and yours are well.

14. Warminmn: I think most of us “drink the Kool-Aid” to some extent in our lives but, time and circumstances have helped me see what is right for me, at this point in time. My children think I’m crazy (I am but, for other reasons!) but they also see how happy I am and they go along. They dread the thought of me dying and leaving them with this floating piece of junk so I have left them strict instructions. When the day comes that they find my lifeless carcass on the boat, they are to: a) Take anything of value; b) douse me and the boat with gasoline; c) light‘er up; and d) run like hell before the EPA arrives. ‘Tis a Viking’s Funeral for me!

15. Onedollar: As it turns out, I get dreadfully seasick! This boat is not intended for the open sea but for protected waters such as rivers and canals. If living on the water doesn’t work out, I can always live in it on land like an RV. While I was building the frames, the Town building inspector sent a letter of inquiry. Once I explained I was building a boat, he was cool with it. The beautiful thing about a boat is that the Building Codes do not apply and, at first glance, it appears that a boat is simply parked in the backyard. If I keep a low enough profile, I’ll be OK.

16. I have about $14,000. Invested so far in the boat. $3000. of that went for fiberglass and epoxy on the hull. Expensive stuff! Even if I spend another couple of thousand, not a bad price to pay for a place to live. I will never be homeless!

This was a recent post on my FaceBook page about one of the benefits of heating with coal:

***** Heating With Coal Will Save My Life! *****

When I only heated with wood, I was always on the look-out for dead trees or fallen branches. As I drove the highways and byways of Delaware, I spent more time scanning the roadsides than watching the road! I never once had so much as a close call but, sooner or later ....

Now that the coal burner is operational and I don't worry about my wood supply, my eyes have been opened to a whole new world I never knew existed: cars; trucks; traffic lights; pedestrians; and much more!

It truly is amazing what you can see when you watch the road when you drive!

What will it be using for a motor? Thanks for sharing your house boat with the coal stove. That's awesome! Please stick around and post pics, especially once it's in the water. So I take it that you will take it out of the water during winter months? Sorry for the silly questions, I don't know much about boat living..

Lightning, that makes two of us who know nothing about living on the water. I am going to have a very steep learning curve though at least I have lived in the boat on land and gotten used to the smaller space.

Initially, the plan was to mount an outboard engine on a bracket off the rear. Theoretical max. speed is about 6 or 7 knots. A 7 HP engine should be able to move the boat at that speed. I was thinking perhaps a 20 HP outboard so I could run it between 1/2 and 2/3 throttle; better fuel efficiency and longer engine life.

I'm planning to keep the boat in the water year round, perhaps further south. The approach is to live off the hook and canoe to shore when needed, thus avoiding marina fees.

I have a composting toilet but not yet mounted and hooked up. My lady guests have a hard time aiming into the laundry detergent jug. God may have to go back to the drawing board.

In most states, the definition of a "motorboat" required to be titled and/or registered mandates that the craft have mechanical propulsion. To save money on the use/sales tax on the house boat, I might put an outboard on a dinghy and either push or tow the houseboat around. If it has no motor, its not a "boat"!

JerseyCoal wrote:Lightning, that makes two of us who know nothing about living on the water. I am going to have a very steep learning curve though at least I have lived in the boat on land and gotten used to the smaller space.

Initially, the plan was to mount an outboard engine on a bracket off the rear. Theoretical max. speed is about 6 or 7 knots. A 7 HP engine should be able to move the boat at that speed. I was thinking perhaps a 20 HP outboard so I could run it between 1/2 and 2/3 throttle; better fuel efficiency and longer engine life.

I'm planning to keep the boat in the water year round, perhaps further south. The approach is to live off the hook and canoe to shore when needed, thus avoiding marina fees.

I have a composting toilet but not yet mounted and hooked up. My lady guests have a hard time aiming into the laundry detergent jug. God may have to go back to the drawing board.

In most states, the definition of a "motorboat" required to be titled and/or registered mandates that the craft have mechanical propulsion. To save money on the use/sales tax on the house boat, I might put an outboard on a dinghy and either push or tow the houseboat around. If it has no motor, its not a "boat"!

I spent a few years working in a boat yard with the yard's "work boat" about the size of your house boat, but it was just a two foot high, flat decked, fiberglass over plywood platform with a ramped bow and with a motor well in the stern. We used it mostly for moving/towing customer's boats from their homes to our yard and around the boat yard from haul-out slips to docks.

Being lighter than your house boat, it didn't draw as much water. We had a 5.5 hp Evinrude on it. I think your being a bit optimistic about getting 6-7 knots with your house boat. And it will be tougher with all that upper works how it will be affected by even the slightest wind. Not having enough motor, can get extremely exciting at times !!!!

And having towed many larger craft with that work boat, and with a dingy, I can say that towing with a dingy and a small motor is not as easy as it looks. Unlike towing a car, the tow rope attachment point in the towing boat has to be above, or just forward of the pivot of the steering point, our you'll have a lot of difficulty going where YOU want !!!! It's kinda like the 100 pound old man walking his 200 pound bull mastiff. Who's taking who for a walk ? That's why tugboats towing bits and winch are forward of the vertical axis of the rudder post.

You might want to just pay tax ?

Paul

Jerseycoal,

That's a darned nice stove to cook on for sure. I kind of like to bake so I'd get the model 211, but the Skippy is a great little stove. I hope you post more once you use it and give me your opinion of how well it works. I've spent quite a bit of time on boats. Am planning on retiring onto one, at least for a few years. But I'm looking more to travel, not just live on it. I have a long hit list of places to see... Funny to find this discussion on a coal forum... Some of my destinations are high latitudes, so heat is essential. I've never had a coal stove on a boat, only a wood stove, propane stove and diesel stove. Of course all on different boats... Each has it's advantages and disadvantages... Most sailors go with diesel heaters for serious heat in the higher latitudes but I've always wondered if coal could compete... For you on a houseboat, coal should be excellent. Likely cheaper than diesel although harder to store... I'll be really interested in learning how much coal you go through in a winter...

dj

Where are you going to store all of the coal?
On the hook at night, need nav lights. Unless a designated anchorage than you may have to pay the marina.
Only allowed 90 days stay in most states then required to register your vessel in that state.
Good luck, and have a great time!