Saunaboat: Turning an Old Unused Boat Into a Swimming Sauna
Introduction: Saunaboat: Turning an Old Unused Boat Into a Swimming Sauna
Who wouldn't want a sauna. And who wouldn't want a sauna at the lake, if you happen to live at one? But what's even better, is a sauna ON the lake. And since there are a lot of old boats rotting and rusting in backyards, we bought one for cheap and turned it into the best sauna we know...
Supplies
An old boat nobody wants anymore
Old school insulation material
Beautiful wood for the sauna
A lot of paint
Super expensive high temperature resistent glass for the windows
An awesome wood burning sauna stove
Enthusiasm
Step 1: Find the Right Boat
For a saunaboat you obviously need a boat. Before you can find the right boat, a couple of questions need to be answered:
1. How much space do you have on the water?
2. How many people should the sauna be for?
3. Do you live in a place where there is a risk of ice in winter?
Depending on the answers, you'll have to find the right size of boat and you have to decide what material the hull can be. If you run a risk of having ice in winter, you need a steel boat. Such was the case where I live. Since you want to use the sauna in winter, it wouldn't make much sense to have a boat that needs to get out of the water in winter.
It took me around half a year to find the right boat. Steel Hull, less than 8m of length, and a cabin that could be turned into a sauna for up to ten people... In the end we paid 550€ for the boat and 250€ for it to be brought to a neighboring boat yard, where we could do the hull and get it into the water...
Step 2: Rip Everything Out You Don't Need
As it says in the title, first let´s get the boat as bare as possible. Basically down to a hull with a deck and the cabin.
Step 3: Getting the Hull Ready
In our case, the boat needed a lot of sanding before we could repaint it, so that it could go back into the water. Since the boat stays in the water all year long, use whatever paint/coating/antifouling that will work best in your environment.
Step 4: Deciding the Inner Design
Once your boat is empty, it's time to see how best to design the inside. A big question is where the stove should go. 428
I would strongly recommend a stove that has its opening not inside the room your sitting in, but can be heated from the outside instead. We got ours from the Estonian company HUUM. https://huum.eu/products/hive-wood-sauna-stove/
When you know where the stove is, you can decide where to put the benches, windows and so on.
In our case there was one spot that was best for the stove and the window openings were already there.
In the front of the boat was a latch (originally for an extra storage compartement). We kept that latch so it can be used as an escape door, because the stove is next to the door. It was already used once when somebody had poured to much water on the stove and then did not want to pas by the stove to get out. it is also very useful for cross ventilation.
Step 5: Putting in New Windows
One thing that is really important is, that for a sauna you cannot use normal windows. Glass will easily break when heated and cooled regularly and given how exposed you are when sitting in a sauna inside a boat that moves, this could potentially be really dangerous. So we got extra windows made from special security glass (similar to that used in cars). The eight windows actually cost us more than the boat! If you have the possibility to use standard size windows you can probably get them much cheaper. We were only able to do this for the glass window of the door, were we got a simple round shape for around 20€, while the other windows cost around 100€ each...
We used silicone for putting the windows in, you can get specific stuff for high temperatures...
Step 6: Building a Structure for the Insulated Walls
The problem with boats is, they normally don't have straight walls. For a good insulated sauna, it is much easier however if there are as few corners as possible. We already had a lot of corners to deal with, so I tried to make a base for straight walls at least on the sides. For this I used cheap construction wood. Obviously this step will be varying a lot depending on what shape your boat and the cabin have... The advice is: Try to get a simple shape! 428