Widebeam Boat Build Blog

Painting

2012-01-27T21:34:00.001Z

A very kind break in the weather all be it a few days late enabled me to get some painting done. The first area tackled was the fore deck.

The original painting had gone beyond saving so it was a back to metal rubdown. The edges had previously been prepped when the blue spray was done.

Then a coat of primer.

This will do until I put the top grit coat on.

Today it was the turn of some extra blacking (tar based paint). The side of the boat had become a little scabby with the work done with various painting jobs and the natural weathering that this coating suffers from.

Before

After

Bottom Draw & Hatch Covers

2012-01-25T21:33:00.000Z

Remember the days when mostly girls started a bottom draw for the day they would marry and set up their new home.

Well building a new boat is much like setting up a new home. We however have a bottom draw ROOM.

Pretty much everything in this room is destined for the boat, from furniture to, fire extinguishers and home entertainment stuff to kitchen ware as well as loads of boaty bits like solar panels, ropes, navigation books, even a bloody Rosie & Jim.

Deb is particularly pleased with the cushions that arrived today.

Meanwhile I am still doing all those jobs I've been putting off. Today is was grinding off the old holding paint on the fore deck ready for final finish which will be nonslip. Also painted now are the hatches for the weed hatch and mud box and the clamping bars.

Oh and I fitted the cover for the hydraulic steering ram.
(Blue bit with silver screws 9 o'clock)

Big Snagging List

2012-01-18T22:58:00.000Z

Well its come to the time to tackle the snagging list of bigger jobs.

These are mainly the jobs I have been putting off, jobs that could wait, jobs that have occurred as a result of modification of improvements.

Today was welding back the drainage channels removed to get the toilet tank out when I thought it was leaking, after which I painted the all the drainage channels.

I need to put another coat of blacking on so I gave the lower part of the boat a good scrub, we have some good weather predicted for the next few days so I will endeavor to get the final coat on.

I have templated the seat covers for the front lockers and I have retrieved from storage the clamps for the mud box and the weed hatch and rubbed them down ready for painting and I've fitted the the stern fender.

Other jobs done are in the engine room area include a connection for the water feed to the Cutlass bearing (white hose), final fixing hoses and wiring.

Installing the driveshaft and water seal and installing the bilge pump.

I have changed the fitting supplied by Vetus because I wanted to put a sea cock this end too, and doing it this was I can use a 14mm ID tube instead of a 10mm tube.

The bilge pump is a new design solid state unit. Somehow it detects the water level without a float switch. It's won design awards so I hope it will work if its ever needed. (Update:- I had to know, so I dipped it in a bucket of water and it worked.)

So as far as I can see I have finished in the engine room. No doubt there will be some modifications. I will probably change the Jubilee clips for superclamps. Now I have discovered them I much prefer them especially in critical areas. And I need to repaint it AGAIN! I think I will wait until I have a nothing else to do day.a

Time For A Breather

2012-01-11T22:00:00.000Z

I have been busy with the oak trimming for the past week and will blog this when I've finished or at least very nearly finished which should be in a few days.

I have to confess I had a carpenter in today to do some tricky stuff which I simply don't have the tools for. Remember I don't do wood. Having said that he actually said I'd done a pretty good job.

While he was busying himself with all thing wood inside I set too with another of those jobs I've been putting off. Cutting the holes for the engine breathing.

The first thing to do was a dry run to see how it would look before committing to drilling.

Happy with the look of that I marked it all up then checked it, then checked it again then started drilling.

The plan was to drill right through with the 125mm hole saw. I soon realised this was going to be a problem on breakthrough as I wouldn't be able to hold the massive slow speed drill I hired, so I modified the idea and went with drilling just over halfway through then using trusty plasma cutter to finish.

Half cut and ready for plasma

The holes receive the air intake spigots to which a 90° bend is attached to stop any water draining into the boat.

But seemingly like all things there was a snag. There's not enough room behind to accept them so another method to stop water entering needed to be devised.

As the part of the boat they are fixed to lays back a bit a barrier needs to be nigh enough to allow forward draining, so I made these smiley wedges which I will silicone in then make a silicone ramp at the lowest point to make it drain. Photo to follow when done.

Done

Fuled Up

2012-01-03T21:59:00.001Z

I have been getting a bit fed up with getting 40L of Diesel from my friend to run the central heating boiler (Mikuni) so I ordered a full tank full 600L.

I need to fuel it up at some point and while its on dry land its better just in case there is a leak.

I was confident it was going to be fine because of the pressure tests and it was. So once full I was able to calibrate the fuel gauge.

During the Christmas brake I finally found where the leaking water from the toilet tank was coming from. Turned out to be from the hose where it connects to the pump out pump. The jubilee clips couldn't put on enough force to squash the hose down so I fitted so I solved the problem with Superclamps

These were able to overcome the steel spiral reinforcing in the hose.

Over the Christmas break I was able to get some more oak trim up as well but eventually ran out of adhesive. So I gave in and had a bit of time off.

Merry Christmas Everyone

2011-12-25T11:00:00.000Z

I ran the idea by Deb wondering how much time I would be able to have on the boat today?

Answers on a postcard.

Merry Christmas Everyone

A Different Sort Of Christmas Trimming

2011-12-23T21:34:00.000Z

It's started. And mighty good it's looking if I do say so myself.

A bit later:-

Oak Everwhere

2011-12-22T21:27:00.000Z

Yesterday I went to collect my oak order form DW's. I have to say I am delighted with the production and the finish. I decided to get them to finish the wood as they have the setup and its one less job for me. I'm glad I did, it looks great.

On paper the quantity didn't seem that much, I certainly didn't visualise just how much there would be. So now I have oak trim everywhere.

Guess what I'm going to busy doing over Christmas. This is now the beginning of the end of the fit out.

Lounge Ceiling

2011-12-14T21:51:00.000Z

I have finished putting up the lounge and kitchen ceiling and additional lights over the hob. It was touch and go as weather or not I would have enough material. I did a calculation before I ordered. Due to the cost of it I didn't want any over. Looks like I failed ;-)

It was this and the end trimmings

This is the finished ceiling. It has a light oak grain imprinted in the paneling and its a cellular construction. Its made for outside cladding so is fairly tough compared to the products you can get in B&Q etc. It cuts well with a sharp saw but will splinter with a blunt one. All my engineered products are cut using a Triple Tip TCT saw blade.

Nice and tidy up top, not so below!

Oh well that's just me, I've always been the same.

Bed Time

2011-12-13T21:06:00.002Z

After yesterdays mishap, today was considerably better. I put up another 15 strips of ceiling cladding in the lounge area first thing this morning. Then it was on to the the bed room.

Last week I made up the top of the bed ready for the base to be constructed.

The panels are made by the same firm as the wardrobes and chests of draws. The finish is oak with a pigmented lacquer about 30% gloss finish. The colour is Truffle.

I fixed the wardrobes in place yesterday. Today I fixed the bedside draw units to the wardrobes, made the frame then clad the panels to the frame.

The white strips are edge protection tape

The fix is only temporary for now as the bed might have to come out as the floor sheets might need to be lifted to put trim ballast in.

It Was All Going So Well

2011-12-12T22:37:00.000Z

For the last couple of mornings the CH has failed to start on the programmer but would get going with a bit of fiddling with. Not exactly what's needed so today it failed to start at all so the control box has gone back for assessment.

Anyway the gas fire soon got it warm enough to work in.I needed the lounge warm to make the adhesive go off on the ceiling cladding. I can only put up 10 at a time as that's all the props I have so did one lot this morning and one at the end of the day.

So the rest of the day was working in the bed room. This was going fine until I put a screw through the central heating pipe. So that took care of most of the afternoon to put right. Which involved taking off a strip of wallpaper and cutting into the bedroom wall.

Oh well tomorrow's another day. I did manage to get the wardrobes in position and fixed to the wall though.

Gas Fire Fitted

2011-12-10T14:48:00.001Z

I bought this fire about 5 years ago with the intention of fitting it in our previous boat but never got round to it. I got it off e-bay brand new and delivered for a stupid winning bid of £50.

I then bought the canopy and an LPG conversion kit and that came to £120, so all in all a bargain.

I am glad I didn't fit it in the other boat now as it chucks out so much heat. It would have been way too much for the space.

I have made the flue from 3mm walled tube which catches and radiates loads more of the otherwise wasted flue heat.

So why a gas fire you may ask as I have oil CH. Well 3 reasons, as a secondary form of heat in case the CH fails for any reason, as a focal point and also gas because as a second source I'd rather carry a gas bottle than logs or coal and there's no ash to clear up and the heat is on and off on demand. OK I know firewood can be generally gathered for free, but I really can't see myself gathering and chopping and storing etc.

A local wood turner made me this oak flue trim which I am delighted with. He is going to make the trims for the mushroom vents when I know the size.

A lot of preparation has been going on in the bedroom. Next week I should finish the bed and furniture fitting. The bed base is made and the first wardrobe is in place.

More On The Wallpaper

2011-12-01T20:15:00.000Z

This is the wallpaper that's going in the bedroom. It's the same pattern as the dark one in the lounge.

Here it is in detail. You can see the steps I had to take to match the pattern and hang it right.

All this was done on my dining table in good light and horizontal, I think trying to do it in the boat vertical would be near impossible. At least the dark one had some contrast but even then Debbie had to hold an LED light stick so I could move it into position.

Wallpaper & Oak Trims

2011-11-29T21:51:00.000Z

All the oak trims have now been ordered from a company in North London. I found a firm that would produce exactly what I wanted. As well as their extensive range of standard moldings they also produce to customer requirement.

www.dwgeneralwood.co.uk

I have various angle beads, skirting, architrave, flats, and special design capping.

Today I hung the wall paper in the lounge. It was a bastard! The paper went up well but to find the patten match, well it took ages. This is the dark one, we are having a light one in the bedroom which is going to be even harder.

Hmm! Crocodiley

It's amazing how a flash gun reveals what the eye can't see normally

All the panels for the bed base should arrive tomorrow so work on finishing the bedroom can start.

Other Things I've Been Doing In The Background.

2011-11-18T19:09:00.001Z

If you read back over the blog you will see several "more on that later" type comments recently.

The first of these is the instrument panel. This is how it looked first off.

I really wasn't happy with this so I set about improving it. First to do was remove all the instruments and to cut out a hole without cutting through any wires.

Then a new mounting board made from a composite board with a brushed stainless finish.

After which a 6mm packing frame was attached to give some recess to the panel, which was then refitted behind the hole and a nice recess oak frame made to dress it.

I think this looks a whole lot better. It is now IMO part of the decor not just a bunch of instruments stuck on a board.

I have also finished the hatch, well almost. It still needs a tiny bit of paint on the inside. First it was insulated with Celotex then clad out with the same floor laminate as I have used for the rest of the boat roof.

I have also finished the rear door and trimmed them with oak and polished with Briwax. Again I have used floor laminate to complete the entrance decor.

All the parts needed for the bed base are now on order. The company that made the furniture will also make finished panels to any reasonable size and finish them as required. The bed will be a lift up one.

Also the kitchen is pretty much finished. I still need the breakfast bar made but my brother is rammed with work ATM because everyone wants their granite worktops done now before Christmas. When I have time I will clear down the kitchen and photograph it.

It's Been A Buffing Sort of Day

2011-11-17T22:31:00.000Z

I have been buffing the paint this afternoon. Its very hard work and not very interesting.

But the result is satisfying even if the reflection shows that ugly mug.

2 years on.

2011-11-12T22:54:00.000Z

2 years ago today the shell came home.

This is how it looked then.

A fair bit has changed since then.

Here is a photo library Over 600 on the blog now. Enjoy :-)

I'm often asked why I'm building a boat.

2011-11-05T13:00:00.002Z

Well this was my plan, but like all good ideas it's been nabbed.

Don't tell Deb though.

Rudder Stops

2011-11-03T23:38:00.000Z

Mindful that its now getting dark earlier in the afternoon and that the weather opportunities are closing down for outside welding, today I decided to make the rudder stops.

Normally I'm told the stops should go in the ram ends but because I have made a Shilling type rudder the extra movement of the ram hasn't left enough room to do this, in fact if you read here you'll see why.

So I have put them on the outside of the rudder with adjustments.

To protect the rudder while reversing I will be fitting a Long Button Fender. A standard one is 40cm long so I needed to make a mounting extension to make it extend enough beyond the rudder.

It looks a bit like a loco buffer but all will be revealed when I fit the fender. Finally the rudder and skeg and a few other bits previously welded got a coat of blacking.

Floor Laying

2011-10-21T22:14:00.001+01:00

Earlier in the week I did some finishing work on the sliding hatch. More on that later.

Over the last few days I have started fitting the flooring. We have chosen laminate flooring as it is very durable, attractive, stable, and easy to replace in time. Modern Laminate is IMO better than real wood in appearance. The one we have chosen for the lounge is a thicker than normal. Its 12mm not the normal 6-8mm and a good textured surface with enough grip for our aged dog. I have used a 5mm HD foam underlay for a bit of extra insulation, it also has a foil layer supposedly to reflect heat back up.

Before

After

This is a far as I go for the time being. The rest will be laid once the boat is afloat. I need access under the floor to add ballast to trim the boat.

Of course in the kitchen nothing other than Sicilian Slate could be used. OK, its expensive but boy does it look good especially now its oiled.

Before

After

Other jobs done are some work in the bedroom on the ceiling and making the steps to the bow doors, and dressing the stern entrace to the boat.

You will notice all the wires. I'm redoing this as I wern't happy with the appearence.

In fact I have a lot of small jobs on the go, but noting complete enough to be blog worthy ATM.

More Plumbing

2011-10-11T22:57:00.001+01:00

I think I have finished the plumbing. I can't see anything else that needs doing, but I'm sure something will crop up, but in anticipation of this I am going to clear away the plumbing stuff.

So hopefully this is the last plumbing job. Because the washing machine is cold fill only is seems a bit daft using the boats electricity supply to heat water when we will probably only use the washing machine as we are on the move or when when we have a tank full of hot water heated by the engine. As the calorifier will make hot water from either the engine or the Mikuni it will heat up to about 80°C which for general wash cycles is way too hot. So to ensure the temperature of the water going in doesn't exceed 40°C which is the most common wash cycle I have installed a TMV (thermostatic mixer valve). This mixes hot and cold to produce and maintain the set temperature exactly like a good shower mixer does.

This one has the advantage that the hot can be turned off so the rinse cycle is done with cold water.

Then other thing installed is an expansion vessel. There are 2 reasons. First to reduce the water pump cycling when the tap is on a low flow setting and the other to accommodate the expansion and contraction of the water in the calorifier as the water heats up or cools down.

2L expansion vessel

Finally today I cut and edged the back panel for the kitchen units. This is easily removable for service access.

Before

After

Little Bit Of A Setback

2011-10-04T20:39:00.001+01:00

I've had a little bit of a setback of late, I've been watching it hoping it would go away, but as its getting colder its getting worse.

So what is it?

The laminate flooring I used to line the ceiling is distorting. I suppose as the boat gets a tiny bit shorter. Essentially is compressing and was beginning to ripple midships. Other option is that the laminate is expanding with the damper weather.

Normally when you lay this sort of flooring it's know as a floating floor because its not fixed anywhere and a 10mm gap is supposed to be left all around the edge of any room its laid in to allow for expansion etc.

Compounding this also is:- 1. I have had to glue it to the roof batons to keep it in place. 2. on the port side I did the whole boat in one continuous length of about 12.5m. Its only this part that's distorted.

The planned repair is underway and involves removing the affected mid section and cutting in a expansion joint above the bedroom door separating the run.

So this is what its looking like.

I shall leave it a couple of days for it to normalise, I have cut some more of the glue to free up more movement. Then it will be all put back up again and hopefully that will be the an end to the matter.

The More You Know The Less You Know

2011-10-01T23:37:00.001+01:00

I was reading a forum item about water up the rudder stock tube. This was something I had never considered or been told about although on very hard reverse on my NB I would get water up the tube. I just put this down to poor design because of its age. When the water came up it just ran off the self draining read deck, but on this boat it's going to go into the engine room bilge.......... Not good.

As I hadn't considered this I needed to work out how to retrospectively fix it. Much head scratching and I came up with this idea.

I disassembled the rudder, ram and removed the stock.

I then slid a length of PVC pipe over it having first coated the shaft with silicone grease.

I reassemble the rudder and stock then filled the gap between the stock tube and the PVC tube with closed cell expanding foam.

Once cured I trimmed off the excess.

I think this will solve the problem.

Tidying Up Day

2011-09-29T20:17:00.004+01:00

I tidied up some wiring today. I enclosed in flexi trunking the remote start cable for the generator, the output cable and the power cable for the bilge pump, and connected the immersion heater wiring and a few other little jobs.

The end of the run

Once done I fired up the generator with the shore power still plugged in and the auto switch over worked both in and out seamlessly. I still have to install the bilge pump but the wire is there now.

I finally got the remainder of the plinth for the bathroom so installed that and while in there I siliconed the toilet in as well

I put the recessed fender mounts in on the port side and have been doing some work on the rudder.

I also filled and calibrated the water and waste tank gauges. Well the waste water one was manufacture calibrated as it was matched to the depth of the tank, but I filled the tank to check it. The water did need calibrating whic was simple following the manufacturers instructions.

The waste tank is showing just over half now as I also got to test the self pump out system, which as you can see as the level is down works.

Another little job that's been hanging around is the fitting of the handles and locks for the gas and kit lockers on the stern of the boat.

Water Intake Mainfold

2011-09-28T23:24:00.002+01:00

I made the original water intake manifold intake out of copper but I was unable to get the jubilee clips to close down enough to form a reliable seal. Even after wrapping with loads of PTFE tape the tube proved too wide and the reinforcement wire too strong.

The next option was to use 1 1/4" waste pipe but this was a tad to large for the ID of the tube.

I tried heating it with boiling water but this was not enough as the reforcing spring inside the tube wouldn't give. So I tried the cooking oil trick again. This can be heated much hotter than water and did the trick softening the tube nicely.

Stretched and cooled over a spare bit of pipe

Job done.

I must repaint the bilge again!

The green pipe is a hose to supply water to test the joints. Water tight now :-)

Clever Internet (Google Streets)

2011-09-27T20:44:00.001+01:00

A few days ago it was mentioned that how would my boat look on the water. Well as mine is a bit away from that yet, I thought I'd google the last location of the sister boat that I knew of.

Sure enough it was there.

The main difference with this boat is it's 70' not 60' like mine. He also has skylights and a side hatch. Otherwise its pretty much the same in the shell and the propulsion.

Plumbing Has Come To Life

2011-09-26T22:37:00.002+01:00

This morning I fitted the taps and made the final plumbing connections.

Kitchen

Bathroom

Shower

Once the cold side was checked and the calorifier filled I fired up the diesel heater and in half an hour I had seriously hot water.

I am not very happy with the water pump. It's very noisy so I am going to mount it on some soft substrate. If that don't work then I will be looking for another one. The one in my motorhome is the same capacity but is "for motorhomes" as opposed to "for boats".

With all the water working I was able to fill and test the macerator toilet. When I say test I do mean a clean test. I'll have to trust that it will deal with matters once afloat.

And finally as the water tank filled the water tank gauge came to life with some readings. Once the tank is full I can calibrate it. That is if I can find the instructions!

Paint Day

2011-09-23T23:12:00.002+01:00

Today the paint job is finally finished. Well, there is still the roof to do with sand to make a grippy surface and some other sandy grippy bits, but the pray work is done. I just hope the problem with the paint doesn't re-appear.

So here it is in pictures.

Masking yesterday magnolia

Slap some on here

Like this

And some here

And here

A few hours later all unmasked and shiny

A good couple of days work making a huge difference. More photos when I can get on the bow deck without damaging it.

The paint has been piled on nice and thick. Jerry said he had never put so much paint on anything. The magnolia has nearly 3 litres and the blue including the rear already done has used 8 litres. All that needs to be done now is a good mopping. This will be done in due course.

I have deliberately used standard colours as they will be easy to source in the future from vertualy anywhere in any form and in any base material.

The magnolia is from the BS 4800 standard BS 08 B 15

The steel blue is form the RAL standard RAL 5011

Another Groundhog Day

2011-09-22T20:46:00.001+01:00

I have had a a bit of a problem with the magnolia paint on the side of the boat and to a lesser extent on the blue parts.

The magnolia was worst affected. After a few months I notice the surface had dulled. On closer inspection it could be seen that a multitude of tiny lumps that looked like micro blistering but wasn't as this is caused by moisture and under a magnifying glass there was no hole in the lumps.

This is magnolia but poor light

So I DA'd the side with some 400 grit and the tops came off the lumps without damaging the rest of the surface. I then polished it up with Tcut and left it a while to see if it would re-appear. After a few weeks decided it was time to get it resprayed.

So after watching the weather for a while I decided today and tomorrow were probably going to be the last opportunity this year what with light and damp and wind and temperature.

Jerry turned up bright and early and on we cracked with prepping the magnolia sides. He did the big stuff I did the small hand areas and the masking.

The blue will be finished tomorrow. All this week I have been applying 2pac primer with a small foam roller to avoid mess. I am very surprised how good it's gone on and it's nice and thick so will be good for rubbing down. Fingers crossed for and accurate weather forecast.

Photos & Videos Update

2011-09-13T21:06:00.002+01:00

I owe the blog a few photos and gonna chuck in a couple of videos as well.

The new HD battery cables showing 400amp fuse and 500amp shunt

The shunt is there to monitor the battery current both in and out and the information is displayed on the gage 4 down. Think of it as a fuel tank gage for the domestic batteries.

I finished of the exhaust installation today.

Exhaust manifold to water separator

Water separator to outside

Engine start and run

Generator start and run

The reason for the lumpy start is due to me not turning on the cooling water feed quickly enough.

Worktops Delivered

2011-09-12T23:20:00.001+01:00

My, brother the stone mason deliverd the granite worktops for the kitchen today.

They are just on dry ATM final fix soon.

All Fired Up

2011-09-11T00:48:00.001+01:00

Just a quick post today cos I wanna share.

With the help of my dad on the ignition key I pressurised the fuel tank and got the engine to fire up. Even without the exhaust connected it sounded sweet.

Earlier in the day I connected up the cooling water intake and with the aid of a hose pipe from the mains I started up the generator and was able to run it at duty speed. Previously I had only been able to run it in a protected mode because there was no cooling water, and then only for a few seconds Seems that if there is not enough water flow it will run in protected mode only.

So all diesel powered systems are working. Central heating boiler, generator and main engine.

Photos to follow.

I have now connected the new power take off cables from the battery pack. 95mm/square cables which needed end terminals put on.

New Batteries

2011-09-07T19:40:00.001+01:00

The new batteries arrived today. What with holiday season and the need to have these made to order has meant a 6 week wait.

The new set have some additional features. The principle requirement was to have a system that would evacuate the hydrogen that builds up when the batteries are charging. I certainly don't want another episode like before.

The system sold to me also has the added benefit of auto topping up.

So this how the new setup looks.

The vertical tube on the left is the venting tube. This connected nicely to the existing vent.

The vertical tube on the right links by a snap connector with a one way valve to a pressurised bottle.

This is filled with de-ionised water and is pressurised by the built in hand pump. There is a small paddle wheel that goes round to show when water is going in. When this stops the system is topped up. The cells can't be overfilled as each cap has a float valve.

No lid will be require as the terminals are all insulated. I still have the put the proper output cables on but these need to have terminals crimped on and will be done tomorrow.

The good news is the charging side of the inverter didn't suffer any damage and is working fine.

Doors & Wires

2011-09-06T20:42:00.001+01:00

I have now varnished and hung the internal doors. In truth I did the hanging but had a proper carpenter come in and fit the furniture and locks and shoot the doors in. And by hang I mean fitting the frames with the doors pre-hung. Remember I don't do wood. I also got the glass today which needed to be toughened in line with UK building safety code. As it happens I think this is a good code so I have adopted it in the boat doors.|

So this is what the doors look like now.

Bedroom door from outside

The bathroom door is the same but difficult to photograph. The glass is frosted in manufacture 100% privacy 95% light transmission.

And here are what I consider to be the absolutely fantastic door handles. Not only, IMO, are they beautifully designed they are beautifully engineered as well.

The final connections for the bow thruster have been made. These are the charging lines which have to be fused both ends to prevent accidental overload of the charge lines if there isn't enough power in the bow thruster dedicated batteries.

150amp fuse engine end

150amp fuse BT end

I was fortunate that the local chandlers lent me their crimping tool so I could cut and alter the existing cables and put the terminals on properly as the cable had already been installed before I knew I had to fuse it in this way. While I had the crimping too I also extended the start cables for the generator. That done I connected the remote cable and from inside the boat I started the generator. Woo Hoo, something else working :-)

Sound System Sorted

2011-08-30T22:30:00.001+01:00

Bose 235

It's very clever, and the sound........... Well it's just unbelievable.

Kitchen Appliances

2011-08-29T21:30:00.001+01:00

The kitchen appliances arrived so it was down to fitting them. Well temporarily anyway for the washing machine and microwave combi oven. The oven housing needed a small amount of alteration as originally we were going to have a gas oven*. I also have the hob but thats not shown here. All of these have been set up to enable the placement of of the power and gas feeds. There will also be a final fitment of the templates fore the granite worktops.

The washing machine will have a door fitted

* It was after a bit more thourght that we decided to change the oven. Some might question having an electric oven combi unit on boat, especially as we do have gas availiable. Our reason is this. At home we have a main oven and a microwave combi. We hardly ever use the main oven accept probably Christmas. Most of the time we use the smaller combi especially as it can perfectly roast a decent size chicken in about 35 minutes. I can't see us cooking xmas dinner for 8 on the boat! Also with an oven we would still need a microwave which would take up worktop space. So in retrospect it seemd the best solution. Powering it will also be no issue as it has a maximum draw in combi mode of 3000w the same as output as the inverter and our battery bank will cope with a roast chicken, or if need be the generator can be deployed, or cooking can be done when the main engine is supplying charge to the batteries.

Of course if we are on shore power this could be used as at home if it is 16amp, but if its less the inverter through the additional controler can use whats on the post and suppliment the amperage from the batteries without tripping the shore power.

The 3rd one down

Full explantion here

I know some will think this mad and gas is the answer, but if you think about it, fuel has to be used so why not the diesel in the generator instead of LPG?

This is the fridge freezer.

This model was chosen because it has a big top fridge and small bottom freezer and it has an A+ energy rating. As the unit housing it is not as tall as one in a house, the choice was very limited, but I am pleased with it. Supprisingly its made by Liebherr more often associated with 600 ton dump trucks and earth movers.

A Day Of B's

2011-08-26T00:25:00.005+01:00

First 'B' is the battery box. A bit of a ground dog day as it was putting in the new battery box. If you don't know why this is a groundhog day look here. Unfortunately getting the new one in was not as easy as the first one as the first one was put in before the engine. The old one was cut up to get it out. To get the new one in needed the the deck supports and drains to be cut.

A couple of cuts and a bit of force and in it went. Then welding it back up again and job done.

New batteries due 1st week of September.

The second 'B' is the bow thruster. The hardware was installed a few weeks ago, now I'm back form holiday the cables were ready to collect.

Knowing the issues with long cable runs and voltage drops on BT's I designed and installed it all with the minimum length of cable I could. Neg & Pos come to less than 1m = very low voltage drop, maximum amps (power) delivered to the motor.

The other cables are for the second battery

The total battery amps will be 220.

I still have to connect the charging cables but I'm waiting for the line fuses.

Also today I cleaned out the engine 'ole of general dirt and dust that just seems to acculimate and connected the morse cables to the gearbox and the throttle. These blue cables can be seen in the second photo.

Off again later for the bank holiday weekend in the motorhome. Going the SBMMC agm so back to the grind (love it really) on Tuesday.

It's Been A While

2011-08-25T00:24:00.001+01:00

We have been away for a week wild camping in the motorhome down to Cornwall and the west country. This is wild camping at its best.

Cheddar Gorge

In line with our love of canals a visit to the famous Caen Flight of locks was on the agenda.

This is my picture of the site.

Before we went I ordered a load of stuff which has now started to arrive.

So far delivered and collected are:- New battery box fiberglassed, kitchen and bathroom taps, bathroom sink, hob, integral microwave comi oven, washing machine, fridge freezer, the TV unit, the internal door handles, door glass, and the power cables for the.

So I will be getting on with installing all this new kit in the next few days.

Lounge Furniture Ordered

2011-08-10T21:49:00.001+01:00

After much deliberation the sofas have been ordered. In the end war was averted.

We have 2 of these on the way

Also ordered today is the TV unit.

I have been working on the water tank, my brother the stone mason came Monday to do the template for the kitchen worktops. We are having Star Galaxy.

Easy to see how it gets its name

I have started building the bedroom furniture now, all the kitchen appliances are on order, the bow thruster is in but I am waiting for the cables to be made before I blog it.

So things are moving in many directions and I can definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel. So much so I am now searching for moorings.

The War Starts

2011-08-10T01:07:00.001+01:00

Why?

We are now choosing internal furnishings and decor. So far I have had my way as it has been about technical and practical stuff. It's about the comfy stuff now and all of a sudden I have do things by way of consultation. I don't likey! I am now having to surrender my project to another opinion.

I'm sure it will work out in the end.

I Fancied A Change Of Scenery

2011-08-05T23:31:00.003+01:00

Having spent loads of time in the last few week up the blunt end I decided I would do some work at the pointy end.

Now the bow thruster controls are in I want to play. Can't help it.

95kgf 12v

This is where it will live.

Bit of a grot hole

But first it needed to be made ready. I have done nothing much down here since I've had the shell, so it was out with the wire brush and in to the tiny space that a man of my fine figure and age is not really supposed to go. Anyway a good while later all the crud was rubbed off and vacuumed out.

Also needed to go in were the brackets for the isolator and the fuse and the batteries. These duly made and welded in I coated the bare steel with Vactan to convert the surface rust to what ever it does to it, then a few hours later I top coated it. Looks much better now I think you will agree.

I am using floor paint for all bilge and locker areas because of its high resistance to water and most other liquid spillages that will be encountered on a boat in these areas and its low gloss, sheen finish.

Helm

2011-08-04T22:26:00.000+01:00

Now the pram cover is in place I have got round to fitting the helm. I've had all this for ages but needed to wait :-(

I've had the helm wrapped in carbon fibre. I think it looks pretty cool.

Also installed are other controls and gauges. These are inside the boat.

From top to bottom:- Water tank and waste tank gages, remote for the generator, Victron inverter/charger remote control, Victron battery monitor, bilge pump control.

All the window liners are now in, as are the bedroom and bathroom doors.

Lounge port side

One of the port holes and the bedroom door

Bedroom starboard side

Varnish Varnish Varnish

2011-08-02T22:10:00.000+01:00

Its been 2 days varnishing the window trims. Well not solid as there is drying time but as I have used a 2pac varnish the cure time is only a few hours. The finish is a 30% gloss finish.

It's not moder art, but these days probably could be

Here's one fitted, nine more to fit!

Glued in place with a 4 small blobs of Sikaflex

If you look at the first photo you can see how I have clamped the frame while the glue sets. I have used 1 clamp to squeeze a baton inside and out top and bottom. I used the minimum amount I think will be effective to make for easy removal if the window needs to come out.

Progress Again :-)

2011-07-27T21:03:00.003+01:00

I now have all the steering system hydraulics fitted. Flow and return pipes have been run from the steering pump to the ram and with the help of my wife turing the wheel to order the system was filled and bled. Here is the helm pump. I have removed the wheel again as its sure to get damaged.

I have also fitted the an external 13a socket, the 16a power inlet, 12v switch panel, locker doors and the red bit is the megga loud alarm sounder.

Sam the canopy maker came again today to start the final fit. This has enabled me to finally get the big tempory cover off. Whist it has done a stirling job the constant noise of it russtling in the wind has really irritted me. So..........

Before

And the big reveal...........

After

Panoramic shot front

Panoramic shot front

Sam's Website

I have a comment from an email corrispondent about the pram hood:-"The dogs Bollocks" guess he didn't want to put it in the comments box. I aggree. I will show it off on another blog later on as to what it does.

While Sam and indeed his daughter Sam were fitting this I was bust up the front end. I have removed the horible steel front doors and replaced them with the loverly oak ones I had made.

Before

After
The grind marks are to remove the hinge

Finally today another delivery of furnature to finish off the kitchen and for the bedroom. Once again it feels like things are moving again.

Its strange how it goes, you seem to be working and nothing seems to get done, then in a couple of days all the prep comes together in a big way.

Sam is back on Friday to put the final fittings on the cover.

Stuff Is Arriving

2011-07-20T20:37:00.000+01:00

Sam the canvas man arrived today for the second fitting of the pram cover. The design of the cover will permit the screen to remain in place with the cover completely down but can also be lowered or fully removed if required.

There will be more side windows on the finished cover

and a dodger around the base

The front screen

I also collected the oak doors from the carpenters today. The small set will replace the steel ones in the forward bulkhead. The tall ones are the bedroom and bathroom doors.

While Sam was working on the cover I cut out all the holes for the additional electronics to be fitted. Photo of this in a few days when they are fitted.

Even More Rudder

2011-07-13T22:54:00.002+01:00

Today I finally finished the rudder and installed the ram.

I had to modify the rudder fixing as my original idea to keep it concealed turned out to be very difficult to fit and remove the rudder. I wanted to fit it and remove it to be sure it could be done. Whilst it could be done it was very fiddly, so in the end I filled the tapped holes and re-dilled so that the bolts are accessible from the outside. Much easier, but not as pretty, but it will be under water so hopefully I won't see it that often.

As this is a Shilling type rudder its main advantage is that it will operate at angles over 35º to give better stearing especially at low speeds. The rudder arm supplied was calculated to move through 35º each way with a pre-drilled pivot point at 140mm but by re-drilling the pivot point to 104mm an angle of 50º each way was achieved.

Straight

Port

Starboard

This shows why I created the extra borrowed space

I'm glad that's done now it was pretty heavy work in an awkward space both inside the boat and outside.

The whole assembly moves very smoothly and freely. The bottom bearing is a simple steel on steel cup and plug set up and the top bearing is a self aligning pillow block bearing.

I now consider myself an expert on the construction and installation of a Schilling type rudder. I just hope it works as well as they are said to in this article.

Blue Is The Colour

2011-07-10T19:27:00.000+01:00

Sam, the canopy maker, is coming in a couple of days so this is what has spured on the final spraying of the stern area. There's quite a lot of fittings that need to go on and its better that its painted first instead of masking up loads of little fittings after.

I have never used 2pac paint before this weekend. I was impressed with how the primer went on and cured off. Today I spent a couple of hours rubbing down then it was time for the top coat.

I have to say I am pretty pleased with my efforts.

Who's that handsome devil in the reflection?

Strange Week

2011-07-08T22:29:00.002+01:00

Its been a strange week since the last post. The passing of an era.

I have now sold our Narrowboat. It needed to have a pre sale survey, unfortunately my marina could not accommodate us on the slip when we needed it but the next marina on the system were able to. So I went down the marina last Sunday to save a rush on Monday morning. The new owner turned up and we set of about 10am. 4 hours later we had covered the 12 miles to the other marina. The boat underwent its survey and apart from some battery terminals that needed soldering and a small clip on a gas pipe all was good. I stayed at the marina overnight and they soldered the terminals and I did the clip. All work done I set off back the the home marina.

It was a sad journey for me tracked on my iPad

It was the last time I would be the owner of that boat at the tiller. We have had it for 5 years and have enjoyed every minute if it. It's been a great first boat and has been the springboard to this boat I am now building. I hope the new owner has as many good times as we have had.

Leaving Stanground lock

Peterborough city 48 hour moorings

Midsummer Comon 48 hour mooring Cambridge

So having only a short week the priority was to get the rear ready for the cover. The cover incoroprates a dodger which is the lower part which wraps round the bottom. To make a neat and weatherproof job of it required a bottom rim to be made and welded in. Once that was fitted next came the hard part of rubbing down the whole of the stern metawork then finally priming.

The lower rim

This rim didn't follow the curve of the lower part of the boat so I had to make an infill fillet and weld it in just near the bollards. The lower rim follows the upper rim.

I will give this a couple of days to harden right off before rubbing down ready for gloss coat. I have used 2 pac primer. The spray gun I have has a very fine adjustment on it. As 2 pac is a chemical cure paint the fine adjustment on the gun allows very fine placement of spray. The primer is a high build filler/primer so the gun can be used to precisly fill any small areas which need building ready for rubbing down.

Door Furnature

2011-07-01T22:07:00.000+01:00

I had a call fron the wood shop to tell me he was ready for the door furnature. So I thourght I'd go to a local long established iron moungary store. My needs wern't difficult, or so I thourght. I wanted some 3" polished SS hinges, and a SS rebater door lock. All they had was tat, the hinges were so bad IMO it was a waste of SS and no rebated locks at all. This is supposed to be a specialist shop. I then went to B&Q, Homebase and Howdens. In 2 of these the concept of SS seemed to be alien. They did a huge range of nasty plated stuff, but not a whiff of SS, and as for rebate lock......Well? Howdens did have some very nice SS hinges but they wanted over £13 a pair and that was on my trade account!

I resolved to go on the net. I like to support local shops where possible, but they really have to do more.

A Net search turned up a company called e-Hardware Absolutly brilliant!! and the even better part quite local to me and were happy to indulge my fussyness in person. In the end I got EXACTLY what I wanted and even some concealed door latches I didnt even know existed.

So, excelent quality products, brilliant service and great prices......... How great? Well the exact same hinges that I liked at Howdens were at e-Hardware for £3.50

I will post pics of this stuff when I get the doors.

Shiny Stuff

2011-06-30T21:39:00.000+01:00

I have been working with the pram cover maker to make the stainless steel tube frame to take the cover. Normally he contracts this to a SS specialist. He normally makes a light alli tube frame as templates then the SS guy does his bit. Between us we have made the frame combining his know how and my metal skills. This has saved over £500 in labour. So under the white cover at the back I now have a fully collapsible frame. IMO the SS guy is on a nice little number. The 316 SS tube was a dream to work.

The screen frame

The front screen will be a self supporting structure.

Alarmed And Connected

2011-06-29T21:03:00.001+01:00

I have now installed the alarm system. Its a wireless setup which can take up to 16 sensors. Currenlty I have 4 door break sensors and 4 passive PIR and a smoke detector. The company is also devoloping a flood sensor which will be handy for the bilges and can be added to the system.

This is the kit As you can see it does a lot of clever stuff especially the GSM facilities.

Also installed is the 3G wireless router with exteral 9dBi aerial. I hadn't planned on this when I put the lounge wall up. I was rather chuffed with myself that I managed to find and dill into the 2" cavity from outside on the roof on the first attempt. Once this was done it was simple a case of tracing the wire down.

See here for the full spec and Here for the aerial

Both of these devices will run directly from the 12v supply and draw a tiny amount of power. The modem will only be on when we are at the boat, the alarm of course will be on all the time. Standby draw is 0.5a

Yet More Rudder

2011-06-23T21:51:00.000+01:00

Been doing more rudder again today. The top end this time. As I have now fitted a Schilling type rudder I want to have more than 35° movement each way which is how the boat was designed with a flat rudder. The problem with this was the side of the port fuel tank was just on the limit of the 35° to starboard.

This is the rudder lever up against the tank wall

So to get the clearance needed to swing the arm over further means borrowing space in the fuel tank. I'm so glad I have a plasma cutter. Cutting this out with any thing elses would be very difficult indeed.

I forgot to photograph the insert that I have made to close the tank with the borrowed space but here it is welded in place.

I know the welding is less neat than I usually do, but in my defence it was done in a very tight space with very poor access and even worse visibility with a welding mask on.

Because this now forms part of the fuel tank in nedded to be pressure tested again. With the aid of some soapy water a few small parts of weld were found to be porous so needed welding up. I have no idea why but closing a porous weld needs 10 times more weld than you ever think, so hence the splodgy bits of weld here and there. Anyway the tank again passes the required presure test, in fact it held 7psi for over an hour before the pressure was released.

Here's the finished item with the lever fully over to nearly 90°

And finally this is the access I had to work with!

About 450mm x 150mm

A Bit More Rudder

2011-06-21T23:02:00.000+01:00

This is the rudder progerss so far.

The bottom bearing cup and spiggot

Using coins to give the right spacing for welding

The space created for the weld

The plate welded which bolts on the bottom of the rudder

Disassembled

The rudder mounted ready for the
rudder shaft to be connected at the top

Lets Build A Rudder

2011-06-14T23:20:00.001+01:00

There is a sister boat to mine. The owner reported that the rudder design he felt was poor and needed improvoing. The rudder that comes with the boat is a plain flat one.

A bit of reserach came up with several designs that are better and give more turn for your buck. In the end I decided to go for a type know as a Schilling, or Fishtail rudder. It has several other names but these are the most common. Having read a great deal about them and the maths involed I came up with my design.

Here is the whole rudder in parts form.

Once all marked up I tack welded the parts together so I could drill them all together.

The small parts are the attachment parts

Then the drilling. The large holes are to take the rudder stock pole which is 50mm.

Once drilled I tack welded the parts together. When making things it like this it's best to tack it all just in case it need altering.

Once its all together its fully welded.

Once the supporting ribs are in place the outer skin needs attaching. This a 4mm sheet of steel and its best forced over the ribs cold to prevent any distortion that heat might cause. The flow over the rudder would be affected by this. This is a slow and gentle process using g-clamps to ease it into place.

1st side done

The inside

This is the finished rudder

The two smaller parts earlier will be used later on the rudder pivots and will bolt on tho the top and bottom of this part. This is to enable the rudder to be removed if the the drive shaft needs drawing out. More on that soon.

Also on the go at them moment is the construction of the pram hood. Again more on this as there is something to show.

Lappy Working

2011-06-09T23:07:00.000+01:00

My laptop is now up and running again so I can upload some pictures. The iPad is good but there's no easy way of directly getting camera pictures on to it to blog.

I have been working on the kitchen fitting and made some temporary stairs. Fitting the kitchen has been pretty straight forward accept for turning the corners of course.

Port side

Starboard side

There's also another 2 units to go along from the side panel which forms the side for the integrated washing machine. The cooker will be opposite the stairs and then another curved end unit to form the walk through.

All the domestic water service is now installed accept for the final connections to the taps and appliances. The 25-40psi pump I have installed under a kitchen unit.

Yes I can easily get it out again!

Kitchen sink unit

I am really pleased with the stairs I made using the calculator a while back see here they have worked out perfectly in fact.

Temporary steps. The final ones will use the same stringer

Back Now

2011-06-07T21:36:00.001+01:00

We have been away on our narrowboat for a week and a bit for a some of R&R.

I have started fitting the kitchen since being back. Pictures a bit later on as my lappy hard drive has gone west and I can't upload from m iPad.

The only real news ATM is my nest of Blue Tits have fledged while we were away.

More Ceiling

2011-05-26T21:11:00.000+01:00

Ceiling again today. The center area is going to be pained white and is ply wood the same as the sides. First the supporting frame.

2 x 1 battening glued and screwed

Working single handed and putting up a ceiling is challenging. With the aid of the ratchet prop used yesterday for the bucket and some temporary hold ups heres how I did it.

And heres the finished ceiling.

All that needs doing now is a good sanding down and painting. I will do the bedroom tomorrow having already put up the frame work.

Gas Fire Flue + Odd Jobs

2011-05-25T23:17:00.000+01:00

I have welded up the deck drain I had to cut to get the generator in, welded the generator flexible feet to the uxtor plate (base of the boat in that area), welded the bracket for the raw water strainer on, soldered the 'T' junction for the raw water strainer to share the input with the engine and the generator.

The parts for the rudder have been ordered and I have sent the rudder shaft to the machine shop for the key way to be cut and the bottom bearing to be made and started to put up the frame work for the rest of the ceiling.

The principle showable job today though was the flue for the gas fire. Once again out came the trusty plasma cutter. The diameter of the flue was 115mm which is the same size as a 115 grinding disk which I used as a template. The flue needs a bit of clearance and the distance that is gained when the disk was used as a template was just right, about 3mm all the way round.

Quiz. I'm facing due East when I took this photo on 25/5/11.
What time was it? Same latitude as London.

In preperation for the hole cutting I removed the spray foam insulation and lined it with a metal shield.

Then to catch and cool the plasma ejector a bucket half filled with water was positioned using a ratchet prop.

Once cut and the shield material removed this was the hole.

The flue may as some point in the future need to be removed so it will be fixed with an external flange. Bring out the plasma cutter again. The center hole was done using a worn 115mm cutting disk and the outer using a worn 250mm disk. I like to keep it simple :-)

That's me in the shadow

The flange will be welded to the flue once the levels are set. I need to get my brother to make me a hearth first. But this is something how it will look.

In case you were wondering why a gas fire? Well, I think its a good idea to have a secondary form of heating on a different fuel just in case. There was no way I was going for a solid fuel solution, all that logs and coal and ash. Na, NOT for me!!!

Skeg Day

2011-05-23T21:01:00.000+01:00

I've been putting it off for a while now but I decided I would attach the skeg today. The reason for putting it off is because it involved laying on my back in a tight hole under the boat doing inverted welding. Not the most appealing of jobs you will agree.

Setting the job up simply involved using a plumb bob from the center of the top bearing hole.

This will only work if the boat is level which if you remember I did at the beginning. This is the top tip of this blog I think if you are going to build a boat like this. It's made so many jobs easy to either set up or do.

The weld is of 3 passes on both outer flanges and 1 pass on the inner flanges and 3 pass weld on the outer rear and one on the inner.

So thats another 'orrible job done and surprisingly few burns but very dirty hair and face.

Ceiling & Lighting

2011-05-18T23:37:00.001+01:00

This week so far has been about putting up the ceiling and installing and connecting the lighting.

You need to remember here that as I said way back, "I don't do wood". I previously used laminate flooring to do the roof and walls of my narrowboat. Armed with the success of this I decided early on that I would again use laminate flooring for the ceiling. In my previous NB I used it crosswise.

Like this

But the design I want to use on the widebeam is like this.

With the use of a very realistic textured oak effect laminate this is how its turned out.

It looks very real

Of course flooring laminate isn't designed to be fixed to a ceiling. The main problem is getting it to stay in place and getting it all to click together so it has to be done one strip at a time waiting for the adhesive to go off before the next strip can be put up. Here is a bit of time lapse of the process.

Double click for full screen

The lighting used is 12v 60 LED warm white GU10 equivalents. These bulbs really are as effective as the 50w halogen originals, but with less than 1/16th of the current consumption. The lounge area is lit by 12 lights which means the whole area is lit for less power than 1 x 240v 50w halogen bulb.

Tomorrow is going to be a big tidy up day. :-( but mum is coming round so I think she will be deployed on the broom :-)

Metalwork Today

2011-05-11T21:45:00.000+01:00

Makes a change to do some metalwork again.

I got the lids for the stern lockers back form the press works so it was now a case of making up a rim to make the lids self draining but NOT into the lockers. I only stitch welded the frame as I didn't want to distort things too much as the lids are a snug fit.

Gas Locker

With Lid

Port locker

With Lid

The white line is sealer and is in place of full welding.

I have also started rubbing down the primer ready for another coat to bring in the areas I have damaged by welding then it will be on to undercoat and top coat for this area.

Electricals

2011-05-11T08:31:00.001+01:00

Another few days of going background stuff. I have now wired up all the senders for liquid levels and wired up the helm switches for things like nav lights, tunnel lights, pump out pump, deck lighting, horn. The horn and tunnel lights are served by a rely each as the distance from the switch will cause a voltage drop. The power for these heavier items will come from the heavy cable the runs the length of the boat which will charge the bow thruster batteries.

I have also set about putting the first of the ceiling lining up, but it is a 3 person job. I'll show more on this if my plan works, if not it will be back to the drawing board.

Back In The Saddle + Knee Update

2011-05-06T20:17:00.000+01:00

I spoke to my other neighbor today. She said she heard the explosion as well, in fact she said she felt it as well.

Its been a little de-motivating to be honest, but on the upside its pretty much agreed that I was very lucky not to have been injured. I agree.

I decided to console myself with setting out the instrument and control panel and the steering pump. This is the rough draft.

I have also drawn up and sent of for pressing the lids that will cover the lockers on the stern. Hopefully I will get them next week. I have a canopy maker coming over on Monday to start templating for the stern pram hood.

Finally the knee. I've had a long term injury to my knee from a torn cruciate ligament. For 20 + years it has been a dull ache, which from time to time flares up especially after skiing.

Well apart form having a sizable dent in my knee cap and a very large bruise my knee actually feels better. So hopefully when the bruising and swelling goes down it might be mended. Fingers crossed.

Day After

2011-05-04T22:33:00.000+01:00

I spent most of today cleaning up the mess from yesterdays incident. I removed the batteries, fortunately the battery box contained the acid spill and fortunately also seems most of the explosion damage. I was expecting to find acid damage everywhere but seems I have been lucky in that respect.

Once the batteries were removed I used a wetvac to suck out the now naturalized acid and then because the box was put in before the engine I had to cut it up to get it out. The new one going in will require the deck drains to be cut and re-welded at a later stage.

Once the solid debris was removed I sprayed a solution of soda around to kill of any acid, then throughly washed out the bilge and engine bay and anywhere I thought the acid might have reached. All this took about 5 hours. This is how the damage looks today.

The Batteries

Battery box

This is a metal bracket through which the
restraining straps pass. Both are ripped

This piece of angle was a right angle &
the other strap bracket

The shunt

Where the power dill hit

Judging from a lot of the comments I've had from other sources I am lucky I didn't suffer any personal injury. I have heard some horrible tails. In hindsight I think I was lucky.

On a positive note. The massive whack I gave my knee yesterday seems to have done some good. I have had a long term problem with it. Time will tell!

Shit Happens

2011-05-03T21:38:00.001+01:00

Not normally would I post negative things, mainly because its mostly small stuff that happens all the time and it don't make good reading, but today is different.

Over the weekend we were away when we got home yesterday the weekend winds had destroyed my canopy. So this morning's first job was to get that back up. Not so difficult until I slipped an whacked my knee so now that is all swollen up and very painful.

It gets worse.............

I was grinding on deck with deck boards down, all of a sudden a massive explosion, lots of misty smoke and a burning in my eyes nose and throat. Immediately I realised the batteries that were under where I was working was the reason. I grabbed the hose and went in with it running just in case there was a fire, but fortunately not.

So this is the result.

The list so far is 6 wrecked traction batteries, 1 destroyed shunt, battery box has been blown apart and on the lid was my almost new power drill. When the lid blew off it must have hit the drill on the underside of the deck metalwork, because this is what it looks like now.

It looks like its been run over by a truck

So that was my seriously expensive day.

Skeg

2011-04-26T22:34:00.000+01:00

I had a week off last week so no noticeable progress although some background stuff has been done but not blog worthy.

One of the background jobs was picking up the skeg plate form the local fabrication firm last week. They pressed the curve on it for me. After a heavy chamfering session

I set and clamped the job up

I wanted to do this weld job in one pass hence the heavy chamfering so I switched to 1mm mig wire and cranked up the amperage. It's been a while since I used 1mm and it seemed so think compared to .8mm

The result........... 1 skeg.

I have offered it up just to see what needs to be done next. Upside down welding........ remember, my favorite!

Fuel Lines

2011-04-14T20:56:00.000+01:00

Now I consider myself to be reasonably intelligent, able to read and able to follow verbal instructions. So why couldn't I find the fuel return outlet. Handbook says on the side just under the last injector, despite a lot of head scratching and several phone calls I still couldn't see it. Eventually I got a phone call to say the engine had been modified and this outlet was now routed through a fuel cooler and could be found on the gearbox oil cooler. Sure enough there it was.

So a bit of modification to the fuel return pipe due to the new location and it was connected. Also connected were the engine fuel inlet and the fuel supply and return for the generator.

While I was covered in diesel I decided to refit the heater fuel pump as the way I originally fitted it caused it to resound through the fuel tank. This was very worthwhile and is now barely audible.

On the end of each copper fuel run I soldered an olive where the rubber pipe connects.

The jubilee clip goes on past the olive

It Lives

2011-04-12T19:33:00.001+01:00

I didn't get as much done today as I expected. I took the skeg assy. to an engineering firm for bending. Once its back I'll be able to show you this.

Later on I connected up the calorifier to engine pipes.

Propper insulated calorifier pipe

I filled the engine with 8.5L of oil down the oil hole and 5L antifreeze + 4L of water down the water hole.

Then.................................................

Ignition

More Wiring

2011-04-11T20:56:00.000+01:00

The plan this morning was to get the final bit of ply that form the back wall of the kitchen. To do this meant running some wires, which turned out to be loads of wires.

So today has been all about wiring. On the engine there are 3 multi-plugs and the Vetus kit came with 3 corrisponding wire which in turn connects to the instrument pannel.

I rerouted the original placing for these wires only slightly which made it easy to run the subsequent loom I made up using 25mm flexible conduit. This was run around the engine and out through the bulkhead.

Another smaller loom was made to carry the wires for the pump out pump, the diesel fuel tank sender and the toilet tank sender. This was run in 16mm flexible conduit and followed the same path as the other loom. The heavy start wires were also connected.

The thick black and red wires go off to the bow thruster batteries.

Once the engine loom was run I couldn't help connecting it up. It all lit up and the warning beeper went off. I shan't be able to ignore that! So I just had to flick the ignition key and it turned over. Enough of that for now though as it needs oil, coolant and the diesel supply connected.

The ply still needs to be fitted, Oh well.

It's A 'Prop'per Boat Now

2011-04-06T21:59:00.001+01:00

I have done some more wiring to connect the start battery and alternator to the bow-thruster battery. These 2 batteries will be charged by the main alternator and the other alternator will be dedicated to the domestic batteries. This arrangement saves the need for a split charge system.

This afternoon was the more interesting bit of the day. I finally got the cap head bolts to mount the Bullflex coupling to the adaptor that marries to the gearbox flange. This is a very strange setup. There are 4 x 7/16 UNF bolts and 2 M10. Most peculiar! Once mounted I offered up the drive shaft measured it up and cut it to length, Once that was done I temporally mounted the prop.

Water lubricated bearing will need connecting to a
water supply that will supply 45L per hour

21 x 16 RH

I shan't be leaving the prop on as there are "apparently" a few freelance metal collectors around.

My friend Damien came over this evening and put some plugs on my Cat5e cables. These are for the inverter. One cable is is for the PC interface and the other is for the remote control.

Since installing and wiring up the inverter the other day it has been powered up charging the batteries. It feels like the boat has life now.

All Powered Up

2011-04-04T20:57:00.001+01:00

On Friday a box full of cables, big isolators and fuses arrived. All the cables had been made up as I requested with soldered and crimped ring terminals. As much as I wanted to play at the weekend I resisted.

Today was wiring up day. I connected up the 6 x 2v battery cells, run the 50mm² negative cable from the batteries to the shunt, then 2 x 25mm² cables to the inverter, run the 50mm² positive cable from the battery to the 400amp fuse, then a 50mm² on to the the 600amp isolator then 2 x 25mm² cables to the inverter. From the domestic alternator to the inverter I ran 1 x 25mm² positive and negative cable, and to the 12v domestic fuse board I connected the already installed 80amp supply cable to the inverter.

The isolator will be fixed in place at a later stage

Also connected were the trickle charge to the start battery, the sensing wires for the battery voltage and temperature. The sensing wires feed information to the charger side of the inverter to optimise the battery charging.

I connected the AC in, AC1 out and AC2 out. The inverter has to be switched on to manage the 240v. The AC comes in and is given straight out to the fuse board via AC1. Only when the shore power or indeed the generator are providing power then AC2 is fed. This is so something like A/C or in my case an immersion heater can be run. If the AC in is cut the inverter switches over and AC2 is dropped to save battery and drop non essential systems. I also wired up the immersion heater.

Cover off. White wire is Cat 5 for the PC interface

All covered and tidied up and

Additional wiring is also in and ready for a Victron battery monitor and a Victron remote control panel for the inverter. All that needs to be put in will be the cables for the solar panel when I decide what I am going for.

Stern Tube

2011-03-31T18:02:00.000+01:00

Happy that the drive shaft was perfectly in line and the engine was set square I welded in the engine mounts. This was pretty straight forward once I wriggled into position to see what I was doing.

Next job was to weld in the stern tube. This is a bit tricky and its easy to get wrong if you don't understand the forces involved when you weld 2 pieces of metal together. What happens is at the spot of the welding there is a small but none the less significant distortion, first expansion, then contraction. This would be fine and would cancel its self out if no additional metal was put in, but thats exactly what happens when you weld, you add metal. This small amount of local distortion can have a big effect on something even as short as the stern tube which is about 250mm long.

To counter this distortion its vital that the job is set up with a number of strong tack welds and that the shaft is checked after each one. The first few are the worst, but as more are added the movement becomes less. Its also important that the tacks are done in opposite sides, a but like when you do wheels up on a car. Once a reasonable amount of tack welds are in place longer stitch welds can be applied.

Another factor that needed consideration was that the cutlass bearing is a rubber / plastic compound and therefore would melt if too much heat was applied. To counter this each weld was quenched immediately.

It is also very important to ensure that the drive shaft still turns easily before proceeding with the next weld. Its a slow gentle process but its the only way to do it. If the weld was just blatted in all sorts of nasty things could happen.

Once I was happy with the positioning of the stern tube I removed the drive shaft and the cutlass bearing, and set to with welding it all properly.

The extra plate seen here was on the hull when I bought it. There was evidence it had been afloat at some point and that these had been welded on to close up the hole for the stern tube. This hole would have been cut as part of the original laser cut kit. I decided it was beneficial to leave these plates on.

Stern Tube with the cutlass bearing removed

Drive Shaft Fitting Time

2011-03-29T21:27:00.001+01:00

I have been waiting for an engineer to fix a date to come and fit the drive train. Despite several calls it was, clear I was getting nowhere so as usual its back to self reliance. I do get fed up with this culture that seems to prevail these days where instead of saying straight out no I don't want the job, or even I can't be bothered, people just string you along in the hope you will get fed up. I never run my business like that. Its a waste of everyones time and effort. Rant over :-)

I never really had any problem with the task. It's simple engineering which I am experienced in. My main concern was doing the work myself and invalidating the warranty. I have sorted this issue now.

So today I picked up my key piece of kit for the job. A turned collar made by a local engineering firm.

The shaft, the collar and the gearbox to flex drive adapter

Here's what the collar does.

The collar centers the shaft on the adapter plate

The fit is a tight one or an "interference fit" to give it its correct term. With that done I was able to to bolt the adapter plate to the gearbox flange and have the shaft now perpendicular to the thrust line.

Although the shaft will have a flexible coupling its important that the shaft is set without relying on the flex to take up any inaccuracies. With the shaft set right "solid" the flex coupling will work a lot better and a lot less hard.

This is the stern tube

I had done my calculations when I made the engine mounts and provisionally adjusted the engine mounts I had no idea I had got it so near.

See the tiny gap at the bottom?

I put two bolts in the top at 10 and 2 o'clock only finger tight this was how near my calcs were. Don't you just love trig?

A few turns down on the front engine mounts and this gap closed up and a third bolt was put in finger tight at 6 o'clock. I then rotated it by hand to feel for any tight spots, but all was smooth.

All that remained was to make sure the engine was set square on the engine mounts and the shaft was central to the boat.

Starboard 203mm

Port 203mm

Zoom this picture up

Next job is to weld it all in position.

In preparation for work on the stern tube and later the rudder I had to have a space excavated under the back of the boat. Frank and his trusty mini-digger once again obliged.

Fuel Plumbing Kitchen Sneak Peak

2011-03-24T21:11:00.000Z

The plumbing is done for the fuel system for both the generator and the main engine flows and returns. All that's needed now are the flexible parts that connect to the engine and the genny.

15mm copper tube and compression fittings

I have put in isolators for the main engine flow and return near to the tank, and a more convenient one for the flow only near to the filters. The reason for the isolators is some inspectors like isolators as near to the tank as possible and on the return side my fuel level can be higher than the return inlet so if I need to do something on this line I can stop any back flow. Both engines share the same return pipe. The generator feed isolator will be in the final 8mm copper section

And now a sneak peak at the kitchen layout.

All base units in approximate positions

Central Heating Works

2011-03-21T20:21:00.001Z

I reconnected the radiators, charged the system with water and combined inhibitor / antifreeze, put diesel in the tank connected the temporary battery, hit the switch and after a bit of priming off it went.

I'm pleased to say it all seems to work. After about 40 minutes the radiators were piping hot, and no leaks.

I need to alter a couple of bits of plumbing but otherwise its all systems go. :-)

Quite ironic really that I fired it up on the warmest day of the year so far.

It's Been a Plumbing And Painting Week

2011-03-20T18:13:00.002Z

The internal finish I wanted in the boat was the same as I'd seen on several of the nicer manufacturers boats. It's essentially a painted finish, however after much trialling with different paints I could not reproduce the finish. I asked a couple of the manufacturers using this finish but my emails were not replied to. Not surprising really. Then in a post one of the CWF members told me what it was. It is a 2pac pigmented lacquer. Product Link

While I got on with the plumbing a friend and very good decorator did the painting. This involved 3 coats applied very carefully with a roller. The ply surface first needed hand rubbing down with 320 grit then between coats a 400 grit. This product is primarily formulated for spraying but with care an excellent finish can be achieved with a roller.

This is the soft sheen a 20% gloss produces

and the wood grain is still visible as I wanted

The light colour has made the boat seem even bigger now.

While Matt was painting I got on with some plumbing. All the heating plumbing is now done and as soon as the walls have hardened off I will be putting the radiators back and commissioning the central heating.

Final bit of C/H plumbing

I have put isolators in the heating and water circulation systems so they can be turned off or balanced with the seasons. I have incorporated a filling loop and a pressure vessel as this is a sealed system.

Other plumbing jobs done are the water and exhaust seperator for the generator.

Not easy to see what goes where but it all goes where it should

The self pump out.

This will be used to discharge our black tank where its permissible to do so.

The fuel tank balance pipe.

This is to ensure the fuel is used from both tanks at the same time. The return fuel from the engine will be put back into the port tank and new fuel will be drawn off the starboard ensuring the fuel is being mixed about and used. The new types of diesel coming on stream has a reduced shelf life due to is Bio content we are told. The 2 stop cocks will enable each tank to be isolated for drainage or maintenance purposes and the fuel contents gage will fit in the vertical stub just above the drain off cock.

You Live And Learn

2011-03-08T20:58:00.003Z

Well, I thought I'd made a good and well thought out solution to the switching of my generator and shore power. I even went the extra mile and doubled up on the relays to provide a large (so I thought) redundancy.

I sought advice from a national electrical component tech. dept. explaining what I needed to do and how much current was being handled. Based on this advice I purchased the replays in the previous blog.

On posting the blog one of my readers pointed out that should one of the relays become stuck it would be possible for either to back feed the shore power or permit the genny and the shore power to both be supplying at the same time, which is exactly what is trying to be avoided with the relays.

I posted this on CWF and if you follow the thread you will see there were other concerns. One member went through the relay spec. and spotted that the relays weren't even up to the un-switched load. Combined they amounted to 6 amp, not the 60amp I had discussed with the supplier. 60amp is way over what I needed but remember I had doubled up everything.

It was decided on the forum that what was needed to do the job was a contactor not a relay. Think of it as a industrial heavy duty relay.

So this is what it looks like now..

On the right

The black box on the left is a Galvonic Isolator. I'm not even going to try and explain what this does, but you can see here.

It really goes to show how combined knowledge can prevent a problem later on. I am very grateful to all contributors on this issue.

Power Input Relays

2011-03-03T23:25:00.000Z

The 240v power input to the inverter will be delivered by 2 means. Primary will shore power, the other will be from the on board generator. Some models of inverter will deal with this internally and even combine the power sources. This on the face of it seems fine, accept of course that 240v is AC or alternating current. This means that in the case of UK and European power 50 times a second or 50Hz the current alternates between positive and negative. This is fine if you are lucky enough to get both in sync. Chances are very high that if you do it won't stay that way for long as they will drift slightly, especially the generator. More on AC here.

I am sure if I searched around I could find a device that could combine the power inputs but if I needed that amount of amperage on the boat I would have bought one of the inverters that can do this.

So to avoid the 2 sources being on together a control has to be in place. This could be a selector switch or a relay or even as basic as unplugging the shore power and plugging in the generator. I have chosen a relay because:-

If the shore power is on power flows through the relay when it is in the un-energised position this is the default setting and essentially the relays are doing nothing or switched off.

If the shore power goes out the generator can be switched on buy the remote panel I have. By so doing the relay becomes energised and the contacts inside moved to allow power from the generator only.

Now, if the power should come back on say after a power cut, I don't want this to flow in as well. This is where the auto function of the relays come in to its own. Because the relay is now energised the power now coming from the shore power can only get as far as the relay and so can't 'mix' with the generator power. Once the generator is turned off the relay will revert to closed and let the shore power back in.

Like so

The actual unit

I have used 2 relays in parallel to offer some redundancy and to spread the load although each relay can handle more than is required. I plan to limit the power input 25amps. This is done on the inverter. More on that later.

The finished (accept the Cat 5E) power cupboard.

Consumer Units In

2011-03-02T20:10:00.001Z

After seemingly adding another wire then thinking of something else needing one about half a dozen times I eventually put in all the wires I could think of. I know there will some I've missed but I can still run them safely if I need to.

The electric cupboard is part of the kitchen units. Initially I was going to use standard units and cut them in as required, but the owner of the kitchen manufacturing company is also a keen boater and when he heard it was going into a boat he came and had a look. He said as they manufactured the units they could make them to fit the boat and save me having to hack the units about. I made him a template and this is the result.

Slow Week

2011-02-27T18:38:00.000Z

Its been a slow week this week. Monday was a sad day as it was my friend and neighbor's funeral. There was one bright side to it though. Due to road works he was actually late for it. This is very apt as he never lived his life to the clock at all.

The rest of the week just disappeared really. My wife works at a school so was off for half term so I spent more time with her doing things that needed catching up on really.

I have done a bit on the boat here and there mostly involving preparing to power the boat up. Here is the wiring all coming together ready to be put in to the various fuse boxes and consumer units. There's still a few more wires to come in yet but this is pretty much it.

Yellow is 12v lighting, blue is 240v power black/red is 12v supplies
+ cables for satelite TV dish and CCTV wiring.

I have run a CAT5 cable from the helm to the AV area where the main PC will be.

I have also put in the exhaust and water separator for the generator. This makes a wet exhaust quieter. Seeing as how the genny will be used mostly while we are stationary it makes sense to do this as much for our possible neighbors peace and quiet as well as ours.

Other job done this week was the fitting of the inverter / charger. I decided to put this in the engine room as it keeps the 12v wires as short as possible and should be cooler.

Kitchen Delivered

2011-02-18T18:51:00.000Z

The lorry turned up today with the kitchen. The company I chose is Frinton Kitchen & Bathrooms. The designer and owner Graham was very interested in helping with this unusual project and its design oddities.