Rear Deck Boards

A while back I made some templates for the back decks from the temporary working decks I've had since 6th July 2010

I took these to a local firm that make ply lining for vans.  The have a couple of CNC router decks.  From these templates they digitised then cut the Wisadeck panels.  This board is difficult to cut as it splinters very easily if cut with a saw.   

The router cuts a nice clean square edge and the curve is nice and continious.  The edges were then beautiflly painted and sealed by SWMBO.

Shhh!

The hose arrived for the generator exhaust modification, but before I could fit it I had to wizz of to London to pick up the steps that DW Wood Molding made for me.

Here's a sneak peek.  Warning its naked!

The steel insert is just plain steel template
I have 24 of them being chrome plated

Once I was back I put the new bit of wet exhaust pipe and silencer in.

I didn't think this little box would do much but it did.

                                    Before                                                          After

I don't know much about dB, but I do know the scale is a logarithmic one and that its understood that an increase somewhere between 6dB and 10dB is perceived by most listeners as "double" the volume.

So on basic maths the genny is now about 2½ quieter.

Canopy Modifications

Sam returned today with the modified canopy.

I had the rear window and the helm window modified so they can be zipped out.

Somethings Wrong Here

If you've read this blog a while you'll know that I don't do wood.

Well, look at this, I've successfully made something out of wood!

What is it?

It's one of these:-

On a woody theme.  The other day I got the dressing ferrels for the mushroom vents .  Here they are all varnished up and ready to fit.

Other jobs done today.  Another coat of paint in the water tank, permanent fixing of the domestic battery to inverter isolator, made a start on re-routing the generator exhaust (2m of 40mm wet exhaust at the local marina with discount £65.00 + £5.00 on fuel for the round trip. On line, £25 delivered tomorrow!)  I can wait a day. I've also re-plumbed the water inlet for the generator.

Ranked No. 22

I joined UK Waterways web ring type ting last week. I'm really pleased that I'm in at No. 22. Thanks everyone for reading.

Preperations

Preparations have started.

Mindful of the impact that hedge timing would have on nesting birds I have left getting the lane access trimmed back to the last possible moment.  2 weeks to go and I think any later would be detrimental to the local wildlife.  Hopefully this hasn't upset the Pheasants, Partridges, Rabbits and Muntjac Deer that live in the local scrub as well as the multitude of other bird species and feral pus cats, one of which is getting very curious of late and is ripe for adoption.

So this morning the hedge trimmer arrived, all 500hp of tractor and cutter.

This took an 8' lane to 14' of paint scraping free access for the cranes and truck.  

He managed to break some previous dodgy welding repair work on the cutter head before I re-welded it so he could finish the job.

Talking to the driver he told me this tractor has a GPS system on it that can auto pilot the tractor to an accuracy of 50mm (2") when he is spraying, plowing, etc. If you look on the top of the cab you can see a yellow dome.  That's the GPS receiver.  Not only that but it logs where & what the tractor has done so that next time its on the same area it can suggest a better way of doing the task in hand. £15,000 GPS system makes a £100 TomTom look like the bargain of the century considering what th at can do.

The last time this was trimmed was 2 1/2 years ago.  Its amazing how much growth happens in that time.

Gunwale Gritting

I started the day buy sweeping off the excess grit.  This needed to go into the oven to dry out ready for the starboard side to be gritted.

This is how it looked before painting.

After I masked up and gritted the starboard this had given time for the damp of the day to burn off so I could paint the port side.

This really drunk some paint I can tell you.  Hopefully all this gritting will ensure I never slip off the gunwales.  Fingers crossed hey?