Hard Labour

Getting the boat to the stage where one can start to rebuild and put things in is just damn hard work.  every single thing on the boat is either big or heavy or big and heavy.  I took Dave through the jobs I needed him to do.  That is remove the baths and various bits and pieces still attached to walls, free up the last cabin escape hatch and remove the damaged railings.  I await his quote.

The boat still leans.  No idea what is causing it.  I am sure this is going to wind me up forever.

Two main jobs today.  The first was to get the inspection hatch off one of the water tanks.  I had planned to open up all of them but after I got to the first nut and tried to move it I realised as with everything else this was going to be a long job.  The nuts (see the photos) are numerous and large and done up very tight in a confined space.  I used a monkey wrench type thing to do the job with a bit of metal pipe added to the handle to give me more leverage.  Even then I needed all my body weight (what's left of it these days) behind it to even move each nut.  Each one took about 10 mins to shift.  It was like a full weights work out at the gym.

I managed to break both wrenches but not before the last nut came off.  They simply could not take the strain.

With the tank hatch off it was time for an inspection.  I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised.  The tank was in excellent condition and appears to be coated in similar paint to the bilges.  I have no idea if this is good from a drinking water regulations perspective (I doubt it).  But the tanks are mint.  A little bit of limescale and some rust from the down pipe used to take out the water.

The second job of the day (I could not face another tank) was the battery room.  I wanted to remove all the shelves and the batteries.  Oh my god.  No kidding.  Each battery on the top shelf seemed about twice the weight of a standard car battery.  Luckily there were only 10 of them on the top shelf at head height.  I found new ways to hurt myself.  The shelves are incredible.  There is lesser wood holding up most houses and it appears to be all properly jointed solid oak!  These guys must have had so much money.

3 out of 4 of the shelves were dismantled and it took about 4 hours to accomplish.  One more go next trip will see the room cleared.  Then I can start to plan the new electrics and start to move the cabling.  I am keeping the batteries for now as even if I replace the charges the cost of batteries is so high that I will try and reuse if I can.

I managed to get the cables out from the batteries.  This will mean I can start to thin out the cables in that area and strip back to the battery chargers.  Its a start.

The boat will need certain jobs to be done in a certain order.   I need to insulate the boat as it will be hopelessly hot in summer and cold in winter.  To do this I will need to remove all walling and ceilings.  This is not as bad as it sounds but before I can get the walls spray insulated I need to get the portholes sorted.

So roughly speaking

1) Remove walls
2) Cut out the portholes that are welded.
3) Get new portholes put in place
4) Spray insulate the walls and ceilings
5) Fit the plumbing/heating and first fit electrics
6) Fit networking
7) Fit the new ceilings and walls
8) Fit the new lights and radiators

Thats a rough plan.  Still lots to do before I can even start part 4.  I need all the rooms sorted and ready before I even start the insulation or I will need to have many trips.

So probably a month or more of removing before I start the above list.