Snap

I was doing some research on lightships tonight and found LV15.  I thought all trinity ones were different to mine but LV15 looks to be identical in every way other than the room over the windlass (which I know to have  been a later addition to Gannet).  Looks to be moored in Essex.  I have contacted them to try and get a visit.

I will keep you all in the loop!

Hatch bolts

Dave had done a fine job last week fixing some sliding bolts to the emergency hatches on the cabins.  He also managed to cut out a good chunk of the bilge pump pipes from the kitchen.  This has been a big help to open up that area to reuse for cupboards etc.

The day's work consisted of clearing out the remainder of the main deck's wiring and pulling through to the engine room.   Also managed to clear the mess of the remaining furniture.

Not a lot to report despite a hard day's work.  Just more stripping out does not make an interesting blog update.  But we now have two rooms cleaned and awaiting Dave to remove all outstanding metal work.

That will leave three rooms and the corridors to clean before I can finally start the rebuild.

Fuse box fun

Had a good time on the boat today removing the fuse boxes.  The large grey old style fuse boxes were in excellent condition but had to go.  They were ugly and place in the most inappropriate places.    The other issue was that they had wired live and neutral the wrong way around.  This did not matter as all connections had fuses on both.  But still not good.  The boxes were fiddly to remove but came out ok.  Now we are just left with the main feeder cabling which is so thick it will need to be cut to remove.

Dave had done an excellent job at removing the metal base of the cooking area.   However there was yet more concrete underneath so that will need to be broken down and removed before he can clean off the remaining metal.  That's a saturday job though due to noise.

Cutting

A busy day on the boat yesterday.   The strip out had started to stall as the remaining wiring and bits that need to be removed were still in use.  So I took the plunge and headed for screw fix.  With a handful of new extension cables and half a dozen site lights I set out a new ship wide temporary lighting scheme.  I cannot recommend these lights more highly.  They are ideal for the purpose.   Firstly, they are cheap.  The 120w version (good for lighting a room) costs less than a tenner.  The 400W version costs £11 and the twin lights on tripod stand costs around £26.  They are excellent value for money.  The second up side of these is that they get really hot.  Not good in summer but they make a big difference to the heating of the boat.  Heat and light in one cheap solution.

With the ship lights now sorted the remain cable came out quickly.  Now all but the 3 main consumer unit feed cables are out and clear.  Next job will be to physically remove the old lights and consumer units.   With a new set of cable cutters which I bought a month ago for the data centre strip out it was fast work.  Blisters and hacking with normal wire cutters used to take about 30 secs to a min to cut through.  These new cutters cut through the wire like scissors through string.  Anyone doing boat work should get some of these.

With all the wire now out the remaining rooms can be stripped down pronto.  It will soon be time to start planning the build.