All clear ahead

More clearing work this week.  The cabins are now totally cleared of all wiring, lights and switches, carpets etc.  The bathrooms and toilets are suitably stripped down and now there is probably only one more set of grinding for Dave to do to clean off the remaining bits and pieces.

The rest of the time was spent emptying out half a ton of rubbish that had accumulated around the ship while taking everything apart.    The rear deck is now wall to wall rubbish ( I think and 4 skips worth at least).

The stove had dried nicely so it was time to test it.  This time with coal.  It worked a treat.  No smoke, no leaks, no burning paint.  The coal used was smokeless.  The downside was that although it got hot, it did not get as hot as wood.  So even when I tried the kettle on the stove it did not boil.  I think that although it burned coal for over 6 hours (just one small load) it will take many days of heating to get it to a usable temperature for cooking etc.

Finally got the mess (room with stove) cleaned and put some furniture back in.  Now there is a place to eat and drink which is clean and tidy.  And now warm.

Filler thriller

More progress today (but no photos).  The boat had slowly been filling with junk after the strip out work so spent a lot of time removing it to the rear deck.  All electrics now out apart from the bathrooms.

The stove needed some work so the cracks in the top were filled with fireproof cement, then sprayed with black fireproof paint (after rubbing down the old paint).

So not a lot of jobs done but the boat is now significantly tidier.  When Dave has finished the cutting the boat can get a thorough clean.

Fingers crossed that next week the fire can be lit smoke free.  Just got to get some coal first!

No smoke without fire. Or burning paint

Dave had done another good job fitting the chimney although the bolts were not long enough for the flange.  So the chimney will be welded on which will seal it better.   So all that remained was to light the fire.  A few issues occurred.  The first was that the fire itself is very very small so all wood has to be cut into 4 or 5 inch lumps.  It is in fact designed for coal (which I will get in future). The second issue was that the fire is not entirely sealed and the plate on the top leaks smoke until it heats up.  The crack (join) in the plates needs to be cemented (I have some).  But the main issue was that it looks like the paint on the top plate is either old or not heat proof.  So it just bubbled and smoke fumes.  Yuk.  It took 20 mins to clear the boat of smoke and get it safe to stay in.

So work to do on the fire.

The new chimney.

Bolts not quite long enough so will be welded.

oops.  Smoke!

Dinky little fire.  What was interesting was that with even a short burn of a small amount of wood the stove got hot and stayed warm for quite a long time.

Having played for a while (fun but not really work) the second set of cabins was started.  Managed to clear all of the lights, cables and trunking.  Also managed to get the carpets up on one room.  Dusty nightmare.

What was interesting was that even on a cold day the cabins were not cold, especially when there was a light (the work lights) in there.  I am now wondering how much insulation is required down there.

Next weekend will be spent completing the cabins (carpets, final wall fittings).

With most of Dave's work done it was time to find some new jobs.  The hatch in the radio room appears to be wooden and so it needs to be taken out and replaced.  The second job was the wheelhouse port holes.  For some reason the front of the ship side is missing 3.  But there are two identical portholes behind the engine room ait vents almost useless (4/5ths blocked).  So those will be removed as will the only square hole on the rear (which overlooks the foghorn supports!).  That will mean the ship will have a full set on the front and the rear one will be replaced with a simple round porthole.

That should keep Dave busy for a while.  Then we will need to think of something really tricky!

Good to be back

One job to achieve today.  The chimney.  Sadly there was no way for this to be done.  The plate upon which the chimney is mounted is held on with quite a few bolts and both the nuts (very large) and blots were rusted.  Even I managed to remove them (which I would not have managed) the bolts would be too far gone to reuse for the chimney.  So another job for Dave.

Talking of which.  Wow.  The amount of cleaning work Dave has done is tremendous.  The walls and ceilings all cleaned of bits of metal, cables, cable trays etc.  It was actually quite odd and the place looked bigger.  So big thanks once more to Dave for his hard work over XMAS.  Its the first time I have been on for a while and it really felt that we had made a leap forward.

So attention was turned to below the main deck and started to strip out one side of the cabins electrical gumpf.  Cables, conduit, lights, switches and plugs nearly all removed and the porthole covers removed from all the cabins.

The flooring (old lino) was removed from the upstairs mess.  Leaving that room now all but ready for rebuild (some minor bits to do).

The other set of cabins will be tackled next weekend.  The cabin flooring needs to be (carefully) removed so as not to damage the bunks and then all the cabins will be ready for insulation.

Which brings me on to my next subject.  Ian and Sue from Onward Mariner have also been busy bees over XMAS and have decided that spray on insulation is the way to go.  They have spoken to three companies and they are looking to do the job over summer (we expect).  The companies are all prepared to do as I had suggested, which is that if they do both boats at once we could get a good discount.  But that gives me (and Ian) a summer target for that stage.  I will need to do some careful calculations to look at the cost (it is truly eye watering) as it would be cheaper to carpet the ship in luxury thick wool carpet than insulate it.  But it is worth doing properly and these guys would sort it all out (soup to nuts as they say).

Hoping to keep the momentum up again this year and really get things moving.  Lots to do so no point dithering.

Pictures from today

I could not remember the maker of the stove so I photographed it today.  Sadly my recollection of it being Jubilee was right which is a problem because I can find no reference to it on the web at all.

The seat in the wheel house was removed.  It was attached to a wall so no way to save it if the insulation is to be applied in here.

Dave has now all but removed the cooking area (which was full of concrete) metal frame.   Good enough for the concrete floor to be put on.

The whole of the entrance corridor has been cleaned of all surplus metal and boxes.  Good job.

Flooring in the mess now dug up.  Need to think what to do with flooring.  Dont really want to concrete so maybe insulation and then wood flooring will do the job.

All porthole covers removed from one side of the cabins.

A huge amount of wiring and conduit removed.

A friend raised a good point the other day.  How will I get the furniture in.  Good point.  Looks like anything not flat pack (sofas) etc will not go through the narrow ship doors.  So some custom furniture is likely to be needed.  

Stove

Happy New Year all!

This year I hope to make some real progress.  Still lots to achieve but looking back over the last year I can see how much has already been done.  The bulk of the work is still to do.

But my first job of the year is going to be to fit the chimney and try out the stove.  May as well do this now as if it works ok we will have a warm room and route to ridding myself of tons of wood.

The main jobs to complete are

1) Complete the strip out:

• Carpets from the cabins (rotting)
• The porthole wood coverings
• All the electrics from below deck and remaining parts of the ship
• The cabling up to and in the light itself
• The plumbing (pipes)
• The main feed wires from the generator room

2) There is still some structural bits to sort

• The sea intake values need to be sealed
• The anodes still to fit (in progress)
• Acquire and fit portholes
• The hatch in radio room needs to be examined (what is it) and removed/replaced

3) Then there is some restoration to do

• The portholes all need to have their paint removed
• Some doors need restoration to make the look better and work smoothly

4) Then some engineering work is required

• Plan the electrics (systems)
• Plan the plumbing (piping requirements and tanks)
• Plan the heating (boiler location, radiators and pipe runs)

5) Then the rebuild can start

• Plan the wiring runs
• Plan the plumbing pipe runs
• Fit the new wall woodwork
• Fit the cable and piping (where necessary) conduits (and cover for now)
• Prepare all walls, ceilings and hull for insulation

6) Insulate ship (huge job to do here)

Once the ship is insulated it will then be a fit out

7) Fit tanks, new ballast pumps and systems

8) Run all cables and piping

9) Fit ply walling (where appropriate)

10) Fit the plasterboard (where appropriate)

11) Fit electrics and lighting

12) Fit heating boiler and systems

13) Fit bathrooms and toilets

14) Fit kitchen

15) Decorate and furnish

17)  There will be then some further engineering work to do

• Fit out front bedroom and ensuite (will do this last as it has separate access for now)
• Cut door from chain room to front bedroom
• Fit out new floors in chain room
• Convert chain room to usable space

So a lot of work to do still.  Then start to worry about the outside and the repaint.

Busy times ahead.