Room no more

Dave has been busy cutting and grinding and this morning was the first time I have been able to meet and inspect the work to date.  That's a disadvantage of having Dave.  I rely on him and trust him and so I rarely go look at what he is up to as I know he will be beating expectations.   Which he has done yet again.

The room is gone.

What is left are the two supports which run from ceiling, through the floor and down to the bottom of the ship.  They are perfectly placed to support the weight above on deck which would have been the chain runners.  They are also perfectly placed to ensure that now I have removed the room there is no space left for a bed.  Doh! 

Lesson 1.  This is a tape measure.  Invented to enable people to assess distances accurately before making expensive decisions.  I have 5 of them.

Own 5:  used 0

But all is not lost.  I would have taken that room out anyway (honest).  Dave is off to talk to Elliot the marine surveyor.  There is no real need for these supports anymore as we are not pulling literally tons of chain weight across the deck above anymore.  But we will get an official view.  If they can go, problem solved.  if not, then I will need to rethink the ship layout.  This time using a tape measure.

The second piece of fun is now to decide whether to cut through the back wall into the small 'room' behind which is only accessible from the deck via a small round hatch.  It contains the main tubes through which the chain ran.  Its useless space as is because the access is so hard from the top.  But I will need to look into this.

The lockers and shelving have gone too.

The steel from the room cutting is out on deck now.  You can see the frame and pulley system Dave has constructed to do the job.   Lots of scrap (more) to deal with.

Extra jobs have now been commissioned too.  Dave is going to fit the remaining two large opening portholes into the kitchen.  The current ones provide good light but do not open which is a shame.  So adding two extra ones will really help light the place and provide some much needed air into that space.  The final job is to remove one of the air vents into what was the battery room.  The leak during extreme rain was such that I do not want to risk uncontrolled air intake and water into the ship.  I appreciate it is a rare occasion but had that occurred post fit out the room and fittings would have been ruined.

So lots of progress but sadly none of it down to me.  Big thanks to Dave again for his efforts!