On Schedule !

Week 2

This DIY boat building idea is a lot more complicated than it looks at first glance. We'd bargained for the odd bit of plumbing, but not the metal work that looks like going with it. We've now had the Certificate of Compliance from Reeves and find that we need a CIN Number. This is obtained from the RYA. However, the CIN number can't realistically be obtained until the boat is substantially complete as the application form for the number requires us to indicate the first date that the completed boat is likely to be sold.

We hadn't envisaged any difficulties with the water tank. We expected it to be installed when we got the boat, leaving us to install the supply within the cabin. It may be different with a steel tank but it is our fault for not checking with the builder. As if this wasn't enough, there's all different fitting sizes, even if we only consider the outlet from the tank. The outlet is 1¼ inch BSP, which needs to be converted to a 22mm connection for the stop cock and, through a 'T' junction, to the accumulator. The other leg of the 'T' junction needs to be 15mm for something that I think is called a D switch and is followed by the water pump. And that's only the cold water. Wait until we start looking at the hot water and the central heating, which neatly brings us round to the gas boiler.

Our initial plan was to locate the gas boiler somewhere within the engine room. But then we met our surveyor and he politely reminded us that we needed a minimum of ½ metre between the vent and any openings into the cabin. With a four feet engine room and a 2½ feet hatch, it isn't possible to get the required ½ metre clearance here. With everything already shoe-horned into the cabin, it looks as though we'll either have to sleep with the boiler or spend our evening watching it instead of the television. However, we've still got a few days before we have to make a decision, if only we can find to do just that.

Week 2 looked like being a quiet week, boat work wise. Try as we might to arrange visits to the boat, we just didn't seem to be able to. We'd other plans for a number of days and we had to go and buy the deck fittings associated with the water tank so that we knew what size holes we needed to make in time to actually make those holes before the painter started work.

We were already behind schedule, so to speak, by Monday evening. We had hoped to complete most of our other tasks at the beginning of the week, leaving us free to go shopping on the Wednesday and, probably go to the boat on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. However, one of Monday's jobs took half a day longer than anticipated. This meant that, whilst we might still be able to go shopping on Wednesday, Thursday was now likely to be spent playing catch up on the jobs we'd intended to do on Monday. With the earlier sunset after the autumn clock changing now with us, unless we could get a full day's work on the boat, it was uneconomic to make the eighteen mile journey each way. So Friday looked like the first day we'd get there. In the meantime, if we had any spare time we could see what we could do at home to advance the fit out.

The best laid plans, . . . etc. We'd finally cleared the decks of other things so that we could go to the boat on Thursday. We even woke (extra) early. Unfortunately, that didn't help, as we needed a brief visit to shops before we could leave. By the time we'd got the shopping back home and re-sized some of the wood therefrom, on the bandsaw, it was after 10.30am before we finally arrived at the boat. Behind Schedule, yet again!

Fortunately a couple of friends passed by and were quickly roped into helping us. We'd bought a cheap portable work bench (aka WorkMate) and that had to be assembled. The just purchased fluorescent light fittings also had to be installed, if we were to be able to carry on working after daylight faded. The four of us quickly settled down to these jobs, although neither was completed that quickly. We were very grateful to our two friends for being there when they were needed, otherwise these jobs would have taken much longer.

With these two tasks out of the way, we could actually start working on the boat. There was another job to do before our friends departed. We had to get some felt under the water tank. We pondered how best to achieve this, given that we weren't able to either easily remove the tank from under the fore deck or to lift it from the sides or the rear. We managed to lift the front corner on one side and get a couple of wooden spacers partially underneath the tank. We then repeated the exercise with the other side, our intention being to cut the felt into three pieces, put a piece under the middle of the tank, move the spacers from one end into the middle and then put felt under that end, repeating the exercise on the other end afterwards. We'd remove the spacers once the felt was under the tank and push the tank to the front of the boat. Job Done.

We were just about to cut the felt when another, more learned colleague went by and we asked him if he had any bright ideas. We completely change tack as a result of his response. We removed the spacers from each end so that the tank was resting on the boat floor again. We pushed the tank as far forward as it would go. Then we laid the felt onto the boat floor behind the tank - i.e. between the tank and the cabin. We then managed to lift the tank just enough to pull the edge on to the felt. This enabled us to slide the tank over the felt towards the cabin. Once we had the tank on as much of the felt as we were able, we folded the felt upwards, over the rear wall of the tank and, using both feet pressing on the tank through the felt, managed to slide both tank and felt towards the front of the boat. We then pulled the tank (only) back towards the cabin, folded the felt up again and slid both tank and felt forward again. By repeating this process several times we were finally able to get the felt as far forward as possible. We can now slide the tank in and out on the felt, which is a good job because we still have to add the couplings for inlet, outlet and breather to the tank.

We needed a hacksaw to fit the inlet coupling as there isn't quite enough space between top of tank and the under side of the fore deck to fit the elbow that we need to use. We also need to change the outlet fitting. We'd bought what we thought was an 1¼" fitting but, when we offered it up to the tank, found that we'd been given an 1½" fitting, so we need to take the fitting back and exchange it. We'd gone as far as we could with the tank for the time being and our friends had run out of time and needed to leave us. This gave us an excuse to stop for a cup of tea before we bade them farewell and turn our attention to the next task.

The bow thruster locker was open to the elements and susceptible to the weather - i.e. it fills with water when it rains! A piece of 28mm thick pine had been one of the shopping list items earlier in the day and it was cut to size to fit the top of the locker. A couple of blocks were fitted on the underside to stop the cover from moving around too much if the boat got knocked. The cover will be on the receiving end of some varnish when we open tin to start on the plywood lining panels. Until then, the cover stays inside the boat.

The outside temperature seemed to drop rather quickly and was considerably less than the previous day and we soon found it rather cold outside. Fortunately, the rest of the day's work was inside - we'd made sure of that! We'd managed to borrow a portable gas heater and this soon warmed the cabin. If this is an example of the efficiency of the spray foam insulation we shouldn't have too many problems with keeping warm once we've finished the fitting out.

Our next job was to replace some of the slightly over enthusiastically removed excesses of the original spray foam. Our efforts had revealed the metal work in one or two places and this had to be covered again if we were to avoid cold spots and condensation once the lining was installed. We had several attempts at re-spraying as we seemed to notice somewhere else that needed spraying just after we'd cleaned up each time!

The final job of the day was to cut the strips of wood that would be force fitted between the roof battens to support the 12 volt wiring that had to be installed before the lining panels could be fitted. The distance between the battens had to be measured before each strip was cut. Even with two of us working at it, we still took over two hours for this job. But then, there were nearly eighty strips to install and we even found a couple of more locations where we would need to replace some missing foam. A very quick clear up, a change of clothes and it was off to the pub, over the road, for a bite to eat and the weekly quiz.

Our next visit was just two days later when, for a number of reasons, we only managed to do about two hours work. late in the day. We started by trimming back the recently applied insulation - boy, does that stuff expand as it dries! We also applied some more foam to the places that we'd missed previously and, would you believe, after we'd cleaned up again, we found some more places to do!

While this was going on we were able to trim the inlet pipe on the water tank to allow the required elbow to be fitted. With many of the hacksaw blades normally found in the toolbox having been used (and broken) when originally trimming the insulation, there were just two left with which to attack the tank. We don't know if we had a duff bunch of blades or whether stainless steel eats blades, but both blades seemed to lose their teeth faster than the male member of our team loses hair - and that's quite fast! Nevertheless and somewhat surprisingly given that the tank is under the fore deck, we managed to cut about 6mm off the filler and end up with a level rather than slanted cut.

We were then able to turn our attention to the wire runs. We had no pre-conceived ideas on where to start or how to go about it. We knew the supply and switch panel would be on the port side of the engine room and that all of the wiring would radiate from there. We also knew how the wire would be supported down the length of the boat, but more than that, we hadn't given any thought to.

Our first (failed) attempt was to decide where the engine room lights would go and mark these positions on the insulation. We decided that we'd need to take some measurements to help us and this was where the fun started. We'd allowed 6ft for the engine room when we were originally planning the boat. However, once we realised that we hadn't got space for that if we wanted to be able to have more than one chair in the saloon, we checked with Reeves on the minimum amount of space that we'd need for the engine. We were assured that 4ft was adequate and we planned the boat layout - including window and hatch positions - around this. We found that the engine room was nearer 4ft 6ins when we measured up for the lights. Help!

Out came the tape measure. We marked every foot of the boat on the centre of the floor. This confirmed that we had a potential problem. We couldn't move the windows / hatches so we'd have to re-think some of the spacings. The lengths of the engine room and the bedroom were fixed - the latter because we needed a 6ft 6ins long bed. We could steal three inches from the wardrobe at the foot of the bed and we also reckon that we can reclaim the remaining space partly from the bathroom and partly from the galley.

With our revised spacings agreed, we could be a bit more adventurous with the measurement marks on the floor. Within a few minutes all the boundaries were marked and then panic set in. There isn't space for the bed there! Oh yes there was, when we measured it again, the space just looks very small when looked at, from above, as two marks on the floor. Panic over - at least for the time being.

The shape of the boat was something else that we hadn't taken into account when we designed the layout. The shape of the swim - the lower part of the rear of the hull that is adjusted so that the propeller is under the hull - means that the very foot of the bed may need to be curved slightly. This is a first impression. It is possible that the height of the bed off the floor might be enough to avoid the need for the non-standard shape. We'll need to investigate further in due course.

We end both our day's visit and the second week of the fit out by marking the rough position of all the lights, switches and sockets on the insulation. Our next job is to start to run the wiring and we plan to tackle that during week three.

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