Skiving off Again!!

Decided to go up to the Lakes This weekend, just to check it was still there, and to have a few beers in the Old while I'm up there.
Watched the F1 procession on Sunday (Yawn) I've been watching F1 for thirty years, and if this race is owt to go by, I think I'll find something more interesting to watch.
A wagon burst into flames at work.  About the only interesting thing that happened this week!

Festering away

Well, had a great weekend stopping at the New Inn, Clapham, drinking beer and singing songs (badly).  I know I should have been working on the boat because the sun was shining, but it is good to have a couple of days with friends forgetting the rest of the world.

Got back to the boat on Sunday and cleaned up the rear deck.  I had just finished the second coat of primer, when a great dollop of bird $$$$ landed right in the middle!  Got to go to work now, so back to square one next week.

Who knows where the time goes (again)

I cant believe it's a year since I started this blog, and I still haven't got a boat!  I went to see Lau at Bury Met (again) and they are even better than ever.  I never knew that an accordian was a percussion instrument, but if you want to see folk musicians thrashing their instruments within an inch of their lives, then go and see Lau.

The engine bay is now finished (again) and the modified engine mountings and "power bulge" have been painted (again).  Now all I need is to get the engine fitted.

In preparation (anticicpation ?) for the arrival of the front doors, the old doors have been cut off, and the front opened up to allow a 24 inch opening.  I am waiting for the engine to be fitted before fitting rear doors and hatch, just in case it needs to come out again...


I am going away for the weekend to Ingleton somewhere, and hopefully I will have an engine fitted when I return...

Digging deeper.

Well, the solution to the engine problems is to cut a hole in the bottom of the boat, and weld in a 'sump' which drops the floor by about 3". This was done during the week, and my boat now has a power bulge! Look at my nice white paintwork !!!

Too much snow about to do much else....

AAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!!

Friday night, I go to see a band called "session A9" at Bury Met. Brilliant. Four fiddles, a guitar, boran and keyboards. Quite an unusual line-up, but an amazing sound.

Saturday Morning. I've been experimenting with "different" breakfasts, so a good start to the day.

I turn up at the yard, and the crane is currently lifting a boat out of the canal. Good portent perhaps ? Mr engine mans' van is nowhere to be seen. Is the job done?

Disaster snatched from the Jaws of Victory!

The engine is sat on the bottom of the engine room. Literally.

It turns out that the swim is too shallow for anything larger than a 15" prop, so a modified skeg has been put on to lower the driveshaft. The driveshaft is lower than normal in the boat, so the engine mounts were put in lower. However, the engine is now resting on its sump!

To add insult to injury, the engine mount spacing is wrong, and the cooling tank is on the wrong side!

AAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!!

Hanging About...

Turned up at the boat, Saturday morning expecting the engine to be in. Well, it sort of was. I did wonder how Mr Engine man was going to lift the engine in. The first sight on entering the yard was the crane. A bit of overkill I thought, using a fifty tonne crane to lift in a 300kg engine.

Well, the crane. The engine was about two feet above the engine mountings when the crane broke down. So, the engine is going to stay there for the next few days until they fix the crane.

Spent the rest of the day drilling the remaining holes for the skin fittings, 2 Water fillers, one each side of the boat. Three fender eyes either side of the boat, and the Diesel Filler.

The Silly Season.

I have been writing the updates on my PC, but have been unable to upload them because I have had to get a new Internet Dongle thingy. Bloody technology, we never had this trouble when we used pen and paper...

Well, christmas came and went, yawn. For new year I decided to bugger off up to the Lakes. Good food, great beer, great atmosphere. Altogether a brilliant night. It was really odd, with the full moon and all of the snow, it was like daylight at 2 in the morning.

Yes this is 2:40 AM! No long exposure, this was taken on my phone!

And there is NOTHING WRONG WITH CAMPING IN JANUARY you bunch of soft gits! The place is far more peaceful without the hoards of tourists everywhere!

Anyway, returned via salterforth, where the canal was completely frozen over. I know you shouldn't, but you have to laugh at the ducks, trying to land on the ice, skidding, and knocking all the other ducks over! It was a bit like aviary 10 pin bowling!

Talking to the timber yard about this difference between Marine ply and ordinary. The one

thing I didn't know is that marine ply is guaranteed not to have any 'holes'. You know when you cut a piece of plywood, and, when you look at the edge of the cut, there seem to be gaps in the middle layers. Well, you (apparently) will not get these with marine ply.

So I got a few sheets of marine ply, and laid part of the floor at the front of the boat, and built a workbench. I thought, the front of the boat is going to be the last part finished, and it

will be so much easier to work with a decent sturdy workbench. The floorboards will help with clearing up.

I've battened a piece of plywood accross the front door to try and prevent the rain getting in while I'm (still) waiting for proper front doors. It didn't work.

It's January, and the engine has arrived (Yipee!).