Tom and Bex's Blog 2011

Managed to finally get the water tank to fit on Friday after cutting away some insulation from under the well deck and using the lowest profile 1/2" fitting I could find for the breather pipe:
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Also got a final coat of paint in boatman's cabin including behind weed hatch. Saturday was spe...

As can be seen from previous entry Diesel and Dust is now back on hard standing.

Work this weekend concentrated on cleaning up as much as possible including sweeping down the outside of the boat and painting the boatman's cabin. After cleaning the rust was treated in the boatman's cabin on Saturday and after masking up was sprayed with 2 coats of red oxide - not easy working is such a small confined space while spraying and getting behind the new weed hatch was very difficult and may need touching up by hand next week as well as a final coat next week.
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Sheet of celotex was cut to form a temporary door to keep the engine room from getting covered in a red mist!
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Making a base for the water tank to go on all cut by hand as forgot my power saw, its hard work cutting 18mm ply by hand! Base plate was uneven at the front so needed careful positioning of battens to make sure ply base was evenly supported.
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Water tank was a very tight fit - particularly as I had insulated under the front deck!
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Unfortunately it was a bit too tight and couldn't get the vent pipe fitting on so water tank will have to wait until next week since it was already gone 8pm and still had to drive back to Somerset. New fitting was also much taller so will have to resort back to original and even then the insulation needs "adjusting" to get it to fit!
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All in all not a bad weekends work and hopefully next weekend will go well.

All the welding has now been finished by Debdale Wharf and Diesel & Dust is back on the hard standing again. It was nice to be round the back again with less distractions and feels easier to work round there without disturbing people and less coming and going to distract you!
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The work they have done is filling some of the deeper pits with weld, plating the front hull from well deck drains back on both sides:
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Repair the front bulkhead and drainage channel in both front lockers where it had rusted through:
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Repair to inside:
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Fit new welded in chimney collar at the front as the cast ones are prone to leaking:
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Replace the bottom of the door frame for the side hatch:
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Repair hole in boatman's cabin roof where the drainage channel is and had rusted through. Very good and nearly invisible repair!
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New rear doors and sliding hatch and new rear chimney collar:
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Extend weed hatch up to meet back deck and to create new lifting hatch in back deck with drainage channels:
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New anodes fitted front and back:
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New stern gear and rudder shaft with rudder welded back on and extended slightly - new top and bottom rudder bearings:
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Prop has now been refitted and new stern gland, rear prop shaft, bearings etc. as shown in previous entry.

More photos and account of work completed this weekend to follow...

Back to work on the boat again so soon which is nice. Just wish I could have every weekend off but don't think work would allow it! Glad to see work Debdale are progressing well with the work they are doing for us.

Started on Friday evening by painting a first coat of blacking in water tank space under front deck. It's a very tight space to b...

A very quiet New Year this year for us - a bit different to our usual Hogmanay celebrations in Scotland!

Not many photos this time as the camera was broken.

We arrived late afternoon New Year's Eve having driven up in the camper and the van so we could have the luxury and heating of the camper and leave it up there until the boat was a bit more...