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Building a boat from scratch..(Sleepy Hollow) by amateur = me

Entries in this blog

Tried to do some work...

Me and Martha (the dog) went to do some work on Casper. Again it was too nice to work but I did. Noticed that the rod grip on the welder had broken, my dad came to help out. Welding the diesel tank in place by holding the rod to the handle by hand to make the connection. I now have the tank in position with the filler pipe welded and poking out of the gunwale, haven't yet welded the thread on the top for the filler cap. We gave up welding at this point, need to fix the welder first. I did man
casper ghost

casper ghost

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Not much work going on...

Well, it's the easter holidays and having my daughter to entertain and my brother's dog to look after I haven't got much work done. I did weld up the diesel filler cap and the adaptor for the filler pipe. For the throttle control I set about taking apart a rear set of cogs from a bicycle I had lying about. This was not easy, there is a central part which in an ideal world, with the right tool, should twist but it didn't. I resulted to grinding the thing apart. Now I need enough cycle chains to r
casper ghost

casper ghost

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The Sabb has gone...

Today the courier came and in no time the little Sabb had gone, winding it's way to the south Wales coast and into a fishing boat, which is where it really belongs. I don't know whether to be or .
casper ghost

casper ghost

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One window in, but too nice to do more work..

The weekend has been glorious, sunny both days. We did manage to fit the first window into Sleepy Hollow, though we messed about too much, as usual, and had too many breaks for tea. My brother's young-ish lady said that watching us work was like watching the chuckle brothers . The canal is now really busy with hire boats, they seem to be everywhere. Only one 'proper' sounding engine was heard to go past today, that was a Ruston . My brother and co went home Saturday and left their dog, Mar
casper ghost

casper ghost

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Prop shaft trouble and trailer trouble...

The 4x4 prop shaft I removed from the boat when the Sabb was fitted was rather short, 16.5", I needed to extend it to 68" for the new engine. My mate come over to help but said the uj's were badly worn so a new shaft was needed. I have bought 2 identical Landrover Discovery rear shafts. I'm going to split them and join the 2 long sections together using the spline to reconnect and insure they stay straight. I'm having 2 adaptors made to connect each end to the gearbox and existing flange on the
casper ghost

casper ghost

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Swapping the engine in Casper..

The day finally came and we hired a chap and mini crane to lift out the little Sabb and lift in the Ruston. We had to get a boater up from his sleep as his van was in our way, sorry... We had to get up really very early to get things ready before the time the chap would arrive with crane and as the clocks had gone forward it seemed even earlier..   My daughter took all the pictures so I can't get the blame this time..             It went very well, we lowered the Ruston in thr
casper ghost

casper ghost

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Windows...

Before I get onto windows, here's a pic of the water header tank for Casper, it was given to me. It's stainless steel and was originally orange! I've painted it the same colour as the Ruston and added stripes to also match the engine. Don't tell my Mum that I placed it on the carpet to take the picture...     Sleepy Hollow id already a fairly individual boat but the windows will make it stand out even more. They are reclaimed ships windows from a ship that was broken up in India. They are h
casper ghost

casper ghost

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A weekend in dry dock..

Casper went into dry dock Friday evening. My brother and my Dad were there to help with the task. We cleaned the hull with 2 angle grinders fitted with knotted wire brushes. On inspection the hull looked in good condition with most of the tar paint still firmly in place and no obvious signs of any pitting . We also sanded the roof and front and back deck. My brother cut the hole in the roof for the hatch and bolted it down with a few bolts. Sleeping on a boat whilst it is in dock is a bit odd
casper ghost

casper ghost

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Need to re-clean the engine room...

Casper was going on a 5 hour cruise today to get to the dry dock. As the boat hadn't really cruised anywhere since October I checked and topped up the oil and water. On starting the engine I realised I had not replaced the oil filler cap, oil was being sprayed out from the filler. I went to stop the engine but as I had removed all the lining and wood trim the stop lever was now lying inside the engine room. I popped down and pulled the stop control. One area of the engine room was now covered in
casper ghost

casper ghost

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More work...

Me and my brother stayed on Casper the night and did a bit of work.   Casper; We welded 1" box section to the engine room roof to support where the hatch is to be cut out. Welded up the last of the battens, removed the diesel vents and welded up the holes. While grinding the welds our grinder packed up, that's another dead grinder, one day i'll go back and count how many we have had break, I think it's 6 or 7 At least this one has a 3 year guarrantee .We cleaned the engine room with soap
casper ghost

casper ghost

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Loading the Ruston into the trailer...

Went to my neighbour to borrow his steel loading ramps, he had dug out a sampson winch for me to borrow too. This made loading the engine rather easy. I just put down the ramps and winched the engine up and onto the trailer, it was almost as easy as it sounds. Managed it without the help from my friends. I was almost looking forward to us all struggling with the heavy lump..           Handy little Clio to pull it about...   AND before I get any wise comments I know i've missed a
casper ghost

casper ghost

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Diesel filler mk2..

Well, got a length of mild steel tube which we had laying about and made the bend by cutting at 45 degrees and joining. All welded well, tested with diesel and no leaks to be seen so all ok..  
casper ghost

casper ghost

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Welding woes...

Went out today to make the filler pipe for the diesel tank as the tank is being moved. The pipe now needs to go down and into the side of the tank. I got some scaffold pipe for this and a 90 degree hydraulic bend I had lying around. Welded the bend between 2 lengths of the pipe. To test for leaks I filled the bend with diesel, it leaked. ground back and rewelded, it still leaked, ground back and rewelded again, but it leaked worse this time... Some of the welds on the bend have cracked and I now
casper ghost

casper ghost

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Work on Sleepy Hollow and Casper..

Me and my brother did some work on the 2 boats. On Sleepy Hollow we fitted some battens on the cabin sides, which was easy as we had already drilled the steel angles which we noe bolted the lathes to. We also cut 2 more roof drains at the back of the boat as we now know where best to place them as the boat is pretty much ballasted. On Casper we cut out and removed the 2 diesel tanks taking one home to adjust so it will fit further back under the counter to allow more cabin space. We went to
casper ghost

casper ghost

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Another exciting photo...

Well, today and yesterday the sun shone and although freezing in the morning it did get warm-ish in the afternoon so out with the paint brush. I didn't paint the engine as it was only going to be warm for a little while before getting cold again but I did manage to paint the gearbox, which no one will see once in the boat, except me..   .   This is a PRM 140s gearbox with 2-1 reduction. It's an early 1970's box. I have already stripped it down and replaced all the seals. I was told it was wo
casper ghost

casper ghost

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More work on Casper..

Well, i've managed to sell the little Sabb, it's going into a fishing boat on the Welsh coast. The buyer wanted it in a week but I said I needed it until the end of March to cruise to the dry dock. I've now got to rush to get things ready.. Spent a couple of days working in the bedroom/engine room on Casper, between the rain showers. Welded up most of the battens and welded the extra floor bearers where the new, much heavier, engine will go. The aim was to do all the welding needed below the
casper ghost

casper ghost

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Painting the Ruston and Cutting lugs...

A nice sunny day so I painted the engine in red lead/oxide.       I also cut 65 steel lugs for fixing the battons to the cabin side. These were from 20 x 3mm flat. Drilled a 6mm hole every inch or so then cut them all out with the 9" angle grinder. It's a labour intensive method, but i've tried other ready made things and they didn't work. I've also tried getting these made by companied but I couldn't find one that would do it so I do it myself. When I did Casper I needed well over 150
casper ghost

casper ghost

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Comments on this blog...

Okay, i'm not the most techy person and I didn't know that there were any comments on here. Someone has just pm'd to say they have put a comment on. It didn't show up so I searched and i've now found a whole load of comments. It appears that i've not got the settings to let me know when a comment is posted and nothing else tells me... I'm now having to go through each page,clicking on comments to see if there are any. If anyone asked a question they probably thought I was ignoring them .  
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casper ghost

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More cutting and destruction...

Didn't work too hard on Casper today, did manage to remove the remaining half of the steel bulkhead from engine room. My existing exhaust comes out of the roof and to take it further away from me while steering I cheated and ran it through a fake pigeon box which pushed the exhaust stack about 2 feet forward. I now need to remove this exhaust.   The black square extension to the left of the pigeon box needs removing.   This was not easy as the angle grinder would not cut all the way down
casper ghost

casper ghost

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Near catastrophy and some more lining removal!

My brother stayed on my boat while he put more ballast onto Sleepy Hollow. He found that I had left the kettle on the gas ring with the gas on low and alight . I had left it like this for 6 days and was extremely lucky the boat hadn't burnt down. Somehow although the kettle had obviously boiled dry it had suffered no damage and was just very hot..Wasted alot of gas though .   Here's a boring pic of said kettle, just lightly scortched..   Today I had great plane to do loads of work, but
casper ghost

casper ghost

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Could be a slight change of plan..

Well I had planned to remove the Sabb and fit the Ruston in the next couple of weeks. That would mean getting the engine fully ready by 19 March to chug to the dry dock. It will means making new diesel tanks, connecting up and doing water, fitting water pump, alternator etc etc. BUT, my Dad has pointed out that if I didn't manage to get engine all running fine I would have to be towed to the dry dock and it's about a 5 hour chug each way. So i've decided to wait until after the dry dock appointm
casper ghost

casper ghost

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Another exciting picture...

Well, not really..     I've got to fit a prop shaft between my Ruston and the gearbox. I bought a Range Rover prop shaft for 99p. It came apart fairly easily. I then cut off one of the spline ends and fitted the 2 uj's together using the spline to ensure it was straight. I was very suprised how easy this all went, usually these things are very difficult to get apart. I've still got to tap a holw to hold the spline in place and then weld the 2 ends together.. PRM have confirmed that their ge
casper ghost

casper ghost

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Decking, ripping out more interior etc etc...

Well, me and my brother went to the boats. He finished off the decking/pontoon for Sleepy Hollow and then did some ballast for it out of concrete blocks. I took out yet more lining from my bedroom, cut up the floor and cut out the 6mm steel bulkhead, which was really difficult.. It snowed quite a bit on and off on Friday..     The finished decking...   This was my bedroom.. I had to sleep here last night, it was very cold, about -6 outside, not sure it was much warmer inside either,
casper ghost

casper ghost

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